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Financial calculators abound on Web

By HUMBERTO CRUZ
Tribune Media Services

Q. I'd like to find some good financial calculators on the Internet. Are there any that you recommend?

A. The Internet is awash with financial calculators, some excellent, and some terrible. Fortunately, some of the best are available at free Web sites.

One of my perennial favorites is the CNBC on MSN Money site, which features calculators on just about any financial decision you can think of at moneycentral.msn.com/help/tools.asp. Naturally, this site includes the obligatory calculators to figure out how much you need to save to reach a specific goal, and what your income and expenses are likely to be in retirement. There are hundreds of such calculators on the Internet, but the ones at this site will give you a more reliable result than most.

In addition, you'll find many other calculators at the site, including a debt consolidator calculator to figure out how much you can save each month by consolidating loans; a "time value" calculator, helping calculate work time in relation to gross pay and thus determine how valuable time is, and a "second income" calculator, helping you decide how much a second household income really is.

Another of my favorites is the CCH Financial Planning Toolkit Web site (www.finance.cch.com), launched in September by CCH Inc., a provider of tax and financial planning information, mostly for professionals.

The free CCH site, which is aimed at consumers, includes more than 100 calculators and interactive tools, including calculators for retirement planning, refinancing a loan, paying down credit-card debt and comparing investments. Other tools include planning forms, such as simple wills, trusts and asset inventory sheets.

If retirement planning is your thing, you will find one of the most comprehensive retirement planning calculators online at Quicken.com, a free Web site maintained by the same people that produce the popular financial tracking software. You can check it out at www.quicken.com/retirement/planner (registration required).

Finally, if you simply want a rough estimate of what you need to save for retirement, try the "Ballpark Estimate" worksheet by the nonprofit American Savings Education Council by going to the Web site www.asec.org and clicking on "The BallPark Estimate."

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