About the Platform

See your money through the lens of where you live.

After years of talking with family and friends about the cost of living across Chicagoland, we decided to actually quantify it. We defined Chicagoland as roughly a 50‑mile radius around the city and built the Wealth Engine to audit it. The result is a tool that lets you run a detailed, personal financial audit and see your money through the lens of where you live. Today, the WE platform covers 3 states, 25 counties, 460+ ZIP codes, and over 500 municipalities.

The Tri‑State Arbitrage & Resolution Gate

Your ZIP code is part of your financial portfolio. We start by resolving your exact “tax geometry” (state + county + municipality), not just your state. That’s the Resolution Gate:

Illinois: flat income tax (4.95%) + high property taxes
Indiana: flat‑plus‑county model (3.15% + county add‑ons)
Wisconsin: 4‑tier progressive system

But it’s more than a 3‑state comparison. The WE app shows differences at the county level, and for some costs, we zoom down to the municipality level. This high‑resolution view reveals “border effects” and cost gaps that state‑level averages completely miss.

The Asset Firewall & Forensic Lab

The interactive workspace is your Forensic Lab. Most tools lump everything into “spending.” We separate money you burn from money you build.

Mortgage payments are split into principal (wealth) vs. interest and taxes (spending).
Savings (401k, HSA, 529, etc.) are shielded from your “burn rate”.

You adjust the 5 spending buckets and 1 savings bucket in real time. This makes your true consumption and true savings visible, category by category.

Buckets, Scores, and the Executive Dossier

We organize your money into:

5 spending buckets: Housing, Commute, Healthcare, Education & Childcare, Lifestyle & Debt.
1 savings bucket: Wealth Targets.

Each location gets simple Bronze/Silver/Gold badges based on relative cost (for example, a Gold Foundation badge for low property‑related costs).

Your Audit Report (and You Keep It)

Your audit doesn’t disappear when you close the browser. At the end of the process, you can download or email yourself a 4‑page PDF Executive Dossier. This summarizes your income, taxes, spending, savings, and location scores. It’s your independent “source of truth” to keep, review, or share—a clear snapshot of your financial position in a specific place.

Free vs. Pro

Free tier: The Wealth Engine has a robust free tier. You can run a full audit, see your exact buckets, and understand your baseline location scores using our trusted regional baselines without paying anything.
Pro version (paid): If you find the WE platform valuable and want deeper precision, you can upgrade to the Pro version for a nominal fee. Pro unlocks complete customization, allowing you to fine-tune the underlying local variables to match your exact, unique financial footprint rather than relying on regional averages.