About Cobalt Prosper
Cobalt Prosper is a free personal-finance reference covering taxes, retirement, student loans, insurance, credit, and starting a business. Every figure on the site is traced to a primary source: IRS forms and publications, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Education, state agencies, and Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The site is run by PerfSpot LLC, a small US software company, and edited by Brent Chudoba. It is not a lender, broker, or advisor, and it does not give advice.
What this site is
Money decisions confuse people for a structural reason: the official rules live in documents that are hard to read and, in practice, hard for search and AI tools to reach. This site maintains the same rules and numbers in plain tables and plain sentences, adds calculators that show where you stand and how the math works, and explains each decision in ordinary language. Everything is free. There are no accounts, no email walls, and no lead forms.
A note on Medicare
Medicare has its own income rules that deserve dedicated coverage, so we keep them on a sister site, Cobalt Medicare, also run by PerfSpot LLC and built the same way, with every figure traced to a primary source. It covers Medicare's income-related premium surcharge (IRMAA) and the rules around it. When you are planning retirement income, the two sites work together: Cobalt Prosper for taxes and retirement accounts, Cobalt Medicare for what that income means for your Medicare premiums.
Where do the numbers come from?
Every figure, threshold, rate, and date on this site traces to a primary source before it is published:
- IRS forms, instructions, and publications for tax rules, brackets, and account limits
- The Social Security Administration for retirement and benefit rules
- The US Department of Education for federal student loan repayment and forgiveness rules
- State agencies and departments of insurance for state-specific rules and rates
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the major credit bureaus for credit rules
- Bureau of Labor Statistics data where inflation adjustments or cost figures apply
Pages cite their sources in place. Projections are computed from published formulas, labeled as projections, and shown with their uncertainty rather than rounded into false confidence. Numbers we cannot verify against a primary source do not ship.
How often is the site updated?
On a calendar, not on inspiration. Figures are refreshed when the agency behind them publishes a change, and updated tables ship promptly after each annual release. Every page shows its last-updated date.
Corrections
If you find a number that looks wrong, tell us. A confirmed numeric error gets corrected quickly, and material corrections are noted on the affected page. In subjects where one number can change what a household pays by thousands, we would rather fix an error fast than defend it.
Who runs it
Cobalt Prosper is a product of PerfSpot LLC, which builds and operates small software products and web references. The site is edited by Brent Chudoba. Founder of PerfSpot LLC, the company that operates this site. Maintains this personal-finance reference; every figure is traced to a primary source (IRS, SSA, CMS, the Department of Education, state agencies, and BLS), and projections are labeled as projections. You can find Brent Chudoba on LinkedIn.
Independence and limits
Nothing here is financial, tax, legal, or insurance advice, and we are not a lender, broker, or advisor. The site explains rules and computes published figures; decisions about your own money belong with you and, where it matters, a qualified professional. The site is supported by advertising, and advertisers have no influence over content. See the privacy policy and terms.