The Measure of a Plan is a website providing 100% free resources and tools for personal finance, visited by hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
Most Popular Tools & Data Visualizations
The first three tools — for Budgeting, Net Worth, and Investment Portfolio Tracking — have been critical for my own financial planning. My personal spreadsheets have over a decade of data in them, and I keep them updated regularly.
I highly recommend that all readers start with those 3 spreadsheets.
Budget Tracking Spreadsheet 💸 Spreadsheet for tracking income, spending, and cash flowNet Worth Tracking Spreadsheet 📒 Spreadsheet for tracking net worth (assets, liabilities, net worth)Investment Tracking Spreadsheet 📈 Spreadsheet for tracking portfolio value, dividends, and monthly performanceHistory of U.S. Stock Market Returns 🗽 Data on U.S. stock market returns, from the 1870s until todayGlobal Investment Returns by Asset Class 🗺️ Investment performance for 14 global asset classes over the past 40 yearsCanadian Housing Affordability 🏘️ Data on Canadian housing prices and price-to-income ratios by cityCanadian Food Price Inflation 🥕 Measuring Canadian food price inflation, using 110 grocery itemsCanadian CPP / OAS Retirement Calculator 🍁 Spreadsheet to calculate your Canadian CPP and OAS paymentsCanadian Take-Home Pay / Tax Calculator 🧾 Calculate and compare take-home pay across all provinces
All Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Budget Tracking Tool | Keep track of how much you make and how much you spend. Visualize your historical spending, trends, and breakdowns by category |
| Investment Portfolio Tracker | Stay on top of your investment portfolio — total market value, asset allocation, portfolio performance, re-balancing calculations, and more |
| Net Worth Tracker | Record a snapshot of your net worth (total assets minus total liabilities) on a monthly basis |
| Retirement Date Forecasting Tool | How much money do I need to retire? How long will it take me to get there? How much will I need to save and how do my investments need to perform? |
| Canadian Retirement Benefits Calculator | Find out how much money you will receive from the Canadian retirement benefits programs (CPP and OAS) |
| Canadian Income Tax Calculator | Quickly estimate your after-tax income across all provinces and territories in Canada |
| Rent versus Buy Calculator | Figure out whether renting or buying your home is a better financial choice for you |
| Cost of Raising a Child Calculator | The cost of raising a child will differ greatly from one family to another. Use this spreadsheet to estimate the cost of raising your little bundle of joy until the age of 18 |
| Net Worth Scenario Tool | Chart out your net worth over time under different scenarios. Use this calculator for quick and easy projections |
| Debt Payoff Planner | A web tool to organize your loans, calculate the total cost of your debt, and design a month-by-month plan to become debt-free |
| Savings Goal Solver | A small yet mighty tool for figuring out how much you need to save, when you’ll reach your goal, and how much money you’ll have at the end of it all |
| Market Timing Simulator | Does timing the market beat time in the market? Use this interactive simulator to find out |
| Grad School Calculator | Are you thinking of going back to school to boost your income? Use this interactive grad school calculator to weigh the pros and cons |
| Robo-Advisor Fee Calculator | Robo-advisor fees may seem small at first, but they can delay your retirement by several years. Use this calculator to find out exactly how much you’ll lose |
All Data Visualizations
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| U.S. Stock Market Returns – a history from the 1870s to 2023 | Statistics on U.S. stock market returns from 1871 to 2023. Average annual returns, likelihood of losing money in the market, best / worst months, and more. |
| Investment Returns by Asset Class | This resource shows historical investment returns for a broad set of investment “asset classes” — stocks, bonds, and beyond |
| Tracking Canadian Housing Market Affordability | Tracking housing market affordability in Canada through home prices, incomes and mortgage rates. Data on 14 cities from 1999 to 2023 |
| Canadian Inflation Tracker | Measuring Canadian price inflation over the past ~50 years — across key items like housing, food, transportation, and more |
| Canadian Food Price Inflation | Measuring Canadian food price inflation using 110 grocery items. Prices over time, prices by category, and your personal inflation rate |
| Canadian Foreign Exchange Rate Tracker | Tracking Canadian dollar exchange rates against 26 major foreign currencies — using data that auto-updates daily |
| The Wealth of Nations | Income, cost of living, and purchasing power for 110 countries |
| The Uneven Distribution of Canadian Income, Cash Flow, and Net Worth | Analysing Canadian income, spending, cash flow, and net worth — putting a spotlight on the financial gap between Canadians at the high and low ends of the spectrum |
| Rich, Richer, Richest: a Profile of High-Income Canadians | Data on Canada’s top income-earners — top 0.01%, top 1%, top 5%, etc… |
| Rent Prices Versus Income in Major U.S. and Canadian Cities | Interactive charts to explore rent prices versus household income in major cities in the U.S. and Canada. |
| Of Dollars and Dens: A History of Home Prices in North America | Long-term trends on inflation-adjusted home prices in the U.S. (starting in the 1890s!) and in Canada (starting in the 1990s) |
| Exploring Canadian income | Interactive charts to slice and dice data on Canadian income — by geography, sex, and age group |
| Visualizing Market Volatility |
Visualize the ups and downs of the stock market, and the impact that this volatility can have on the growth of your investments |
| Stock and Bond Market Visualizer | Drill down into price & return data from the most important investment indices in the world. Annualized returns, dividend-adjusted returns, performance by year, and more |