My Runway and a spreadsheet: planning your money either way
Many people plan their money in a spreadsheet they built themselves. My Runway does the same job with Australia’s tax, super, property and pension rules already in it, kept up to date for you, and finds the year each goal is affordable. This page sets out what each asks of you and what each does.
What My Runway does for you that a spreadsheet leaves to you
- Updates every rate when it changes, from its official source
- Taxes each person on their own income, with offsets, levies and HELP
- Works out stamp duty, fees and mortgage insurance for the state you buy in
- Finds the first year each goal is affordable
- Applies the Age Pension’s income and assets tests every year
- Puts a what-if beside your plan on one chart (Plus)
Side by side
| What | My Runway | A spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|
| The rules | Tax, super, stamp duty, land tax, CGT, HELP and the Age Pension, from their official sources, dated and updated when they change | The rates and formulas you write, and update each July |
| Checking the sums | Tested against published examples and official calculators | Your own checks |
| When can we afford it? | Milestones find the first year a goal is affordable | Trying years until one works, or a formula you build |
| Buying property | Deposit, stamp duty, fees, mortgage insurance and the loan: estimated, or itemised from the published rates on Plus | Each cost a cell you fill in |
| A couple | Built in: each person taxed on their own income | However you lay it out |
| What if? | What-if mode: a change beside the plan, on one chart (Plus) | A copy of the sheet |
| Sharing | With up to ten people, to edit or to view, or a read-only public link | Sending the file, or sharing it |
| Where your data is kept | In Australia (Sydney), in your account | In your file, wherever you keep it |
| Getting the figures out | On Plus: every year’s figures as a CSV, and the chart and tables as a PDF | They are already there |
| Price | Free, or Plus at A$149 a year, GST included | The software you already use |
What My Runway gives you
Who each is built for
My Runway
- Someone who wants the answer without building or maintaining the formulas.
- A couple who want both people’s tax and super worked out together.
- Anyone who would rather not update the rates each July.
A spreadsheet
- Someone who wants any rule or layout they can build, in a file that works offline.
A spreadsheet can hold a rule My Runway doesn’t model, lay figures out any way you like, and work without an internet connection. My Runway’s export gives every year’s figures as a CSV to open in one (Plus).
Checked against the official sources and calculators
Every rate My Runway applies comes from the body that sets it (the ATO, Services Australia or a state revenue office) and is stored with its source and the day it was checked. The app reproduces their published worked examples to the cent, and is compared with the official calculators across ranges of incomes, prices and balances. How we check our figures.
General information only, not financial advice, and not a recommendation of either. My Runway is a calculator: it applies the rules to the figures you give it.
Find your runway.
Ten minutes with your figures, and you’ll know.
Free to start. No card needed.