Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Financial calculators and tools resource page

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Like me, you?ve probably amassed a sizeable collection of financial calculators to help you plan your investments, savings, and retirement.

And if?? again like me ? you suffer in silence from scatterbrain syndrome, then those handy little resources will be splattered around your browser like a Jackson Pollock study in bookmarks.

In an attempt to bring order to the chaos and neatly array a damn handy set of investing resources for the Monevator community, I?ve created this handy calculators and tools resource page.

Have I missed out your favourite? Is it truly worthy? Then please tell us about it in the comments section and I?ll add it to the list.

My main selection criteria:

  • Free ? Critically important! Though you may have to sign-up with an email.
  • Ease-of-use ? Not many financial calculators benefit from Apple quality design aesthetics, but the closer we can get to that ideal the better.
  • Range ? I?ve trawled for tools that cover the gamut of investing concerns, from yield curves to life expectancy.
  • UK-orientated ? Where possible I?ve plumped for UK calculators, because Monevator is primarily a UK site. However, the US is the home of the financial calculator, and I?ve sprinkled in a few Stateside tools where a UK alternative isn?t available.
  • Passive orientated ? I advocate passive investing?and my choices support that investing strategy.

Accuracy is the other important thing to be mindful of when using a financial calculator, tool, or resource.

Sadly it?s impossible for me to vouch for the fidelity of any dataset, so using these calculators is your responsibility. Many come courtesy of household names like the Bank of England, Morningstar, and Vanguard, but still? Make sure you check their assumptions, and use any outcomes as a guide only, not a dead cert.

Enough of the qualifiers, on with the tools?

The one-stop shop

Financial calculators ? An excellent set of saving, investing, and retirement calculators that cover a broad range of scenarios.

Saving

Budget planner?? Money Saving Expert?s superb poke into the hidden corners of personal expenditure.

The Demotivator ? The stark cost of buying tat, as measured in lost income and days of your life.

UK inflation calculator ? Who better to ask than the Bank of England?

Investing ? fund research

Trustnet tool box ? Good for charting, fund comparison, and portfolio tracking, plus there?s a (patchy) portfolio scanner / x-ray device.

Fund screener ? Find the fund of your dreams by category, TER, manager ? all that good stuff.

Fund screener ? Enables you to specifically search for trackers.

ETF screener ? Same again, but for ETFs.

Investment Trust screener ? Same again, but for ITs.

Fund quick rank ? Amusingly named easy-to-use variant of a fund screener.

ETF quick rank ? Same again but for ETFs.

Fund comparison ? Spot the difference game for up to five funds. Compare returns, asset allocation, sector breakdown, yadda yadda.

Fund comparison for trackers ? Very useful index fund comparison tables. This is Hargreaves Lansdown, so doesn?t necessarily offer a whole-of-the-market view.

Fund cost comparison calculator ? I can?t link to directly to this, so just hit the landing page and scroll down to the investment section.

Effect of expenses on your investment ? The classic calculation you get from any financial service provider, but in easy-to-digest graph form.

London Stock Exchange ETF prices ? Track prices, NAVs, volumes, and estimate liquidity.

Investment Trust stats ? Useful for comparing ITs.

Investing ? financial goals

Investment goal calculator ? How much in pounds or time you?ll need to invest to reach your financial targets (click on assumptions to set the level of growth).

University savings planner ? It?s US-orientated, but could serve as a rough and ready reckoner for the UK.

Compound interest calculator ? Monevator?s calculator of dreams, see how the money grows.

Who wants to be millionaire calculator ? The Investor does, and he designed this calculator so he can work out how long it will take him.

Investing ? asset allocation

Asset allocation historical returns ? Discover how various asset allocations have affected returns (give it a few?seconds to load the graph). Also click on the grid icon for a more useful display.

Best performers ? Check out which asset classes and sub-classes are hot! For all you performance chasers, um, momentum capturers out there.

Risk tolerance questionnaire ? About as deep as a Cosmo quiz, but at least it gives you a starting point. Just don?t put much faith in it.

Risk tolerance questionnaire ? Specifically designed to determine your risk tolerance when saving for university tuition fees. Select option 1 from the landing page.

Asset correlation matrix ? Quick and easy snapshot of the invisible strings tying major asset classes together.

Investing ? portfolio tracking

Portfolio tracker ? As seen on Monevator?s Slow and Steady portfolio. Screw spreadsheets.

Investment performance calculator ? A quick and dirty reveal of the ugly truth about your returns.

Investing ? market data

UK market data ? A deep, deep data mine

The Shiller PE Ratio ? PE 10 for the S&P 500.

UK long-term PE ? PE 10 for the FTSE All-Share.

UK PE ratios ? Covering the major FTSE indices, and handy for valuing the market.

PE ratios by country ? Scroll down to Download Data. From the drop-downs select ?Equities?, then ?Ratios ? Yield and P/E by Country?, then your date, and Alakazam!

Monevator private investor roundup ? Our new quarterly data wrap of how the world is turning.

Investing ? other

US financial calculators ? You lucky Americans. You have the best selection of free investing tools in the world, as diligently collected by the Bogleheads.

Bonds

UK Government bond yields ? Check out the gilt yield curve plus interest rates on all your fave benchmark bonds.

Yield calculator ? Work out the yield-to-maturity and running yield for conventional fixed-coupon bonds.

Bank of England yield curve estimates ? The venerable central bank sticks its finger in the air on interest rates and inflation.

Retirement

Retirement income calculator ? How many pennies you?ll have to rub together when you retire.

Pension calculator ? Much the same as above, play around with the factors to work out if you can ever retire.

Retirement Monte Carlo sim ? You can retire? Great. How long will your funds last?

Retirement Monte Carlo sim ? Same again, in case you didn?t like the first answer.

Contribution increase calculator ? How much more you could spend in retirement for a small increase in your pension contributions.

Retirement withdrawal calculator ? How much you?ll be able to large it in your dotage, depending on withdrawal rate.

Life expectancy calculator ? It predicts I?ll live until 92. How about you?

State Pension forecast ? You never know, it may still exist when you retire.

Tax

UK income tax calculator ? Wail, gnash, moan, but at least we?re not Greece.

UK income tax calculator ? Simpler, if the other one makes you sleepy.

Tax code calculator ? Sigh.

Capital gains tax calculator ? Snore.

Property

Mortgage rate calculator ? Comprehensive suite of mortgage number-crunchers.

Mortgage repayment calculator ? How much you?ll save by overpaying, courtesy of Monevator.

Buying or renting: US ? Which is best? A nifty New York Times calculator that?s convertible to the UK.

Buying or renting: UK ? Advanced UK version that requires some crystal ball-gazing. The Investor would like this one.

Buying or renting ? A very simple UK effort. Probably too simple.

If you discover any broken links then please holler in the comments. Hopefully we can grow this list over time into an indispensible community resource, so do let us know about your own favourite financial calculators and tools.

Take it steady,

The Accumulator

Thanks for reading! Monevator is a simply spiffing blog about making, saving, and investing money. Please do check out some of the best articles or follow our posts via Facebook, Twitter, email or RSS.

Source: http://monevator.com/financial-calculators-and-tools/

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