Money is a tool. The decisions we make with it help us build the life we want.
These are the companion calculators to the guide Money Is a Tool. They will not tell you what to do. They exist to help you see your options clearly — the payment, the cost, the timeline, the tradeoff — so that you can make each decision yourself, with confidence.
Calculators
Work out the number first — the payment, the cost, the timeline, the tradeoff — so the decision rests on something you can see.
My Household Budget
See what money is coming in, what needs to go out, what you want to save, and what is left after your plan — with a Pay Period Check-In for every payday.
Open the budget → Decision ToolBorrowing & Payment
Understand the payment. Understand the cost. Compare two offers on the same basis, and then decide whether the payment fits your life.
Open the calculator → Decision ToolSavings & Goal
Turn a financial goal into a number you can plan for. See what your saving may grow to, and what it takes to reach a target on your timeline.
Open the calculator → Decision ToolIncome & Tax Planning
Understand what may happen before tax time arrives — combine jobs, test an RRSP deduction, and plan a set-aside for self-employment income.
Open the calculator →Planners
Worksheets for the decisions that are not settled by a number alone. They ask the questions, you write the answers, and the page saves them on your device.
Income & Tax Planner
Gather every source of income, what has already been withheld, and the short list of things to check or set aside before tax time arrives.
Open the planner → PlannerHome Decision Planner
Set up to three housing options side by side — full monthly cost, cash needed up front, and the questions a payment cannot answer.
Open the planner → PlannerHousehold Protection Planner
Review what could go wrong against what you already hold, and turn the gap between them into a list of things to check.
Open the planner →Yours, and private
Everything is calculated on your own device and saved only in this browser. Your numbers are never sent anywhere.
Works offline
Once the page has loaded, it keeps working without an internet connection. On most phones you can add it to your home screen and use it like an app.
Return to it
Like the guide itself, these tools are meant to be returned to whenever life changes — a new job, a new goal, a new payment about to become part of your life.
Read the book these tools come from.
The calculators are free for everyone. Money Is a Tool itself — the household financial decision guide they accompany — is available as a digital edition, and schools can license it together with a full set of classroom materials.
Buy the digital edition
The complete guide as a PDF, licensed to you and yours to re-download any time. Pay once, sign in with your email, no password to remember.
Buy the book → Schools & teachersLicense it for your classroom
One school licence covers a set number of teacher accounts, each with the digital book, the classroom PowerPoint, Teacher Guide, Flexible Implementation Guide, and the test and question bank.
Request a school licence →IMPORTANT — These are educational planning tools, not financial, tax, or lending advice. Actual lender calculations, investment returns, and tax results can differ. Always confirm important decisions using official disclosures, current CRA information, or a qualified professional.
My Income & Tax Planner
Educational planning tool. Verify current tax rates, limits and eligibility using official sources.
Write in the light cells. Everything stays on this device.
Why are we completing this — and when should we return to it?
Why are we completing this?
Tax time is easier when nothing about it is a surprise. This planner gathers what you earn, what has already been withheld, and the handful of things worth checking before you file.
How will this help us?
It turns a vague worry into a short list: the income that has to be reported, the amount to set aside, the question to ask, and the document you still need to find.
When should we return to it?
When a job starts or ends, when side income begins, before making an RRSP contribution, and once more a few weeks before you file.
How is this different from the calculator?
The Income & Tax calculator estimates what you may owe. This planner records what you need to check and decide. Many people use the calculator first and write the outcome down here.
Money set aside before it is owed is not lost. It is a decision I have already made, so that a future month does not have to make it for me.
IMPORTANT — This is an educational planning tool, not tax advice. Rates, limits and eligibility change. Confirm anything that matters using current CRA information or a qualified professional.
My Home Decision Planner
Compare housing choices against your budget, your goals, your flexibility and the total cost — not against the monthly payment alone.
Write in the light cells. Everything stays on this device.
Why are we completing this — and when should we return to it?
Why are we completing this?
Housing is usually the largest decision a household makes, and the one most often decided on a single number. Set the options side by side and the real differences appear.
How will this help us?
It adds up the full monthly cost of each option and the cash needed up front, then asks the questions a payment cannot answer: how long you will stay, and what you would give up to afford it.
When should we return to it?
Before a lease renewal, before making an offer, when the household changes size, and any time a move starts to feel inevitable rather than chosen.
What counts as an option?
Anything you would genuinely consider: staying put, renting somewhere else, buying, or moving in with family. Leave a column empty if you only have two.
The right home is the one that still fits when something changes. A payment I can only just manage today is a decision that makes every other decision for me.
IMPORTANT — This is an educational planning tool, not real estate, mortgage or lending advice. Confirm costs, rates and conditions with the lender, lawyer or professional involved.
My Household Protection Planner
A review to find the gaps and the questions. It is not an insurance recommendation, and nothing here is sold to you.
