What it looks like.
Eight of the thirteen tabs, filled in with the Kelly family — one of the two teaching case studies. Sam and Priya earn $160,200 between them, have two children at a state school, and are $6,525 a year short without knowing why.
Where you stand
The app opens here. Nothing on this page can be typed into: every figure is gathered from the tabs behind it, and each one has a plain sentence saying what it means.
The Kelly household · Sam 38, Priya 37, Mia 11, Jack 8
| What you own | $1,136,300 |
| What you owe | $589,400 |
| Net worth | $546,900 |
| Take-home pay for the year | $122,747 |
| Money left over each year | −$6,525 |
| Emergency fund covers | 0.3 months |
What this page saysYou are spending $6,525 a year more than you earn — about $251 a fortnight, going onto a credit card at 20.99%. The emergency fund covers 0.3 months of spending, against a three-month guide.
Not one line in the Kellys’ budget is extravagant. That is the point of the case: they do not have a spending problem, they have a visibility problem.
The payslips
Take-home pay is built line by line for each adult, on current tax, Medicare and superannuation settings, and passed to the budget automatically. Sam’s study loan repayment is not typed in — the app works it out from his income.
| Sam | Priya | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | $105,000 | $55,200 |
| Income tax | −$22,020 | −$6,908 |
| Medicare levy | −$2,100 | −$1,104 |
| Study loan repayment | −$5,321 | — |
| Take-home pay | $75,559 | $47,188 |
| Employer super, after 15% tax | $10,710 | $5,630 |
| The household lives on | $122,747 | |
Both of them owe a study loan. Only one repays.Priya works three days a week, so her $55,200 sits below the repayment threshold. Her $18,600 debt is not repaid at all — it simply indexes at 2.8% a year.
$160,200 of salary becomes $122,747 of spendable money, about 77 cents in the dollar. Most people have never seen that gap set out.
The balance sheet
What you own and what you owe, today. Super belongs to one person, never jointly, and a study loan sits last in its own category because it behaves unlike every other debt.
| What you own | Value |
|---|---|
| Family home — Melton South | $860,000 |
| Sam — super | $148,000 |
| Priya — super | $86,000 |
| 2019 SUV | $24,000 |
| 2015 hatchback | $9,000 |
| Everyday savings | $6,500 |
| Emergency fund | $2,800 |
| Total assets | $1,136,300 |
| What you owe | Balance |
|---|---|
| Mortgage — 5.9%, 22 years left | $520,000 |
| Car loan — 8.9%, 3 years left | $12,400 |
| Credit card — 20.99% | $4,200 |
| Study loan — Sam, indexed 2.8% | $34,200 |
| Study loan — Priya, indexed 2.8% | $18,600 |
| Total liabilities | $589,400 |
| Net worth | $546,900 |
Worth half a million, borrowing for the dentistAlmost all of it is a house they cannot spend and super they cannot touch for twenty-two years. The emergency fund holds $2,800 — about a fortnight of cover.
The budget, in envelopes
Thirty-three envelopes, each entered at the frequency the money actually leaves — groceries weekly, the mortgage monthly, rates quarterly, registration and insurances yearly. The app converts everything so the whole year appears in one place.
| Envelope | Amount | A year |
|---|---|---|
| Bills & commitments | ||
| Mortgage | $3,521 / mth | $42,252 |
| Before & after school care | $150 / wk | $7,800 |
| Private health insurance | $350 / mth | $4,200 |
| Car insurance, two cars | $2,280 / yr | $2,280 |
| School fees & levies | $2,400 / yr | $2,400 |
| Seventeen envelopes | $81,176 | |
| Everyday living | ||
| Groceries | $400 / wk | $20,800 |
| Petrol | $100 / wk | $5,200 |
| Vet & pet food | $1,450 / yr | $1,450 |
| Six envelopes | $31,030 | |
| Lifestyle & fun | ||
| Coffee, lunches & takeaway | $70 / wk | $3,640 |
| Holiday | $2,500 / yr | $2,500 |
| Dance classes — Mia | $48 / fnt | $1,248 |
| Eight envelopes | $11,866 | |
| Savings & goals | ||
| Emergency fund | $100 / fnt | $2,600 |
| Savings | $100 / fnt | $2,600 |
| Two envelopes | $5,200 | |
| All thirty-three, against take-home of $122,747 | $129,272 | |
You changed: before & after school care, $150 to $100 a weekThat saves $2,600 a year and takes the shortfall from $6,525 to $3,925 — about 40% of the problem, from one arrangement that began when Mia was seven and has never been revisited.
$26,680 of the Kellys’ year arrives in lumps — registration, three insurances, the car service, school fees, camps, the dentist, Christmas, the holiday. A fifth of everything they earn, and none of it lands in the fortnight anyone is looking at.
The forecast
Twenty years, in today’s dollars or future dollars, with every loan amortised properly. The assumptions behind it are yours to set and sit on their own tab.
Net worth, 2026 to 2046 · today’s dollars
| In twenty years | |
|---|---|
| Superannuation between them | $1,007,223 |
| Debts still owing | $69,599 |
| Net worth, today’s dollars | $2,208,374 |
You changed: mortgage repayment, $3,521 to $3,821 a monthThe mortgage clears in 2045 instead of running past the horizon, debts at twenty years fall from $69,599 to $19,720, and net worth lands $49,879 higher. But the shortfall doubles, from $6,525 to $10,125 — so this is paid for by borrowing at 20.99% to save 5.9%.
That sentence is the part most tools leave out. Every piece of advice a household receives is true in isolation and silent about the rest of the picture; the forecast is the only place they can see what a good idea does to everything else.
Kids’ corner
One tab per child, and nothing in it touches the household’s budget or balance sheet — deliberately, so a child can be shown their own screen without the family’s figures being on it.
Mia · 11
| Saving for | Progress |
|---|---|
| Phone, her first one | $63 of $280 |
| Concert tickets, after that | $95 |
| Chores, each week | Worth |
|---|---|
| Make the bed | $1.00 |
| Unstack the dishwasher | $2.00 |
| Feed Bruno | $1.50 |
| Tidy your room | $2.00 |
| Help with the washing | $2.00 |
| Walk Bruno | $2.50 |
| Every chore done | $11.00 |
The phone is 40 paydays awayMia puts $5.50 a payday into the Save jar. Tick one more chore and watch that number drop — nothing an adult says about effort lands the way that does.
The family meeting
An agenda built from your own figures, and somewhere to write down what you decided and why. It is made to be printed, because the conversation goes better away from a screen.
Agenda · July 2026
| 1. The year is short by $6,525. Where is it going? | 10 min |
| 2. The card is $4,200 at 20.99%; savings are $6,500 at 3% | 10 min |
| 3. After-school care — three days still needed? | 5 min |
| 4. Neither of us has a will | 5 min |
| 5. Mia’s phone, $217 to go | 5 min |
What we decided
| Care to two days from term 3 | Priya · this week |
| Pay the card from savings, keep the emergency fund | Sam · Friday |
| Freeze the card once it is clear | Both · Friday |
| Book an appointment about the wills | Sam · August |
The Kellys are fictional — a teaching case study, not a real household. Every figure above was produced by running the case in the app on 2026–27 Australian tax, superannuation and Age Pension settings. Sessions work through two complete case studies first, so nobody has to practise on their own money.