Keep Above
Buy it now or later
One thing, two timings. Buying now on finance adds the loan's interest to today's price. Buying later means putting an amount aside each month while the price drifts, and paying whatever it has become when the money covers it. Both totals land side by side — one way has the thing today, the other costs what it costs then — and no winner is declared.
Paid at the start
Enter a price to size the loan.
Counted flat — no interest or returns added
A general-index figure, yours to change
Put in what it costs today. Nothing here is read from your accounts, and nothing is saved.
| Now | Later | |
|---|---|---|
| Price today | — | — |
| Interest / price drift | — | — |
| All-up | — | — |
| When you'd have it | — | — |
This is one of the tools built into Keep Above
Keep Above is a budgeting app where you enter your bills and income and it works out the balance you need to keep — so you can see what's safe to spend. No bank connection, no ads on your data.
About this calculator
How is each way counted?
Buying now totals the price plus the interest a loan at your rate and term would add, run over its full term. Buying later walks month by month: the set-aside accumulates flat while the price drifts by the yearly change you set, and the total is the price at the first month the money covers it — capped at ten years, past which the page says it isn't reached rather than pretending.
Why is nothing earned on the money set aside?
What it would earn depends on where it sits, and suggesting where money should sit is exactly what this page refuses to do. It is counted flat, the omission is stated in the assumptions, and no market figure is ever offered for it.
What does the timing line mean?
The two ways don't hand over the thing at the same time — one way has it today, the other at the month the money covers the price. That fact is stated once, as a fact; what it is worth to you is not something arithmetic can weigh.