You don't need a lecture. You need a plan and someone to check in on you.
We coach young families in the Philadelphia area through paying off debt and building a budget that survives contact with real life. Trained financial coaches, and we'll show you the math behind every recommendation.
Start with the math, free
Every calculator here is free and works without an account. If they answer your question and you never contact us, that's a good outcome.
Snowball vs. Avalanche
See what ordering your debts differently actually costs, and what it buys.
Recast vs. Refinance
Six things you could do with a lump sum and a mortgage, compared on one screen.
Articles
Plain explanations of the decisions families actually face.
Recent writing
Federal vs. Private Student Loans: What Actually Differs
Subsidized, unsubsidized and private are three different products. A private loan can match an unsubsidized one. It can never match a subsidized one.
Every debt calculator asks a question you can't answer yet
How much can you actually put toward debt each month? Here is how to find the real number from ninety days of bank statements, and the three mistakes that make it wrong.
Goodbye, Mint: What We Tried and Where We Landed
Mint shut down in March 2024. We tried YNAB and EveryDollar before landing on Monarch — the same zero-based budgeting, without categorizing every transaction by hand.