About DebtToolbox

Six honest calculators for the most common money questions American households ask — and nothing else.

Why this site exists

Most online financial calculators are buried inside bank or lender websites that have an obvious incentive: get you to apply for a product. The numbers are sometimes accurate, but the framing rarely is. A debt consolidation page wants you to consolidate. A mortgage calculator wants you to refinance.

DebtToolbox is a small, independent site with no products to sell, no leads to capture, and no email list to feed. We built six calculators that answer specific, concrete questions — How long until this credit card is paid off? Is my debt-to-income ratio in a healthy range? Will paying an extra $100 a month on my loan actually save me anything? — and then we got out of the way.

What you'll find here

How we built it

Every calculator on this site runs entirely in your browser. When you type a balance, an interest rate, or an income figure, the math happens locally on your device — those numbers are never sent to our servers, stored in a database, or shared with anyone. We don't have a database. We don't have user accounts. There is nothing to log into.

Each tool uses standard formulas that you can verify against any spreadsheet or federal government calculator. Where relevant, our explanatory articles cite primary sources from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) so you can check the underlying logic for yourself.

Who this is for

DebtToolbox is built for U.S. adults who want fast answers to common money questions without creating an account or sitting through a sales funnel. If you're trying to decide whether to attack your credit card or your car loan first, whether you can afford a house at a given price, or whether your retirement contributions are on track — these tools give you a clear number, a chart, and a short plain-English explanation of what it means.

We assume readers are intelligent adults capable of weighing tradeoffs. Our explanations are written that way: no condescending tone, no clickbait, no "one weird trick."

What we are not

We are not financial advisors. We are not licensed to give personalized advice, and nothing on this site should be treated as a recommendation tailored to your situation. The calculators show you what the math says given the inputs you provide; they cannot account for your tax bracket, your goals, your risk tolerance, or the dozens of other factors a real advisor would consider.

For decisions of any consequence — buying a home, restructuring debt, choosing a retirement account — talk to a qualified professional. The tools here are a starting point for the conversation, not a substitute for it.

How we make money

This site is supported entirely by display advertising served through Google AdSense. We do not accept paid placements, sponsored calculators, affiliate commissions on financial products, or "featured partner" arrangements with lenders. The recommendations and rankings (where they exist) are not for sale.

If you'd like to support the site, the best thing you can do is share a calculator that helped you with someone else who might find it useful.

Get in touch

Spotted a calculation error? Have a suggestion for a tool we should add? Want to point out an outdated source? We'd genuinely like to hear about it. Reach us through the contact page.