Take-home splits into living costs, debt, and savings — then savings fans out into the specific things you're building. Hover a ribbon to isolate it.
MechanicsThe part nobody explains
How the money actually moves
Your goals aren't separate bank accounts. They're earmarks inside one savings account — and this dashboard is the ledger that says what each dollar is for.
Nothing here is hardcoded
Every figure below is calculated live from the numbers you set elsewhere. Take-home comes from the income field, the savings transfer is the sum of every goal routed to HYSA, the brokerage transfer is whatever goes to Brokerage, and the loan line is your debt goal. Change a goal's monthly contribution and these move with it. The only directly editable number here is take-home, since that's an input rather than a result.
Budget tracking
Variable spend
Actuals are per-month — switch months up top.
Fixed costs
Cash position
As of
Deposit held
Goals
What you're building toward
Sequenced by tier. Each shows where the money physically sits and when it lands at this pace.
The long game
Five years to the exit
Debt
Student loan
Tracked as a goal too — it's the same dollars competing.
Balance
APR
Grace period ends
Paying now / mo
Strategy
Invest or pay down?
Not financial advice
This is arithmetic and framing, not a recommendation — I'm not a financial advisor. Worth a fee-only CFP conversation before you commit, especially on the cross-border and visa angles.
Where to park cashSGOV vs HYSA vs munis
Correcting one thing: SGOV isn't tax free
SGOV holds 0–3 month US Treasury bills. Treasury interest is exempt from state and local tax but fully taxable at the federal level. So it's state-tax-free, not tax-free. That distinction matters, but your underlying instinct is right: in California it does beat a HYSA after tax.
The catch nobody mentions
California only lets you claim the exemption if the fund holds ≥50% US government obligations at every quarter-end. SGOV is ~97.5% Treasuries, so it qualifies. But the exemption is not automatic — your 1099 won't apply it. You have to take the fund's year-end "US government obligations percentage" letter and subtract that income on your CA return. Miss that step and you've captured none of the benefit.
Practical split
Keep one month of expenses in a HYSA for genuinely instant access, and the rest of the buffer in SGOV. SGOV settles T+1 and only trades in market hours, which is fine for a real emergency but not for a Tuesday-night surprise. Munis stay parked until balances get large — while you carry debt above these yields, the loan beats every cash instrument on this page.
One-time inflows
Windfalls
Outside the monthly cycle. Earmark deliberately or they evaporate.