About LifeCalculator

LifeCalculator is a set of free calculators for the money decisions households face: what a family really spends, whether to rent or buy, how to pay off debt, and whether retirement savings are on track.

Built on public data

Most budget calculators apply one national average to everyone. LifeCalculator starts from the people in your home and where you live:

• Food uses the USDA's monthly Cost of Food at Home reports, which price a healthy diet for each age group at four spending levels.
• Location uses the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities, which measure how prices, and rents especially, differ in every state and D.C.
• Other spending uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, the most complete federal survey of what U.S. households spend.
• Housing uses the Census Bureau's median gross rent, and childcare uses Child Care Aware of America's national price report.

Your numbers stay yours

Every calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to us. When you download the Excel workbook, it is built on your own device, with one sheet per calculator and live formulas you can keep editing.

Who builds it

JL Nobile, owner & sole maintainer.

I build and run LifeCalculator on my own: the calculators, the data behind the family budget, the translations and the writing. If a number looks wrong or something is broken, it is my mistake to fix, and email reaches me directly.

Keep in mind

These are planning tools that give estimates, not advice. Read the disclaimer for details, and see our money guides for worked examples.

Contact

Suggestions, corrections or a calculator you'd like to see: webguru@lifecalculator.online