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Tools & References

Financial Literacy Resources for Students

This page collects the free tools and official sources referenced throughout this site. Every external link is included because it is free, well-maintained, and directly relevant to the topic being explained. No affiliate relationships or paid placements exist on this page.

Interactive calculators

The tools below are useful for turning general concepts into your own numbers. They are listed selectively, not exhaustively, and each one supports a specific lesson elsewhere on this site.

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Investor.gov Compound Interest Calculator
A simple, official calculator for testing monthly contributions, growth rates, and time horizons. A strong starting point after reading Compound Interest and Retirement Basics.
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Historical Investment Return Calculator — FomoDejavu
Useful when you want to compare a scenario against actual historical market performance instead of fixed assumed returns. Referenced in: Compound Interest, Debt vs Investing, and Retirement Basics.
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BLS CPI Inflation Calculator
A straightforward public calculator for comparing purchasing power across years. Especially helpful after reading Inflation & Cost of Living.
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Historical Inflation Calculator — FomoDejavu
Another way to compare purchasing power across years, with historical CPI-based lookups that make long-term inflation easier to visualise.
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Federal Student Aid Loan Simulator
Helps students compare repayment paths, estimate monthly payments, and understand the trade-offs between loan strategies. Best paired with Student Debt.
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Daily Habit Investment Calculator — FomoDejavu
Useful for visualising the long-term opportunity cost of recurring spending habits in a way that is more concrete than a back-of-the-envelope estimate.

Official and public-interest resources

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CFPB Financial Education Resources
Free educational materials on budgeting, credit, debt, and financial planning that are designed for young adults and educators.
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IdentityTheft.gov — FTC
A practical recovery portal for people dealing with identity theft. It helps users document the issue and follow a clear remediation plan.
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FTC — Identity Theft and Online Security
Consumer guidance on protecting personal information, recognising scams, and responding to fraud attempts.

Recommended reading order on this site

  1. Budgeting for College and First Jobs
  2. Emergency Fund Starter Guide
  3. Compound Interest for Beginners
  4. Inflation and Cost of Living
  5. Paying for College and Comparing Debt
  6. Debt vs Investing: Which Should Come First?
  7. First-Job Retirement Basics
  8. Daily Spending Habits and Their Long-Term Cost
  9. Dividend Investing Basics
  10. Understanding Crypto Basics
  11. Scam and Identity Theft Basics

How to use these tools

The most effective way to build financial literacy is to apply each concept to your own numbers. After reading compound interest, try a simple compound interest calculator first, then compare that with a historical market calculator if you want a more realistic range of outcomes. After reading inflation, use an inflation calculator to compare what the same amount of money buys across different years. Numbers stop being abstract when they are your numbers.