Write in the light cells. Everything stays on this device.
Why are we completing this — and when should we return to it?
Why are we completing this?
Most households find out what their coverage does and does not include at the worst possible moment. Writing it down in advance is how that stops being true.
How will this help us?
It separates two different questions: what could go wrong, and what you already hold against it. The gap between those two columns is the part worth acting on.
When should we return to it?
Once a year, and whenever something changes that other people depend on — a birth, a move, a mortgage, a marriage, a new job, a business.
What if I do not know the answer?
Write that down too. "I do not know what my group benefits cover" is a finding, and it belongs in the last section as something to check.
Protection is not something I buy because I expect the worst. It is what lets the people who depend on me keep their footing if it ever arrives.
IMPORTANT — This is an educational review, not insurance advice and not a recommendation to buy, keep or cancel any policy. Coverage terms vary. Read the policy, and speak to a licensed professional about your own situation.
Five minutes, and you will have seen all of it.
Twenty stops through the calculators, the planners, the book and the classroom edition. It reads itself aloud if you would like it to, and every word is written down either way. Stop anywhere and go and look at the real thing.
Every stop on the tour
IMPORTANT — These are educational planning tools, not financial, tax, or lending advice. Actual lender calculations, investment returns, and tax results can differ. Always confirm important decisions using official disclosures, current CRA information, or a qualified professional.
About Money Is a Tool
Money Is a Tool is a household financial decision guide. These calculators are its companion. Together they have one purpose: to help you see a decision clearly before you make it.
The idea behind it
Most money advice starts by telling you what to do. This does not. It starts from the belief that a household decides better when it can see the whole picture — the payment, the total cost, the timeline, and what the choice asks of the life you are trying to build.
“Here is the information. Here are the consequences. Here are the tools. Now ask yourself: does this decision support the life you are trying to build?”
That question is the method. The guide supplies the information and the consequences. These calculators supply the tools. The decision stays yours, which is where it belongs.
What you will find here
The quickest way to see all of it is the guided tour, which walks through every tool, the book and the classroom edition in about five minutes, and reads itself aloud if you would like it to.
- Four decision tools, free for everyone. A household budget with a pay-period check-in, a borrowing and payment calculator, a savings and goal calculator, and an income and tax planner.
- The guide itself. The complete digital edition, licensed to the reader and available to re-download at any time.
- A classroom edition. Schools can license the book for their teachers together with a full set of materials: the classroom PowerPoint, the Teacher Guide, the Flexible Implementation Guide, and the test and question bank.
How your information is treated
The calculators need no account and collect nothing. Every figure you enter is calculated on your own device and saved only in this browser, so it never reaches us or anyone else. Clearing your browser data clears it for good.
Buying the book does create an account, because a purchase has to be remembered. That account holds your email address and what you bought, nothing more.
Built to be returned to
These tools are not a one-time exercise. A new job, a new goal, a rate that changes, a payment about to become part of your life — each is a reason to open them again. Once a page has loaded it keeps working without an internet connection, and on most phones you can add it to your home screen and use it like an app.
Getting in touch
Schools and school boards can request a licence and ask questions here. Readers who have bought the book can reach their downloads any time by signing in with their email.
IMPORTANT — These are educational planning tools, not financial, tax, or lending advice. Actual lender calculations, investment returns, and tax results can differ. Always confirm important decisions using official disclosures, current CRA information, or a qualified professional.
My Monthly Household Budget
A budget is not about restricting your life. It is about understanding where your money is going and making sure your financial decisions support the life you want to build.
Change the light input cells. The results update automatically.
Why are we completing this — and when should we return to it?
Why are we completing this?
A budget helps us see what money is coming in, what needs to go out, what we want to save, and whether our choices still support our goals.
How will this help us?
Enter the amount, choose how often it happens, and enter how many times it will happen this month. The budget calculates This Month automatically. Example: paid $3,000 biweekly with 2 pays this month → Amount $3,000, Biweekly, 2 times = $6,000. For flexible spending such as groceries, choose Monthly Budget and enter the whole month’s amount.
When should we return to it?
Review your budget at the beginning of every month and whenever something changes. Use the Pay Period Check-In every payday so you know what must be covered before the next pay.
This month at a glance
My Monthly Review
A few questions to sit with once the numbers are in front of you.
- What changed this month?
- Did I receive the income I expected?
- Did any expense happen more or less often than I expected?
- Am I still saving toward the goals that matter most to me?
- If I have money left, what do I want it to help me achieve?
- If I have a shortfall, what can I change before using more credit?
Pay Period Check-In
Complete this every payday. Look at your due dates on the Monthly Budget and decide what needs to be covered before your next pay.
Money available this pay
What must be covered before next pay
Money is a tool. The decisions we make with it help us build the life we want.
