Clarity Starts With Understanding
Northwestern Mutual’s planning calculators and reading, gathered in one place. Run the numbers on your own time — then bring the questions they raise to a conversation.
Worth reading.
Three pieces from Northwestern Mutual’s library that come up most often in early conversations.
28 calculators.
Use these free interactive calculators to estimate or compare many aspects of your financial welfare. You'll find calculators to help you determine your insurance needs, retirement funding requirements, and your college savings budget. These tools can help you get a jump start on a secure financial future.
Budget
Where the money goes now, and what to do with what is left.
The reserve number is the one people get wrong in both directions — too thin in the early years, then far larger than it needs to be once income rises and nobody revisits it.
IRA
Contributions, conversions, and which account the money should sit in.
Whether to convert is rarely a straight yes or no. It is a question about which years have room in them, and that only becomes visible when you look at a decade rather than a single return.
Small business
Starting one, equipping one, borrowing for one, and what it is worth.
The valuation question is where most owner conversations actually begin — usually years before a sale is on the table, and usually because someone realized they had never asked it.
College planning
What an education will cost and how to fund it.
Worth running the cost calculator before the savings one. The total is generally larger than people expect, and seeing it first changes what a realistic monthly figure looks like.
Insurance
How much cover the people depending on you would actually need.
People tend to arrive focused on life insurance and leave more concerned about disability. Running them in that order is usually the more useful way around.
Savings
What compounding, rates, taxes and inflation do to a balance over time.
Inflation is the variable most often left out. Running the same balance with it and without is the quickest way to see why a large cash position can feel safer than it is.
Everything above is Northwestern Mutual’s. For the practice’s own writing on the decisions behind these numbers, read our notes on planning.
These calculators are hypothetical examples used for illustrative purposes and do not represent the performance of any specific investment or product. Rates of return will vary over time, particularly for long-term investments. Investments offering the potential for higher rates of return also involve a higher degree of risk of loss. Actual results will vary.
These calculators and articles are hosted by Northwestern Mutual. Following any link above will take you off this site.
Start where you are.
We’ll talk about what matters to you, understand where things stand today, and explore how thoughtful financial guidance can support the future you’re building. It’s simply a conversation to see how we can help.