Guides

The calculators give you a number in seconds. These guides slow down and show where the number comes from — the formula, the rules lenders and tax authorities actually apply, and a worked example you can check line by line. Every figure in a guide is computed with the same engines that power the calculators, so the two can never disagree.

Mortgages & buying a home

How Mortgage Amortization Works
The payment formula, front-loaded interest, and what an extra $200 a month buys — on a real $400,000 loan.
How Much House Can I Afford? The 28/36 Rule, Worked in Full
The lender's 28/36 rule run dollar by dollar on a $110,000 income, PMI and rate sensitivity included.
Stamp Duty Explained: Why the Same House Is Taxed Four Different Ways
Why the same home is taxed four different ways — England, Scotland, Ontario, Toronto, NSW and India compared.

Pay & taxes

How to Read Your Paycheck: From Gross Pay to Take-Home
Gross to net, line by line: brackets, FICA and the state layer, on a full $85,000 stub for Texas and California.
How to Use the Freelancer Tax Estimator
From your first 1099 to your first quarterly payment: every input in order, with the $60,000 example worked in full.
Freelancer Tax Estimator vs Competitors: Keeper, TurboTax, and a Free Calculator
Keeper, TurboTax Self-Employed and a free browser calculator, checked against the same six income levels — and where BeadCalc differs.
First-Year Freelancer Tax Mistakes, With Two Worked Examples
Two verified worked examples — $60,000 and $84,000 — and the three first-year errors: skipped quarters, gross as net, and the forgotten half of self-employment tax.
Freelancer Tax Calculation: Sources and the Full Formula
Every 2026 figure traced to its IRS or SSA source, the full formula chain in order, and the January review cycle that keeps it current.
Freelancer Tax Mistakes and Edge Cases
The $400, $1,000 and $2,000 lines kept apart, the 1099-K two-condition test, the S-corp question, and when to pay for a CPA.

Time off & holidays

How to Plan Your 2027 Time Off with BeadCalc Leave Optimizer
Every control in the Leave Optimizer, in order: country, leave days, weekend, strategy, company days, export.
You can get 12 days off if you plan your leave this way
Japan, 4 days of leave, one 12-day Golden Week break — plus the honest story of the 15 days that are not continuous.
BeadCalc Leave Optimizer vs Other Leave Planners: A Hands-On Comparison
Four leave planners on one Japan input: what BeadCalc measured, what the rivals claim, and where each one actually wins.
Where the 2027 Holiday Data Comes From and How the Optimizer Works
The 2027 data covers 10 countries and 118 days, verified in tiers rather than all at once — and the optimizer turns those days into bridge holidays with three different strategies.
7 Leave-Planning Mistakes the Optimizer Won't Fix for You
The optimizer does the date arithmetic perfectly — and still cannot know your company rules, your roster, or your school calendar. Seven traps to check before you submit.

Each guide is written to be quoted and checked: formulas are printed in the open, examples use round numbers you can reproduce on paper, and the tax and lending rules are the current published ones — the same sources the calculators cite. Where a rule of thumb is a convention rather than a law, the guide says so.

Guides are grouped the way people meet the problems: first the mortgage itself and what you can afford, then the tax bill that waits at completion, then the paycheck that has to carry all of it. A new group covers time off: how to plan annual leave around public holidays, with the 2027 holiday data and the optimizer's strategies explained.