Our mission
Professional-grade financial clarity,
free for every community.
The US financial system was built around wealthy, salaried employees with traditional benefits. Freelancers, veterans, teachers, immigrants, and nurses didn’t get a seat at that table. StackedTools gives them the same clarity expensive advisors give everyone else — for free.
The problem
The answer exists. It’s just locked behind a $300/hour meeting.
A self-employed graphic designer making $85,000/year could be leaving $18,000 in tax deductions on the table — not because the rules don’t exist, but because no one ever explained how a Solo 401(k) and HSA work together. A teacher with 20 years of service might not know that WEP will reduce their Social Security check by $400/month.
The math isn’t that complicated. The rules are public. The IRS publishes everything. But turning that into a clear, actionable answer for a specific person’s situation — that used to require a financial advisor, a CPA, or hours of reading dense publications.
We think that’s wrong. So we built the tools that fix it.
Freelancers & Self-Employed
Solo 401(k), SEP-IRA, HSA optimization
Veterans & Active Duty
Military pension + TSP planning
Teachers & Public Employees
Pension + WEP + Social Security
Travel Nurses
True take-home + stipend compliance
Immigrants & Visa Holders
Tax treaties + credit building
Pilots & Airline Workers
Career pay + pension modeling
What we believe
Six principles we won’t compromise on.
Free by default
The core calculator result is always free. No paywall, no 'premium plan for the good stuff.' We make money through a $9 PDF export and vetted affiliate partnerships — never by gating the answer.
Cited, not guessed
Every limit in every calculator comes from an official IRS publication with a direct link. We update within 24 hours of any IRS change. You can verify every number we use.
Privacy-first by design
Your calculator inputs are never stored on our servers. Everything runs in your browser. No tracking cookies. No selling data. The only thing we keep is your saved results — and only if you ask us to.
Built for everyone
WCAG 2.1 AA compliance is non-negotiable. Every form has visible labels, every button has aria attributes, and keyboard navigation works throughout. No one gets a lesser experience.
AI that explains, not replaces
Claude AI writes a plain-English explanation of your result — not a disclaimer, not a textbook excerpt, but an actual explanation of why your plan looks the way it does. We flag complex situations explicitly so you know when to consult a professional.
Community-specific, always
We don't build generic calculators and rename them for different audiences. Every tool is built from the ground up around the specific retirement system, tax rules, and financial quirks of that community.
Business model
Transparent about how we make money.
Free calculators cost money to build and maintain. Here’s exactly how StackedTools is funded — and what we will never do.
We do
$9 PDF export — download a branded one-pager for your CPA
Vetted affiliate partnerships — we surface relevant financial services after your result, with clear disclosure
Newsletter sponsorships — weekly financial education emails
Premium saved history — re-run results across years, compare scenarios
We never
Sell your personal data to anyone — ever
Paywall the core calculator result
Recommend financial products we haven't reviewed
Store your calculator inputs on our servers
Ready to start?
Find the tool built for your community.
No sign-up. No loading screen. Your result in under 2 minutes.