TOOL 1 · Wealth and the House · p. 8
Your house wealth, live
Explore how your home’s value and the liabilities against it shape your house wealth. Bring your own estimates and compare the picture.
Explore this tool in the book ↗From the book to your next step · NIFE
Welcome, readers of
Borrow Smart
Repay Smart.
You’re in the right place. If you arrived from a “Try it online” box or the back cover, this is your home for the book’s free tools and interactive edition.
Keep your book open. Choose a question below, explore it with your own numbers, and return whenever you are ready for the next step.
By Todd K. Ballenger · Online tools open in a new tab so you can return here.
Open the interactive book ↗Try it online
The ideas in the book.
Your own numbers.
Look for the title printed in your book. These four tools live inside the interactive edition.
Go straight to your tool
Each link opens the book right at the tool, in a new tab. Keep your printed book handy and try it with your own numbers.
TOOL 2 · Wealth and the House · p. 12
The race: your savings vs. the house you’re saving for
Compare your savings journey with a changing home price. See how different assumptions can affect the house you are saving for.
Explore this tool in the book ↗TOOL 3 · EPR™ · p. 99
EPR™ — your effective percentage rate
Look beyond the rate on the loan paperwork. Explore the book’s approach to understanding borrowing costs in the context of taxes, time, and opportunity.
Explore this tool in the book ↗TOOL 4 · Payment · p. 174
Try a payment before you sign up for one
Explore a proposed payment before making a commitment. Consider how it fits alongside the rest of your household’s spending and priorities.
Explore this tool in the book ↗Make the worksheets yours.
Use the worksheets in your book as you work through Product, Payment, Availability, Amount, Management, Protection, and Discipline. Keep your notes together so you can revisit your choices as life changes.
We’ll add downloadable reader resources here as they become available. For now, use the worksheets in your copy of the book.
Revisit the examples.
Return to the book’s examples, then try the available interactive tools with assumptions that reflect your household. Compare more than one scenario and keep track of what changed.
Examples help you explore possibilities; they are not predictions or guaranteed results.
Continue the book online.
Read the interactive edition, explore its chapters, and return to the concepts you want to understand more deeply.
Read the interactive edition ↗A coach. A conversation.
A more informed next step.
The Management step is a reminder that you do not have to sort through every question alone. Prepare your questions, ask how a professional is compensated, and understand what support they offer.
Explore NIFE’s CLA™ directoryKeep learning.
This reader hub will grow with additional worksheets, examples, and books. In the meantime, explore more education from NIFE.
NIFE provides general financial education. The book, tools, and examples are educational and are not individualized financial, tax, legal, or investment advice, an offer of credit, or a promise of savings. Results depend on the assumptions you enter. Consult appropriate qualified professionals before acting on a strategy.