The free Blueprint shows the date you are on now. The Payoff Planner Pro prices every way to change it on your own numbers, works out what each Social Security claiming age pays you, your spouse and the survivor, compares staying with downsizing, and writes the letters to your servicer.
Installs on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android. Runs with no internet at all.
Every chapter of the free Retirement Money Blueprint ends on a question. These are the questions the Planner answers, on your numbers.
| The Blueprint shows you | The Planner works out |
|---|---|
| The month your mortgage ends if nothing changes | What an extra payment, a lump sum, a recast or a 401(k) pull does to that date, each one priced, with the tax |
| Your Social Security estimates at 62, full age and 70 | Every age from 62 to 70, the break-even ages, your spouse's amount, what the survivor keeps, the earnings test and how much is taxable |
| What the house still costs after payoff | Next year's escrow and the date your PMI can come off |
| Stay or move, today's monthly cost | The cash a sale frees up after costs and federal tax (including the knock-on to your Social Security), and where each choice leaves you year by year |
| Flags on a planned withdrawal | The actual tax on it with the 2026 brackets, the Medicare surcharge two years later, and the cost of splitting it across two years |
| Your other debts on one page | Every debt in order, a payoff date for each, and a month-by-month log that shows whether you are ahead |
Type the three amounts from your Social Security statement. The Planner does the rest.
What you get each month at every age from 62 to 70, and the age where waiting starts to pay off, with or without a return on the money in the meantime.
The spousal amount, and the check the survivor keeps. The higher earner's claiming age sets that check for the rest of the survivor's life, so you see it before anyone files.
How much the earnings test holds back if you keep working, and how much of your benefit becomes taxable once your other income is counted.
Put in the house you have and the one you are looking at. It shows the cash the sale frees up after selling costs and federal tax, what each home costs you each month, and where each choice leaves you year by year.
Uses the 2026 SSA and IRS rules, with 2027 Social Security figures where SSA has announced them. Updated every year, free.
This is the real refinance tool from inside the product, running free on this page. If someone has offered you a refinance, put it in.
Every free calculator does the same sum: closing costs divided by monthly savings equals break-even. It is simple, it is intuitive, and it ignores one thing: when you refinance, your amortization starts over.
Seven years into a thirty-year mortgage you are finally past the worst of the front-loading, where almost every dollar went to interest. A fresh thirty-year loan puts you straight back at the beginning of that curve.
If the number above surprised you, the other fourteen tools work the same way.
Fair question. There are eight free calculators on this site and I built every one of them.
The free calculators answer what is the number. They do one debt, once, and they forget you the moment you close the tab.
This answers which decision, am I even eligible, what will my servicer actually say, and here is the letter that makes it happen. All your debts at once, remembered month to month.
That is a different category, not a more expensive version of the same thing. And the questions it answers are the four or five moments where real money moves.
This is the part no other tool does at all.
Open the Action Plan and it has already read everything you entered: your loan-to-value, your rates, the gap between what you paid and what came off the balance, and turned it into a ranked list. Not generic advice. Your situation.
On the original value your balance is 80.5%, not there yet. But on today's value of $520,000 it is 62.0%, which clears the 80% bar the reappraisal route uses for a loan over five years old.
Ask whether they accept a broker price opinion ($75–$150) before agreeing to a full appraisal ($300–$600).
Takes about a phone call, then a letter.
Every item carries what it is worth, how long it takes, and a button that takes you to the tool or the letter that does it. And at the top, one number: what your plan is worth to you this year, counted conservatively, only from items your own figures support.
It checks whether your loan type even allows a recast, because FHA, VA and USDA cannot be recast at all, and most people find that out after making the phone call. Then it prices every path, including the one nobody shows you: paying the same lump sum straight at the principal. A recast buys you breathing room. Prepaying buys you money.
Four routes, and they do not all use the same value for your house. Automatic and requested cancellation use what it was worth when you bought it, so appreciation does nothing. Only reappraisal uses today's value, and if your loan is two to five years old the bar is 75%, not 80%. That one rule is why people in hot markets get told no.
