Everyday Money Habits
Calculator · Foundation

What your money earns while it just sits.

A balance in the right account pays you every month — no work, no risk to the principal. Enter what you have and the rate it earns; this shows the income it throws off per month and per year.

BackgroundWhere your cash should live
Sample numbers below — edit any field to make them yours.
What you have in the account today — a high-yield savings balance, a cash cushion, a CD.
$
The yearly rate the account pays. A high-yield savings account quotes it as APY — often a few percent, and it moves with the market.
%
Show advanced
Your top federal bracket — tap one below, or type a blended rate. Interest is taxed at this rate in a taxable account; leave at 0 for a Roth, HSA, or muni.
%
Interest income = balance × rate. We just split it across the year.
Saved locally

This is your interest income — what the balance pays you at itsAPY, before you spend a cent of the principal.

Every month, it earns
$83
in interest, hands-off
$1,000 a year
≈ $19.23 a week · $2.74 a day

That's the income $25,000 throws off at4% — steady, and it never touches your balance.

Show the maththe formula, with your numbers
Watch the substitution
  • Simple interest, paid out. This is the income if you spend it each month, not reinvest it. Leave it in the account to compound and the same rate grows the balance faster — that's what the compound-growth tool shows.
  • A close estimate, not to the penny. A quoted APY already folds in the account's own compounding, so treating it as a flat payout rate makes these figures a careful estimate rather than an exact statement amount.
  • Before tax by default. Interest is taxed as ordinary income. Enter your rate under Show advanced for an after-tax estimate — that's your federal marginal rate only, assuming a taxable account; it ignores state tax and filing status.
  • Interest only — the principal stays whole. This income never draws down your balance, unlike a 4% retirement withdrawal, which spends the principal down over time.
Interest income vs. spending down

Income that leaves the principal whole.

This is the income a balance earns without ever shrinking it. Live on the interest and the balance is still there next year, earning again. That's a different move from a retirement withdrawal, where you draw the balance itself down a little each year — the 4% rule — and the pile slowly empties. Here, nothing empties; you're spending only what the money makes.

  • Where it shines:an emergency fund or a cash cushion you want kept intact — a high-yield savings account turns idle cash into a small, steady paycheck while staying fully liquid.
  • Where it falls short:funding a whole retirement on interest alone takes a very large balance. Most plans grow the money first, then draw it down — that's the compound-growth and retirement-withdrawal tools.
Plain English

Interest income is just: your balance times its rate. A bank paying 0.01% turns $25,000 into about $2 a year; the same cash in a high-yield account at 4% earns roughly $1,000. Same money — the account is the whole difference.

Next step

Now see what reinvesting it grows into.

Spending the interest keeps the balance flat. Leaving it in — and adding a little each month — is where the curve bends upward. The compound-growth visualizer shows what that same rate builds over time.

Run the projection →Or: size your emergency fund
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