Four Numbers

An honest reading, in about a minute

Start here

Four numbers. Everything below reads from them.

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The reading

kept each month

of what you earn

months of cover

The next move

  1. 01Spend less than arrives
  2. 02One month of cover
  3. 03Clear the expensive debt
  4. 04Three months of cover
  5. 05Clear what is left owing
  6. 06Six months of cover
  7. 07Decide what it is for

Six ways to read it

Each one starts from your four numbers and can be pushed around on its own. Change anything above and they all move.

The Split

Where does what is left actually go?

Needs Wants Future

The Cushion

How long could you stop earning?

months of cover

The Ladder

When is the debt actually gone?

% a year

months to clear

interest paid

total paid

The Slow Leak

What is one subscription really costing?

every year

over five years

over ten years

Worth It?

Is this purchase worth the money?

a week

per use, over three years

The Tally

What does the small thing add up to?

a week

a year

What this cannot see

This page works from four numbers you estimated. It does not know what you actually spent last Tuesday, which category quietly doubled since spring, or that the thing you cancelled in March is still taking money.

That gap is the whole problem. Most people are wrong about their bare monthly cost, usually low, and the error hides in the small repeating things rather than the big obvious ones. A reading from estimates tells you roughly where you stand. It cannot tell you where the money went.

For that you have to write it down — every transaction, one line each, for long enough that the pattern shows. That is a different tool, and it is the one worth having.