When your taxes rise your payment goes up twice: once permanently, once for a twelve-month catch-up. Paying the shortage in a lump sum does not stop the increase. That is the part that makes people phone their servicer certain there has been a mistake.
Pulling $200,000 from an IRA is ordinary income. It can push you into a higher bracket and raise your Medicare premiums two years later, charged per person, with a Part D surcharge on top. It runs the real 2026 brackets and thresholds, and prices splitting it across two tax years.
Claiming at 62 instead of 70 can cut the check by almost a third for life, and it can cut the survivor's check too. It shows every age from 62 to 70, the break-even ages, and what the survivor keeps under each choice.
A sale can free up cash, but selling costs 6% to 10% before tax, and the gain can make more of your Social Security taxable that year. It prices the whole move, then shows where staying and moving each leave you, year by year.
Educational only. Not tax or financial advice.
Knowing you qualify to drop PMI does nothing on its own. Somebody has to ask, in writing, and ask the right questions.
Five letters, with your own numbers already in them:
Every month from now to the last payment. Plus a year-by-year summary with the interest figure you would deduct if you itemize. Check it against the 1098 in January.
When you can ask for PMI to come off. When it has to come off by law. Your crossover month. Halfway. The last payment. Export them straight to your calendar, because nobody writes to tell you when these arrive.
Enter last month's balance, this month's, and what you paid. It tells you whether the numbers reconcile, and if not, which of the three usual explanations fits. Nobody else builds this.
Two numbers a month. From the second entry it stops projecting and starts reporting, whether you are ahead of the contract, by how much, and your real debt-free date. If you are underpaying, it says so.
One number, five factors, and the one nobody else asks for: how much room each debt takes up in your head, 1 to 10. The arithmetic cannot see which debt keeps you awake. This is how you tell it.
Six guided paths, twenty industry words defined plainly, thirty-five tips by topic, and every calculation shows its working with your numbers in it, and a button to print it.
Getting this wrong costs real money, so every eligibility rule shows where it comes from and the date it was last checked.
The U.S. Code section for PMI termination. The CFR section for escrow cushions. The Fannie Mae servicing guide for investor LTV thresholds. The HUD mortgagee letter for FHA. The IRS revenue procedure for the tax tables. Every one links to the actual source.
There is a wave of AI-generated calculator sites this year that look authoritative and cite nothing. This is the opposite of that.
Dr. James Frederick Smiling holds a PhD in STEM-Mathematics Education from NC State and teaches statistics and financial literacy at the college level.
Every figure is worked amortization math on your numbers. No rules of thumb, no estimates rounded off to make a point. Where something cannot be calculated exactly, an escrow shortage depends on a disbursement calendar the app cannot see: it says so and asks you for the real number instead of guessing.
I take nothing from banks or lenders and I sell no financial products.
No account. No password. No subscription. No server.
Download it once and it is yours. Nothing you type ever leaves your device: not your balances, not your rates, not what you owe or who you owe it to.
Debt is private. It should stay that way.
Large text throughout, with a size slider up to 160% and a real high-contrast mode.
One payment · nothing renews · works offline · yours to keep
The Retirement Money Blueprint and its workbook are free, and so are the calculators on this site. Work through those first. If you get to a decision they cannot answer, this is here.
Get the free Blueprint firstNo. $97 once. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel.
Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android. You open one address and install it in about twenty seconds: there is no app store and nothing to unzip. There is an illustrated guide for each device and a troubleshooting page.
Only to download it. After that it runs completely offline.
Nowhere. There is no server to send it to.
Seven of the fifteen calculators work without a mortgage, including Social Security claiming, stay or downsize, and every debt in order (cards, car, student loans, medical). The rest are built for homeowners, so you would be paying for tools you will not use. The free Blueprint may be all you need.
Yes, that is what the Action Plan is. It shows you what your numbers do under each choice, what each rule actually says, and links to the rule. The decision is yours. It is a math tool, not financial advice.
The 2026 brackets, standard deduction and IRMAA thresholds are in it, sourced and dated. They are re-checked every January and November, and updates are free.
Email within 30 days and you get your money back. No form and no questions.
Ninety-seven dollars, once.
Get the Payoff Planner Pro, $9730 days to change your mind · Works offline · Yours to keep