Michael West Financials LLC · Est. 2024
Gallery · Visualizations

Every chart on the site, in one place.

68 figures across the guides and tools, grouped by shape. Click any card to land on the chart in context — every link drops you on the figure itself, not the page top.

22 charts

Bar charts

Bar charts

First paycheck breakdown

Where every dollar of a first paycheck actually lands.

First paycheck guide
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Bar charts

Growth by vehicle

$200 a month for 45 years in cash, HYSA, or stocks.

First paycheck guide
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Bar charts

Compounding power

Years to each $100K milestone shorten as the balance grows.

Compound growth tool
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Bar charts

Debt Rule of 72

How fast common debts double at typical APRs.

Mental models guide
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Bar charts

Opportunity cost

A dollar saved at 25 vs. waiting until 35 or 45.

Mental models guide
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Bar charts

Match vs. payoff cost

Skipping the employer match to pay debt faster is rarely worth it.

Debt payoff guide
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Bar charts

Employer match leverage

How the match alone changes a 40-year 401(k) balance.

401(k) guide
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Bar charts

Match flow (one year)

A single year of contributions paired side-by-side with the employer match.

Foundations lesson 04
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Bar charts

Pre-tax flow

How a pre-tax 401(k) sliver lifts out of gross before taxes compute.

Foundations lesson 02
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Bar charts

Paycheck deferral impact

Raising your 401(k) deferral costs less take-home than you think.

401(k) guide
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Bar charts

Roth vs. Traditional (micro)

Same dollar, two tax timings — which wins by bracket.

401(k) guide
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Bar charts

Mortgage term comparison

30 vs. 20 vs. 15-year payments and lifetime interest.

Mortgages guide
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Bar charts

Mortgage lever sensitivity

Which mortgage lever (rate, term, price) moves the payment most.

Mortgages guide
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Bar charts

OoO return bars

Effective return on each Order-of-Operations step.

Order of operations guide
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Bar charts

Survivor benefit

Delaying Social Security raises the survivor benefit too.

Social Security guide
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Bar charts

Roth withdrawal opportunity cost

What pulling Roth contributions early actually costs at 65.

Emergency fund guide
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Bar charts

Amortization composition

The same payment, year by year, flipping from interest to principal.

Mortgage payoff tool
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Bar charts

Marginal vs. effective tax

Why "I'm in the 22% bracket" doesn't mean 22% of every dollar.

Mental models guide
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Bar charts

Wealth multiplier by age

The cliff: $1 at 20 → $88 at 65; $1 at 60 → $1.60.

Mental models guide
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Bar charts

Income-multiple checkpoints

How much saved (× your income) you should have by 30, 40, 50, and retirement.

Mental models guide
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Bar charts

Car loan breakdown

Where the $525/mo for 72 months actually goes — and how much of it never sees the driveway.

Moments lesson M2
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Bar charts

Market recovery bars

Every major S&P 500 drop since 2000, plotted by time underwater — four of four ended at a new all-time high.

Moments lesson M10
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15 charts

Over-time charts

Over-time charts

Cost of waiting

Starting at 20 vs. 30 — same monthly contribution, decades apart.

First paycheck guide
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Over-time charts

Whole-life surrender curve

Walk away in year 5 and you leave half the cash value behind.

Insurance guide
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Over-time charts

Wealth multiplier

What $1 saved at your age becomes by 65 — drawn as a range, not a single line.

Compound growth tool
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Over-time charts

Expense ratio drag

A 1% fee vs. 0.05% over a working lifetime.

Investment vehicles guide
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Over-time charts

HSA stealth retirement

HSA invested + receipt-shoebox vs. a traditional IRA.

HSA guide
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Over-time charts

Whole life vs. term + invest

Buy term, invest the difference — over 30 years.

Insurance guide
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Over-time charts

Education funding trajectory

529 balance from year one to first tuition bill.

529 plans guide
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Over-time charts

Long-horizon comparison

Same $1,000, 30 years, 4% vs 7% — the gap between today-money and tomorrow-money tools.

Foundations lesson 01
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Over-time charts

PMI / LTV decline

When PMI drops off as you cross 80% LTV.

Mortgages guide
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Over-time charts

Fixed vs. ARM payment path

The reset risk an ARM carries that a fixed-rate loan does not.

Mortgages guide
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Over-time charts

Social Security claim age

Monthly benefit by claim age from 62 to 70.

Social Security guide
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Over-time charts

Social Security break-even

Longevity needed for delaying SS to beat claiming early.

Social Security guide
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Over-time charts

Teen Roth projection

Four teen summers of Roth contributions, untouched to 65.

Teen Roth IRA guide
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Over-time charts

Car value vs. paid

Cumulative paid climbs while resale falls; the two lines cross before month 30.

Moments lesson M2
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Over-time charts

Crossover year

The year annual growth first catches annual contributions — roughly Rule of 72 ÷ rate%.

Mental models guide
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1 chart

Two-trajectory wedges

3 charts

Priority stacks

3 charts

Composition donuts

5 charts

Tabular figures

2 charts

Decision flows

1 chart

Money-flow ribbons

12 charts

Decomposition waterfalls

Decomposition waterfalls

Avalanche vs. snowball

Lifetime interest cost of each debt-payoff order.

Debt payoff guide
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Decomposition waterfalls

Retirement gap decomposition

Where a $680K retirement shortfall comes from, lever by lever.

401(k) guide
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Decomposition waterfalls

Two jobs of money

The framework underneath all of Foundations: be there when needed, vs. grow over time.

Foundations lesson 01
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Decomposition waterfalls

Paycheck two-jobs map

Every paystub line sorted into today money, tomorrow money, or funding something else.

Foundations lesson 02
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Decomposition waterfalls

Emergency-fund placement

Where the emergency fund should live — and the two places people keep trying.

Foundations lesson 03
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Decomposition waterfalls

Promised vs. delivered (whole life)

Three whole-life pitch claims paired with what actually arrives after you sign.

Moments lesson M1
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Decomposition waterfalls

Whole life bundled

One policy unstapled into term insurance, cash-value savings, and the commission load between them.

Moments lesson M1
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Decomposition waterfalls

20/3/8 verdict

The Money Guy Show rule, applied to a real loan — all three checks fail.

Moments lesson M2
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Decomposition waterfalls

Three doors

Refi, aggressive payoff, or sell-into-cash — three proactive moves and their auditable impacts.

Moments lesson M2
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Decomposition waterfalls

Personal sequence timeline

Match → high-interest debt → emergency fund, with target months at three contribution paces.

Moments lesson M4
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Decomposition waterfalls

Windfall waterfall

A $15K lump sorted down the order of operations — only this year’s Roth room fits, and the rest spills to a taxable account.

Moments lesson M7
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Decomposition waterfalls

Gamble vs. investment

Three lines that sort a hot tip into investment or gamble: where the gain comes from, what time does, and how many things you must get right.

Moments lesson M3
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1 chart

Event timelines

2 charts

Comparison matrices

1 chart

Pictograms

Reference · Plain English

Glossary of terms

One-sentence definitions for every term used across the guides and calculators — accounts, tax timing, investing, debt, retirement.

Reference · A to Z

Subject index

The back-of-book index — every topic on the site, with its guide, calculator, and chart anchors gathered into one row.

Library · Long-form

All the guides

The full reading list — eighteen guides organized by phase, from first paycheck through retirement income.

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