Welcome to the real world! You’ve just graduated college and you’re headed to a new city for your first real job. You thought the resume-writing, the job hunting and the interviewing was hard. Now you’re moving to an apartment and officially out on your own. You’re responsible for paying bills, repaying student loans, and everything in between.
Help is on the way! For the conscientious young adult who is just starting out, here’s a comprehensive list of calculators, quizzes and resources to help you get a handle on your sometimes illusive personal finances. Do you know how much cash you will bring home after taxes are taken from your paycheck? Can you afford to lease that new car you’ve been eyeing? How long will it take you to pay off your credit cards? Hopefully these tools will help you make sense of the dollars and cents of money management.
A Little Financial Planning Goes A Long Way
…especially if you start now. This list is by no means all inclusive, but does attempt to cover the most pressing financial concerns of someone entering the working world after graduating college.
Skip Ahead To These Money Tools:
- Money Quizzes
- Moving Out
- On The Job
- Student Loans
- Commuting Costs
- Auto Loans
- Managing Your Credit
- Don’t Be in The Dark
- Miscellaneous Extras
- Personal Money Management Software
- Responsible Spending Quiz- It’ll get you thinking about how you spend your money and whether or not you have a spending problem.
- Personal Finance Quiz- What do you know about personal finances?
- How Credit Savvy Are You?- Are you familiar with the credit card game?
- Retirement IQ Test- Do you know enough to plan your retirement?
- Moving Cost Estimator (state to state)- Choose the state you’re leaving and where you’re going. This tool will estimate the cost of moving.
- Detailed Cost of Living Comparison Calculator- Enter your current income, the state you’re moving from, and the state you’re moving to. You’ll get back the annual income required to maintain your present standard of living plus an itemized comparison of common living expenses (…a doctor’s visit…the cost of a movie ticket, etc.)
- Take Home Pay- Estimate your take home pay based on the state you live in, your federal filing allowances, and designated deductions.
- Saving Money- Need help visualizing the interest earned on your monthly savings account? This simple tool can do it.
- Retirement Contributions Effect on Your Paycheck- Use this calculator to see how increasing your contributions to your employee-sponsored, retirement savings account will effect your paycheck and retirement.
- Retirement Planner- Generate a snapshot of your retirement earnings and hypothetical withdrawals based on factors like your income, age, and current savings.
- Student Loan Repayment- Understand your monthly student loan payments with respect to your annual salary.
- Student Loan Consolidation- A look at payments, interest rates and total costs of current loans versus the payment, interest rate and total cost of a single consolidation loan.
- Student Loan Amortization Table Calculator - Get an idea of how much principle is remaining, how much interest you will pay over the years, and how much of your balance is paid off at any given time.
Commuting Costs
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- Gas Free Commute- This online community allows you to track not only the gas you’ve saved, but even the calories you burn by biking and walking to work or the grocery store.
- Commute Costs Calculator- Compare the costs of three different commutes: driving alone, carpooling, and vanpooling.
- Commute Costs Calculator- Paying at the pump vs public transportation.
- Should I Buy or Lease?
- Should I Buy A Hybrid?
- Auto Vehicle Affordability Calculator- Determine how much vehicle you can buy and estimate the payment you can afford.
- True Costs of Owning A Car- Accounts for costs you forget to include when considering your auto purchase.
- How Long Will It Take to Pay off This Balance?
- The Cost of Only Paying The Minimum
- Debt Planner- Get a complete debt paydown plan by entering information for multiple credit cards or loans. Based on the interest rate, the balance, and the limit, how much should be paid on each debt, each month?
- Appliances Energy Consumption Calculator- Estimate the energy costs of individual home appliances, based on a rate of $0.108 per kWh.
- Lighting Energy Calculator -Compare the monthly costs of incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs based on the hours “on” per day.
- Utility Price Comparison- See exactly what residents of major cities across the US are paying for their utilities.
- How Much Am I Spending?- You can use this tool to determine which monthly expenses are essential. Create your emergency fund by saving three to six times this dollar amount.
- Vacation Expense Calculator- Here’s a detailed look at the costs and expenses of going on your family vacation.
- What to Consider When Considering Health Insurance?
- 5 Cheap Ways to Save on Gas
- The True Cost of Owning a Pet
- Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs
Personal Money Management Software
- Wesabe- Steve Jones of lifehacker thinks you should use wesabe to organize you money in 2008.
- Mint- with a financial review by Shelley Elmblad of About.com
- Budget Pulse- Critiqued by the Web 2.0 Review Blog.
- Quicken Online- Reviewed by users on rateitall.com.
- Geezeo- Check out the 3 weeks spent with Geezeo.com.
Know of any other awesome online money management tools? We’d Love to know about them!
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