About WealthCompass

What WealthCompass is

WealthCompass is a free, educational personal finance calculator. We compute the math behind common financial decisions — rent vs buy, debt payoff timelines, retirement savings gaps, refinance break-even points — and present the results with the assumptions explicit and visible. We do not collect personal financial information, do not store calculation history, and do not provide personalized recommendations.

What WealthCompass is not

WealthCompass is not an investment advisor, financial planner, broker, registered investment advisor (RIA), or any other regulated financial entity. We are an educational publisher in the same category as NerdWallet, Investopedia, Bankrate, and similar personal finance information sites.

The calculators on this site perform mathematical operations on the numbers you enter. They do not recommend specific investments, products, services, or actions. They do not consider your complete financial situation, risk tolerance, tax situation, or life goals. They are tools for thinking through decisions, not substitutes for professional financial advice.

For personalized financial advice, please consult a fee-only certified financial planner (CFP) or other appropriately licensed professional in your jurisdiction.

Why we built this

Most personal finance decisions are made with bad math. People rent vs buy without modeling opportunity cost. They prioritize the wrong debt to pay off first. They save for retirement without knowing whether they're on track. They refinance when it doesn't pay off and miss opportunities when it would.

The math isn't hard, but doing it requires either a spreadsheet (which most people won't build) or a calculator that shows the working (which most online tools don't). WealthCompass exists to make the math accessible and transparent.

We are particularly focused on opportunity cost — the often-invisible cost of choosing one financial path over another. Putting $40,000 into a down payment isn't just $40,000; it's also the foregone return that money could have earned invested elsewhere over the same period. Most rent-vs-buy calculators ignore this. Ours doesn't.

How we calculate

Our calculators use standard personal finance mathematics. We make our assumptions explicit and visible so you can verify or adjust them:

• Rent vs Buy: Net cost comparison over a chosen horizon, including mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, maintenance, opportunity cost on down payment, expected home appreciation, expected rent increases, and selling costs.
• Debt Payoff: Amortization with optional avalanche (highest rate first) or snowball (smallest balance first) prioritization. We show total interest paid and time-to-debt-free for both methods.
• Retirement Gap: Future value of current savings plus contributions, converted to sustainable monthly income using the 4% safe withdrawal rule with adjustability for more conservative assumptions.
• Refi Break-Even: Monthly payment difference vs closing costs to find the break-even month, plus total interest saved over the loan life.

All math is performed in your browser. Your inputs are not transmitted to our servers or stored anywhere.

How we monetize

WealthCompass receives no payment from financial product providers for editorial decisions. We are not affiliated with any bank, brokerage, mortgage lender, or financial services firm. Our monetization comes from two channels:

• Display advertising via Google AdSense. Ads appear in dedicated slots and never affect calculator results.
• Affiliate referrals to specific products we believe provide genuine value to readers — high-yield savings accounts, low-cost brokerages, fee-only financial planners. These relationships are disclosed and don't affect editorial content. We will not recommend specific investments through affiliate relationships.

Who runs WealthCompass

WealthCompass is built by an independent team in Botswana with backgrounds in technology, financial education, and consumer financial advocacy. We are not licensed financial advisors, brokers, or CFPs. We are educators and engineers who built the tool we wished existed.

We are a small team currently working part-time on WealthCompass. Reader feedback drives most of our refinements.

What's coming next

Our 2026 roadmap includes additional calculators (529 college savings, HSA optimization, mortgage prepayment vs invest), country-specific tax-advantaged account modeling (401k/IRA for US, ISA for UK, RRSP/TFSA for Canada), and educational guides on more personal finance topics. All future features will maintain the same educational positioning.

If you have suggestions for new calculators or guides, please contact us.