I've been in insurance long enough to know that most people are making major financial decisions with bad math.
Not because they're bad at math. Because the tools available to them don't explain anything. You enter numbers, you get an answer, and you're supposed to trust it. For decisions like whether to go 1099 vs W-2, how to set a contractor rate, or whether a rental property actually pencils out — "trust the black box" isn't good enough.
That's the problem I kept running into with clients and colleagues in the contracting world. Smart people. Experienced people. Systematically underpricing their work because the math was opaque.
Why I Built This
The first calculator I built was a freelance rate tool. Nothing fancy — just something that would take your income target, your overhead, your vacation days, your benefits costs, and produce a number. With the steps shown.
That last part changed how people used it. When you can see that your target $80/hr rate requires $200K in annual billings, and you can see exactly how that breaks down by utilization rate and overhead, you don't just accept the answer — you engage with it. You change inputs. You understand trade-offs. You own the decision.
A few colleagues started using it. Then their colleagues. Then I built a W-2 vs 1099 comparison tool because that was the next question everyone asked. Then quarterly taxes. Then mortgage. Then retirement. Then fifty more because once you have the engine and the "show the math" philosophy, each new tool is mostly a math problem to solve and a UI to build.
Where We Are
Fifty-plus calculators now live at mitchreise.com. Every single one shows its work — formula, variable substitution, and result — in a collapsible "Show the Math" panel that's become the signature of the platform.
None of this is AI-generated answers that you take on faith. It's deterministic math, explained, so you can verify it yourself. For most people, this is the first time they've seen a calculator they could actually audit.
The platform is fully free. No account required. No data collected. No ads. I wanted to remove every possible reason not to use it. The calculator should be the thing you reach for first, not a tool you have to justify logging into.
What's Coming
There are two other things in motion that I want to be honest about, since this is supposed to be building in public:
ProJobCalc (projobcalc.com) is a paid SaaS product for insurance restoration contractors — think water damage, fire, mold remediation. It handles estimating, proposal generation, and client delivery. It's live at $19/month Pro. The revenue from that is what funds the free tools hub.
The Reise TV concept — there's an experimental "earn credits by engaging with content" feature on the platform. It's gamification, honestly, but built around the idea that the more you use the tools and understand your finances, the more points you accumulate. It's early and weird and might not survive, but I like the idea of rewarding financial engagement.
Longer term: smarter calculators that connect to each other, better mobile experience, and eventually some AI-assisted "what should I calculate next" type features. Not vaporware — the foundation for all of that is already built.
Why Public
I'm writing this because I think the "building in public" thing has real value when it's honest. Not "look at my metrics go up" content, but genuine reporting on what's working, what isn't, and why decisions got made.
The financial tools space is full of products that are designed to keep you confused so you stay dependent. I built this to do the opposite. Writing about it publicly feels like the natural extension of that philosophy.
More next week.
— Mitch