Built by a mathematics professor · Works offline · One payment

Your lender's calculator said that refinance breaks even in two years.

On your actual numbers it can cost you six figures. Try it below. Free, on this page, with your own offer. Then decide whether the rest is worth ninety-seven dollars.

$97once · nothing renews · 30 days to change your mind
Get the Payoff Planner Pro

Installs on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android. Runs with no internet at all.

Try it before you pay a penny

This is the real tool from inside the product, running free on this page. Put in the refinance you have been offered.

What does this refinance really break even at?

30-year loan, 10 years in = 240
A fresh 30-year is 360
A lower rate on a restarted schedule can cost more than a higher rate on the loan you already have.

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, that is the whole product in one screen.

"Why isn't this free like your other calculators?"

Fair question. There are ten 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.

A calculator answers a question. This holds your situation.

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.

It tells you what to do next. In order. Priced.

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.

1 Do this now $2,280 a year

Ask about a PMI reappraisal on today's value

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.

The four decisions worth more than every budgeting tip you will ever read

1

Recast, refinance, or just pay extra

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.

2

When your PMI can actually come off

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.

3

What next year's escrow will cost

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.

4

Should retirement money touch the house

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.

Educational only. Not tax or financial advice.

And then it writes the letter

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:

A phone call gets you whoever answered. A letter gets you a written answer from someone who had to look it up.

Everything else in it

Your whole mortgage on one screen

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.

Your milestone dates

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.

Check your servicer's arithmetic

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.

The monthly log

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.

Your debt health score

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.

It teaches while you use 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.

Every rule, sourced and dated

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.

Who built it

Dr. James Frederick Smiling holds a PhD in STEM-Mathematics Education from NC State and teaches mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

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.

It stays on your machine

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.

Here is how to check that in ten seconds: install it, turn off your wifi and your mobile data, and open it. Every calculator still works, with your numbers in it.

Debt is private. It should stay that way.

What you get

Large text throughout, with a size slider up to 160% and a real high-contrast mode.

30 days to change your mind Email within 30 days and you get your money back. No form to fill in and no questions.
Get the Payoff Planner Pro, $97

One payment · nothing renews · works offline · yours to keep

Not ready? Start free.

The workbook and the Blueprint are free, and so are the ten calculators on this site. Work through those first. If you get to a decision they cannot answer, this is here.

Get the free workbook first

Questions

Is this a subscription?

No. $97 once. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel.

What does it run on?

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.

Do I need internet?

Only to download it. After that it runs completely offline.

Where does my information go?

Nowhere. There is no server to send it to.

What if I don't have a mortgage?

Five of the twelve calculators work on any debt: cards, car, student loans, medical. But seven are built for homeowners, so you would be paying for tools you will not use. The free workbook may be all you need.

Will it tell me what to do?

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.

How current are the tax figures?

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.

What if it isn't for me?

Email within 30 days and you get your money back. No form and no questions.

A plan, priced. Four decisions. Five letters.

Ninety-seven dollars, once.

Get the Payoff Planner Pro, $97

30 days to change your mind · Works offline · Yours to keep