My Borrowing & Payment Calculator
Understand the payment. Understand the cost. Then decide whether it fits your life.
Change the light input cells. The results update automatically.
Why are we completing this — and when should we return to it?
Why are we completing this?
Being approved tells you what a lender is willing to lend you. It does not tell you what you should borrow. This calculator helps you see what the debt may cost before you commit to it.
How will this help us?
Estimate a payment, see total interest and total repayment, compare two offers on the same basis, and test whether the payment fits the money you currently have available in your household budget.
When should we return to it?
Before financing a vehicle, taking a personal loan or line of credit, comparing lending offers, or adding any new payment to your household.
How to read an interest rate
A percentage alone is not enough to compare two loans. Ask what the quoted annual rate is, how often interest is compounded, whether fees apply, and how long you will be paying. The calculator converts the quoted rate and compounding into an effective annual rate so offers can be compared more fairly.
What will this loan really cost me?
Your estimated loan cost
Compare two borrowing offers
Offer A
Offer B
Side by side results
Was the sale really a sale?
Does this payment fit my life?
Being approved tells me what a lender is willing to lend. I still decide what belongs in the life I want to build.
IMPORTANT — This is an educational planning tool. Actual lender calculations may use different day-count rules, compounding conventions, fees, insurance, taxes, prepayment rules, promotional terms, or disclosure calculations. Always compare the lender’s written disclosure and ask questions before signing.
My Savings & Goal Calculator
Turn a financial goal into a number you can plan for.
Change the light input cells. The results update automatically.
Why are we completing this — and when should we return to it?
Why are we completing this?
Knowing that we want to save is a good beginning. Knowing how much we need to save, how long we have, and what our money may grow to gives the goal a plan.
How will this help us?
Use the calculator in two ways. First, see what your current savings plan may grow to. Second, start with a target amount and calculate approximately how much you need to save to reach it.
When should we return to it?
Whenever you set a new goal, change the amount you can save, receive a raise, change your timeline, or want to see how starting earlier or later may affect the result.
About compound growth
Compound growth means your money can earn a return, and over time you may also earn a return on the growth already added. The longer the money remains invested, the more time compounding has to work. The return you enter is an assumption, not a guarantee.
What could my savings grow to?
Your estimated result
View the growth as a table
I have a goal. How much do I need to save?
Your savings target
A calculator gives me information. I still decide whether the goal, timeline, and commitment fit the life I want to build.
IMPORTANT — This calculator is an educational planning tool. Actual investment returns can be higher or lower and may be negative. Taxes, fees, inflation, contribution limits, and account rules are not included unless you account for them separately.
My Income & Tax Planning Calculator
2026 Ontario prototype · Educational planning estimate only. Understand what may happen before tax time arrives.
Change the light input cells. The results update automatically.
Why are we completing this — and when should we return to it?
Why are we completing this?
Taxes affect the money available to our household throughout the year. Planning ahead can help us understand our income, deductions, withholding, and possible tax responsibility before filing season.
How will this help us?
Combine income from more than one job, add self-employment income, test an RRSP deduction, compare tax withheld with a simplified estimate, and plan how much of side income you may want to reserve.
When should we return to it?
When you start or change a job, add a second job, earn self-employment or side income, consider an RRSP contribution, receive a raise, or want to check whether your current withholding still makes sense.
Check the tax year
Brackets, rates, personal amounts, CPP and EI figures change from year to year. This calculator does not update them automatically — open Tax year & rate information below and enter current CRA figures before using it for a different year.
What does my income picture look like?
Your simplified tax planning snapshot
View the bracket-by-bracket table
Payroll reference: CPP and EI on your employment income (computed separately — not part of the income tax estimate above)
What could an RRSP deduction change?
I have more than one job
Self-employment / side income set aside
Tax year & rate information
Tax rules change from year to year and this calculator does not update these numbers automatically. Before using it for a different tax year or province, find the current figures on the CRA pages linked below and update them here. Changing only the percentages may not be enough — thresholds, personal amounts, CPP and EI limits can also change. The Ontario health premium schedule and tax-reduction structure are built in and assume Ontario.
Federal tax brackets
Provincial tax brackets
Other annual figures
Sources used for the built-in 2026 Ontario figures: CRA T4032-ON payroll deduction tables, CRA CPP contribution rates and maximums, and ESDC EI maximum insurable earnings. Find current figures at CRA: Tax rates and income brackets and CRA: Payroll deductions tables.
Taxes are easier to manage when I think about them throughout the year, not only when it is time to file my return.
IMPORTANT — This prototype is a simplified educational estimator for Ontario in 2026. It is not a tax return and it does not calculate every deduction, credit, benefit, surtax rule, family situation, business rule, or special tax provision. The final result should always be checked using current CRA information, certified tax software, or a qualified tax professional when appropriate.