A few months ago I started building MoneyDecoded Tools — a collection of free financial calculators for Americans. No sign-up, no paywalls, just tools that work.
Here's what I built and what I learned along the way.
What I Built
20 tools covering the decisions that actually matter:
Mortgage calculator with full amortization schedule
Debt payoff calculator (avalanche vs snowball)
FIRE calculator — find your financial independence number
401(k) projector with employer match
Rent vs buy comparison
Paycheck calculator with federal/state tax breakdown
Inflation calculator, net worth tracker, budget planner, and more
Each tool includes a plain-English guide explaining the underlying concepts — not just the math.
What I Learned
Content matters more than code. The calculators themselves took time to build, but the explanatory guides alongside each tool are what keep people on the page. People don't just want a number — they want to understand what it means.
Schema markup and llms.txt are worth adding early. I added structured data to all 20 pages and created an llms.txt file so AI search engines can index the tools properly. Small things, but worth doing from the start.
Internal linking between tools and guides compounds over time. Each calculator links to related blog posts, and each blog post links back to the relevant tool. Building that structure early makes everything more crawlable.
Where It's At
Still early — working on organic search traffic and building out affiliate partnerships. The tools are live and free to use.
👉 https://tools.moneydecoded.net
Happy to hear feedback from anyone who's built in the fintech or tools space.
Top comments (0)