thedividendengine.com Tools We Actually Use Vetted · Real · Most Are Free
The Dividend Engine · Resource Library

Tools We Actually Use

Every tool on this page is something we use or have used personally. No sponsored placements. No tools we don't believe in.

Resource Library

The Income Engine Toolkit

These are the platforms, tools, and services that support a real retirement income system. Most are free. Some have paid tiers worth considering. All have been evaluated for your specific situation as an income-focused investor.

Net Worth & Portfolio Tracking

Know Your Numbers

Free
🏦
TreasuryDirect
Buy T-Bills Direct From the US Treasury

The official U.S. government platform for purchasing Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds. Zero fees, zero spread — you get the full auction rate. The only place to buy T-Bills with auto-reinvestment that runs completely on autopilot.

Why We Use It Our emergency reserve ladder lives here. Set auto-reinvestment once and the ladder rolls itself forward every four weeks at whatever the current rate is.
Open at TreasuryDirect.gov →
Free
⚙️
Dividend Engine Ladder Builder
Live Fed Rates · Income Projections · Payment Calendar

Our own free tool. Enter your capital, choose your maturities, and see your exact annual income, blended yield, and payment calendar — with rates pulled live from the Federal Reserve. T-Bill ladder and Treasury barbell modes included.

Why We Built It No existing tool showed real-time Fed rates alongside a customizable ladder builder with state tax calculations. So we built one.
Open the Ladder Builder →
Free
📐
Debit Spread Strike Solver
Directional Thesis Trades · Reward-to-Risk Ratios

For directional ETF thesis trades on SPY, QQQ, and similar. Set your target price and desired reward-to-risk ratio, get ballpark long and short strikes, then check a real quoted spread against it before you place the trade.

Why We Built It Finding the strike combination that hits a clean 5:1 ratio by hand means running the same width-versus-debit math over and over. This does it live.
Open the Strike Solver →
Free
🧮
Cash-Secured Put Calculator
Return on Capital · Annualized Yield · Breakeven

Enter the strike, premium, and days to expiration your broker quotes. See capital required, breakeven, downside cushion, and what the trade annualizes to before you sell the put.

Why We Built It Annualized return is the number that actually lets you compare a CSP against every other income strategy in the engine. Most broker tickets don't show it.
Open the CSP Calculator →
Research & Education

Stay Informed

Free
📊
FRED — Federal Reserve Data
Live Treasury Rates · Economic Data · Rate History

The Federal Reserve's free economic database. Every Treasury yield, every CPI reading, every Fed funds rate — all available for free. Our Ladder Builder pulls rates directly from FRED. Bookmark the Treasury yield pages for quick reference.

Bookmark This fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DTB4WK for the current 4-week T-Bill rate. Updated daily after each auction.
Open FRED Free →
Free
📖
The Income Engine Bookshelf
Three Books Every Income Investor Should Read

Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Die With Zero by Bill Perkins. The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. Three books that cover the mindset, the philosophy, and the mechanics of building long-term wealth through passive income.

Start Here If you haven't read all three, start with Psychology of Money. It explains why most investors underperform their own portfolios.
View on Amazon →

Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up or purchase through our links we may earn a commission — at no additional cost to you. We only list tools we have personally evaluated and believe are genuinely useful for income investors. Affiliate relationships do not influence our recommendations. Tools marked with placeholder links (#) are pending affiliate approval and will be updated shortly.