A useful starting point, not a final answer.
The Real Number, operated by Christopher Travis, provides general planning tools, not financial, tax, mortgage, legal or benefits advice. Use the results to start a conversation — not as the only reason to make a decision.
Check the details that matter
Before you act, check your actual payslip, nursery quote, mortgage illustration, property costs and official government information. Tax, National Insurance, benefits, childcare support, mortgage rates and lender criteria can change and vary by household.
Limits of the tools
- The Work Week does not decide your childcare funding entitlement or replace an official benefits check.
- The Home Plan does not tell you what a lender will offer or approve.
- The Life Sheet only includes the costs you choose to add.
- The Job Move compares the figures entered for two roles. It does not recommend that you accept, reject, leave or stay in a job.
- Any result can only be as accurate as the figures and assumptions used.
Making a job decision
A job decision is about more than monthly pay. The Job Move cannot account for job security, promotion prospects, working conditions, contractual terms, notice periods, bonus discretion, pension scheme rules, career opportunities or your personal priorities. Check the written offer and relevant terms with the employer, and take appropriate professional advice where you need it.
No guarantee of an outcome
We work to make the tools useful and keep the assumptions under review, but we do not guarantee that any result is complete, accurate for your circumstances or suitable for a particular decision. You remain responsible for decisions you make and for checking the details that matter before acting on a result.
Our responsibility
To the extent the law allows, The Real Number is not responsible for losses arising from reliance on a calculator result or from a decision made using the site. Nothing here excludes or limits responsibility where the law says it cannot be excluded or limited.
Feedback
If you send feedback, please do not include salary figures, bank details, account numbers, names, addresses, confidential information or anything you would not want us to see. We receive the rating, any comment you choose to add, the page and date submitted — not your calculator figures or email address. If you choose to include personal or financial information in a feedback comment, we will treat it as feedback and delete the entry within 90 days. We may use feedback in anonymous or summarised form to improve the site. Sending feedback does not create a support relationship and we do not promise an individual response.
Using the site
Please use the tools lawfully and do not rely on them where you need regulated advice. If you need debt help, mortgage advice or investment advice, use an appropriate regulated adviser or a trusted free service such as MoneyHelper.
Changes
We may update the tools, assumptions and this information as the site develops. The version on the site is the current version.