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Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to The bottom 50% of U.S. households are short after essentials (BLS data)

How much U.S. households have left after essentials, by income group, from BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey data 2000–2024 (projected to 2026), and what investing it would grow to.

This tool shows how much money U.S. households have remaining after paying for essentials, broken down by income group using 25 years of government survey data from 2000–2024. Users can adjust assumptions to see how… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1CF

    I wanted to share a simple web app I created recently, which lets you estimate income taxes owed in the US: https://taxsim.app All the calculations occur directly in the browser, and are powered by a Fortran program that has been converted to WASM using emscripten. This calculator was originally developed in the 1970s [1] by the non-profit National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER has been maintaining this F77 codebase for the last 50 years, and uses it primarily for academic research on tax policy. The Fortran source code itself is over 1MB of text, because it codifies both…

    2022 · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Here's a little side project I’ve been working on: https://totalrealreturns.com/ The Total Real Returns chart demonstrates the preservation or growth of real wealth more clearly than conventional (nominal-dollar, price-only) stock charts, because: (1) we include the effects of inflation-diminished purchasing power, and (2) we include the effects of reinvesting dividends from the initial investment. I found it harder to explain the y-axis in words than it was to do the math, so please let me know if you think the "baguettes" explanation on the homepage helps. I was up until 4am…

    2022 · totalrealreturns.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    A look at how billionaires' wealth grew during the pandemic

    2021 · elizabethwarren.com · its alternatives →

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  5. 5US
  6. 6

    How overgeneralized correlational data influenced US welfare

    2016 · podcasts.apple.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    Contribute to karmanyaahm/budget-tools development by creating an account on GitHub.

    30d ago · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8TF

    After having been a regular employee for years, I worked as a freelancer for a while. Going into my freelancing life I had no real mental model for how much of the money I earned was truly mine to spend, and how much of it I needed to set aside for taxes, vacations, retirement, and in case I got sick. I modelled this in Excel as best I could and was quite surprised both by how complicated it was to get right, and how much money I actually needed to set aside! As my girlfriend also started freelancing last year, I decided to turn my Excel sheet into a little program she could use too, and in…

    2022 · its alternatives →

  9. 9WP
  10. 10

    P2P and B2C lending - now with even more data.

    2019 · lenme.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11UP
  12. 12

    Hi HN, I built AffordWhere to answer a question I kept running into: “If I earn X, where can I actually afford to live comfortably?” The site lets you compare cities based on income, rent, taxes, and day-to-day costs, and see how far a salary realistically goes in each place. It’s intentionally simple: Focused on affordability rather than averages Designed for relocation and remote-work decisions No account required I’d appreciate feedback on: Whether the affordability framing is useful Missing cost factors you’d expect Data accuracy or methodology concerns Link:…

    Jan 2026 · affordwhere.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    See what you'll actually take home in 140+ countries

    Dec 2025 · globaltaxcalculator.net · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    U.S. Employment Outlook - Find The Most Promising Careers

    2019 · joboutlook.netlify.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Interactive UK house price heatmap with 30 years of data. Search any postcode to explore average prices, trends and transaction volumes from 1995 to 2026.

    Jan 2026 · housepricedashboard.co.uk · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Transform your financial strategy with xP&A: unified insights, enhanced collaboration and cloud connectivity to make smarter decisions and unlock business potential.

    2019 · causal.app · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    See how your income & net worth rank across America

    Feb 2026 · wealthile.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    3,360 US salary data points · 113 roles · 30 cities · CSV

    May 2026 · dreadstallion.gumroad.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Hi HN - Like many in tech, I've thought about relocating to different cities. But comparing salaries, income tax, housing costs, and overall cost of living is hard. It's hard to know where you'd actually save up more money. So I built a site to make it easier. It's my first HN project, hope you find it useful. Any feedback is appreciated, thanks!

    2025 · takehomepay.city · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    I developed an intuitive, cross-platform tool to calculate net salaries in Germany. It simplifies the complexity of taxes, deductions, and social contributions while keeping a clean, minimalistic design. With straightforward functionality and clear visualizations, it helps users easily understand how their gross salary breaks down into take-home pay.

    2024 · netsalarygui.de · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Instant US take-home pay calculator — API + Chrome extension

    Nov 2025 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22WT

    U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000 Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000 New debt: $1,650,000,000,000 National debt: $14,271,000,000,000 Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000 Let's remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget: Annual family income: $21,700 Money the family spent: $38,200 New debt on the credit card: $16,500 Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710 Total budget cuts: $385 Puts it into perspective a bit, huh? (Source: https://plus.google.com/u/0/115560790731793704368/posts/5TRu4CdDW3R)

    2011 · plus.google.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Compare 50-year vs 30-year mortgages instantly

    Nov 2025 · 50yearmortgagecalculator.net · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Invest in yourself with as little as 1% of your income

    2020 · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →