Latest Updates for myFSpal

Today marks a fresh makeover for myFSpal. We spent the past month going through every tool, one at a time, and fixing what bugged us. Your feedback has been incredibly helpful. To the many of you who have written us, we've responded to all of your inquires and taken in your feedback. Some of you have presented us interesting challenges we're still trying to crack - so we hope you come back often.

The short version

• Eight of the tools were restyled to share one look, with the Salary Calculator as the model, so you don't have to relearn the screen each time.
• The tools work better on a phone. Tool pages that used to scroll sideways no longer do.
• The Salary Calculator now covers U.S. locations as well as overseas posts.
• Most tools show when their numbers were last refreshed.
• Each tool has a short "About this tool" section under it. It says what you enter, what you get, where the numbers come from, and what the tool leaves out.
• There's a new Resources page and a plain Privacy Policy.

One look for every tool

The tools started life at different times, and it showed. Some had bright colors, some had small buttons, and no two used the same fonts. Eight of them now share the site's calm colors, the same type, and the same layout rules, borrowed from the Salary Calculator. If you can use one, you can find your way around the others.

Buttons and checkboxes are bigger, which helps on a phone. Text that was too small to read comfortably is larger. Where a table was wider than a phone screen, it now scrolls inside itself instead of pulling the whole page sideways.

The Salary Calculator now includes the U.S.

You can compare overseas posts with Washington, D.C. and with other U.S. locations in one place. Pick a common duty station from a short list, or choose a state and county for anywhere else. The tool looks up the locality pay for that area and shows the result next to your overseas options.

We also kept the way the calculator figures LEAP exactly as it was. It uses the 2026 pay tables today. We'll add the 2027 tables when the Office of Personnel Management posts them, which usually happens around the start of the year.

Fresher numbers, and a date you can see

Most of the tools read their numbers from the same tables, such as allowances, per diem, and travel advisories. Each refresh of those tables is stamped with a date. The tools that depend on them show a "Most recent update" line, so you can tell at a glance how current they are.

While writing the new explanations below, we caught one page that said you could export your estimate to a spreadsheet. The tool can't do that, so we took the claim off the page.

A short explanation under each tool

Every page now ends with a section that answers the questions people kept asking us. It covers what you need to enter, what you get back, where the numbers come from, and what the tool doesn't cover. A few common questions sit at the bottom, collapsed until you want them.

Smaller fixes, tool by tool

• Per Diem and Comp Time: the tab row fits on a phone, and every input has a proper label for screen readers.
• Transfer Allowance: the pets table scrolls inside itself, and the choices now look like things you can click.
• PCS Planner: we removed a stray character from the Guided Setup button, and the PDF export button no longer looks like a warning.
• New Parent Planner: the page finally has a title, and the buttons are easier to tap.
• Education Allowance: the long explanation starts folded, so the tool is the first thing you see.
• Post Visualizer: the map colors are easier to tell apart if you have color blindness, and the legend takes less room on a phone.
• myStuff: you can filter, sort, and switch views, the weight totals sit near the top, and saved lists are better protected.

What you won't see, but might feel

We installed the latest security updates on our database and added a weekly backup of saved myStuff inventories. We also added a short Privacy Policy that says in plain words what we keep and why. For a little CYA, the footer on every page now reminds you that this site is an unofficial, personal project.

The site has also moved to a new host. The address is the same, and nothing you've saved has changed.

What's next

We're still in the kitchen planning a way to compare the posts you're bidding on side by side, with room for your family to add their own pros and cons. We're excited for you to see it, hopefully before this bidding season is over. We'll continue working to make sure we're providing you the most accurate data as quickly as it's released. We're also regularly examining the toolsets and how they look on mobile.

This is a personal blog, not an official State Department site. Check the official source before you rely on anything here. Every figure in the tools is an estimate, and each tool now says so.

If something looks wrong, or a tool could do something that would save you an hour, write to us at myforeignservicepal@gmail.com. We read and respond everything, even e-mails just saying thank you.