Question 1

What is finances2you?

Accepted Answer

A financial education hub with 16 free calculators (mortgage, auto loans, investments, debt payoff, retirement, and more), 106 in-depth guides, and a learning quiz. Available in 7 languages.  It's designed for people who want to understand the math behind their financial decisions, not just get a number spit out.

Question 2

Do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

No. The calculators and guides are usable without signing up.  A free account adds useful things: it saves your simulations across devices and shows your progress in the dashboard.

Question 3

Is it really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The 16 calculators are free to use without an account, and there are free guides and quizzes too.

Question 4

How do I get started?

Accepted Answer

Pick the calculator that matches your situation: mortgage if you're buying a home, debt payoff if you're tackling debt, retirement if you're planning long-term. Each calculator has a guided wizard that explains every input.  If you're not sure where to start, the homepage has a 3-question quiz that recommends a starting calculator.

Question 5

How are the calculations done?

Accepted Answer

Standard finance formulas, run client-side in your browser. The mortgage amortization uses the classic monthly compounding formula. Investment growth uses compound interest with monthly rebalancing. Inflation calculations use the published CPI series for historical lookups.  All formulas are public knowledge — there's no proprietary "secret sauce" because there shouldn't be one. The math is the math.

Question 6

How accurate are the numbers?

Accepted Answer

The calculations follow standard finance formulas and are correct for the inputs you enter — the mortgage calculator gives you the amortization schedule for the values you type in, and the depreciation calculator uses industry-average curves clearly labeled as estimates.  They get less accurate with anything involving prediction: we don't know what the stock market will return next year, or what mortgage rates will be in 2030. And like any tool, they aren't immune to mistakes — use them as a guide, not a final figure, and double-check the numbers that matter with your bank or an advisor before deciding.

Question 7

Is this financial advice?

Accepted Answer

No. Every calculator and guide is educational only. We're not a registered investment advisor, financial planner, or broker — and even if we were, we'd need to know your full financial picture, risk tolerance, tax situation, and goals before giving personalized advice.  The right way to use this site: build understanding here, then take that understanding to a qualified professional for your specific situation.

Question 8

Why don't my results match my bank's quote?

Accepted Answer

Banks include fees and adjustments we can't know about: origination charges, discount points, lender credits, escrow setup, third-party fees, and rate locks. Their disclosure documents are the source of truth for what you'll actually pay.  If the difference is large (more than ~5%), check that you're entering the same loan terms — sometimes "30-year fixed at 6.5%" on a quote means something slightly different (e.g., 6.5% APR including fees, vs 6.5% nominal rate).

Question 9

Where do the historical inflation rates come from?

Accepted Answer

US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. We update the dataset periodically. For non-US users, we use the same series as a baseline since it's the most consistently published — which is one of the limitations to keep in mind for non-US scenarios.

Question 10

What data do you collect?

Accepted Answer

Without an account: the calculations run on your device and nothing is saved. With an account: your email, the simulations you choose to save, and your preferences. We don't sell your data, and we only share it with the infrastructure providers that keep the site running.

Question 11

Where is the data stored?

Accepted Answer

Your data is stored with a cloud infrastructure provider, encrypted both in transit and at rest.

Question 12

How do I delete my account and data?

Accepted Answer

Settings → Account → "Delete account". This removes your auth record and all saved simulations within minutes. Some backup systems retain a copy for up to 30 days as standard data-resilience practice; after that the data is gone.

Question 13

Is the site GDPR-compliant?

Accepted Answer

We follow GDPR principles: data minimization (we only ask for what we need), right to access (your data is visible to you in the dashboard), right to erasure (delete button in settings), and consent for non-essential cookies.

Question 14

Do you use tracking cookies or analytics?

Accepted Answer

We use essential cookies (auth session, theme preference) and privacy-respecting performance metrics. We ask for consent for any non-essential cookies.

Question 15

Which languages are supported?

Accepted Answer

English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Chinese (Simplified), and Hindi. The full UI, all calculators, all results, and the legal pages are translated into all 7.

Question 16

Are the guides translated too?

Accepted Answer

Most are available in all 7 languages. Some newer guides may be temporarily available in English only.

Question 17

How do I change languages?

Accepted Answer

The language selector is in the top-right header on every page. Switching changes the URL prefix (`/es/`, `/fr/`, etc.) and saves your choice for next visit. Each language has its own set of search-engine-indexable URLs.

Question 18

Can I export my results?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can download your results as a PDF report with charts, summary, and assumptions — up to 10 per month. You can also copy the calculator state into a shareable link, great for sending to a partner or advisor.

Question 19

Does the shareable link expose my financial data?

Accepted Answer

Only the calculator inputs are encoded in the URL — the same numbers you typed in. There's no name, no email, no account info.

Question 20

Who is behind finances2you?

Accepted Answer

A small independent team — developers and finance enthusiasts working on this as a carefully built product. We read every piece of feedback and focus on improvements that genuinely help.

Question 21

How can I suggest a feature or report a bug?

Accepted Answer

Use the contact form. We take bug reports seriously; specific, concrete suggestions ("the mortgage calculator should let me model an ARM with multiple rate steps") are the most useful.

Question 22

Which browsers are supported?

Accepted Answer

Compatible with recent versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge (from the last ~2 years). Older browsers may experience display issues. The site is fully optimized for Safari on iOS and Chrome on Android.

Question 23

Does it work on mobile?

Accepted Answer

Yes. All calculators are fully functional on phones and tablets. The desktop layout is denser (with more parallel comparisons), but calculations, exports, and saving operate identically on any device.

Question 24

I'm not getting the password reset email — what now?

Accepted Answer

Check your spam folder and wait a few minutes. If it still hasn't arrived, request it again from the sign-in screen.

Question 25

A calculator is showing a wrong number — who do I tell?

Accepted Answer

Contact form, please. Include the inputs you used, the result you got, and what you expected. We treat calculation bugs as a priority.