If this is all new to you
4Start here
Twenty-seven calculators, and you need three of them. Two questions and we'll tell you which three.
The numbers you'll need
Six figures unlock the whole site. Where to find each one — and what to use if you genuinely don't know.
How to read the results
What a success rate really means, why real and nominal aren't comparable, and what these models leave out.
The words, in plain English
Every term the site uses, defined without using more jargon to do it. Sequence risk, drawdown, guardrails and the rest.
Guided journeys — a sequence, not a search
4Should I clear the mortgage?
The question with no one-line answer, worked through across eight calculators in the order the argument runs.
Five years out
Six moves, in order, for the window that carries more weight than any other. Plus what to do if you only have twelve months.
The first two years
Buffer, withdrawal rule, allocation — and exactly what to do if year one turns out to be a bad one.
What actually goes wrong
The five ways retirements fail, the early warning sign for each, and the calculator that puts a number on it.
Where you live, and how this site was built
6Using this in the US
Social Security, 401(k)s, IRAs, Roth and RMDs — plus the healthcare gap the site can't model.
Using this in the UK
State Pension, DC pots and ISAs — and the two 2028 date changes worth knowing about.
Using this in Australia
Super, preservation age and the Age Pension — and why the means test can reverse an answer.
Using this in Canada
CPP, OAS, RRSPs and TFSAs — and where RRIF minimums meet the OAS clawback.
How the maths works
The projection loop line by line, where the simulated market years come from, and what's left out.
About this site
Who makes it, why it's free, what's sold here (nothing), and what happens to what you type.
Or dive straight in — start with these three
Will your money outlive you?
The big one. Your odds of running short, and the withdrawal rate that fits your own longevity rather than a generic rule.
How much cash should you keep?
The most useful ten minutes here. Enough in reserve that a bad market never forces you to sell at the worst moment.
Why timing beats average returns
The one that changes how people think. Identical returns, different order, completely different outcome.
Getting the income right
4Flexible withdrawal strategy
The 4% rule against a percentage-of-balance rule and dynamic guardrails. Success rates, income variability and what flexibility is worth.
Spending ramp
Go-go, slow-go, no-go. Retirement spending isn't a flat line — model the real shape and find the budget that works.
Income stability
Dividends, bonds and REITs added up. What it pays monthly, how dependable it is, and whether it survives a recession.
Pension deferral optimizer
Claim early or wait? Break-even age, lifetime value, and what funding the bridge years does to your portfolio.
Risk you can actually afford
4Sequence-of-returns risk
The same returns in a different order. Identical average, wildly different outcome — and why the years either side of retiring matter most.
Risk capacity
The largest fall your plan can absorb, against what you're actually exposed to. Stress-tested on three real bear markets.
Catastrophic loss avoidance
How much cash you need so a bear market never forces you to sell shares at the bottom — and what it costs if you're short.
Asset allocation after 60
A stocks, bonds and cash mix built from your age, longevity, income needs and temperament, then stress-tested.
The long game
3Will your money outlive you?
A survival curve and a portfolio simulation side by side. Your chance of running short, your safe withdrawal rate, and the buffer it needs.
Inflation erosion
What your money will actually buy in 25 years, and the return you need just to stand still.
Long-term care costs
The biggest single financial risk in later life. Probability-weighted cost, insure-or-self-fund, and how fast the money goes.
What you actually own
3Bond duration risk
Why long bonds aren't the safe part of your portfolio, what a rate rise does to them, and how a ladder removes the problem.
REIT income and volatility
Good income, uncomfortable ride. Sector-by-sector yield against volatility, rate sensitivity, and a concentration check.
Portfolio complexity score
Can you explain what you own in two sentences? Score the clutter, find what the layers cost, and get a plan to simplify.
People, paperwork and behaviour
4Market timing risk
What missing the ten best days costs, what panic selling costs, and the odds of getting the timing right twice.
Retirement anxiety score
The habits that built the savings can make retirement miserable. Score the structural causes and see what reduces them.
Helping the kids
The largest gift your plan absorbs, what it costs you in years of security, and how to keep it fair between children.
Estate planning readiness
Most people have a will and assume it's done. Score the whole checklist and see where the real risk sits.
The house and the mortgage
9Eight calculators, because the honest answer needs interest rates, inflation, liquidity, sequence risk and estate consequences all at once. The guided walk-through takes them in the order the argument actually runs.
Lump sum to cut repayments
How much you'd need to pay off to get the repayment down to a given figure.
Pay off, or invest?
4% on one side, 7% on the other. Net worth under both paths, the break-even return, and how often investing wins.
Real cost of debt
A 3% mortgage against 5% inflation is a negative real rate. See the annual inflation subsidy you're getting.
Liquidity risk
Debt-free but cash-poor isn't freedom. Check whether clearing the mortgage leaves you unable to reach your own money.
Payoff meets a crash
You clear the loan, then the market falls 35% six months later. Which version of your plan survives?
Opportunity cost
Every competing use of the same lump sum: the mortgage, the market, cash, a gift, or spending it while you can.
Debt sustainability
Debt-to-income was built for people still earning. Score your debt against assets, income and liquidity instead.
Reverse mortgage suitability
How much you could release, what it does to your cash flow, and the honest price your estate pays.
Selling a home on acreage
Australia caps the main residence exemption at 2 hectares. See how much of your land falls outside it, and what a valuation could be worth.
What you'll need to hand
Most calculators want the same handful of numbers, so it's worth gathering them once: roughly what you have invested, roughly what you spend in a year, and how much income you receive that arrives regardless of markets — a pension, an annuity, a state pension. Approximate figures are fine. These tools are for comparing options, not for filing anything.
The numbers you'll need goes through each one properly — what counts and what doesn't, three ways to work out your annual spending if you've never tracked it, and what to use as a placeholder if you don't know. There's a printable worksheet at the bottom.
Choosing your country
There is a page for each country the picker supports, translating the site's deliberately generic language into your own system: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada. Each one is also blunt about what the site does not model where you live.
The picker in the top bar sets the currency and loads sensible starting figures for your part of the world — pension ages and deferral rates, care costs and thresholds, typical tax rates. The maths itself never changes; only the defaults do, and every one of them stays editable. Where a calculator works differently in your country, a short note appears explaining how.
Some of those figures are firm — pension deferral rates are set in law and are verified. Others, particularly care costs, vary so much by region that they can only ever be a starting point. Replace them with local numbers whenever you have them.
Every tax-sensitive default is listed in the tax assumptions audit, with what the law actually says, a link to the primary source, the date it was checked, and an honest note on where the model is simplified and which way that pushes the answer. If a number here looks wrong to you, that document is the place to check it.
What these are, and aren't
These are thinking tools, not advice. There is no tax logic or means-testing logic built into the calculations themselves — those differ everywhere and change often, so the country presets set starting values rather than trying to model any country's rules.
The honest limitation of any calculator like this: change an assumption and you change the answer. That's a feature rather than a flaw. The value isn't in any single number — it's in seeing which levers actually move things, so you know what to focus on and what to stop worrying about.
How to read the results covers that properly, along with what a success rate does and doesn't mean, why real and nominal figures can't be compared, and the specific things these models leave out. It's ten minutes and it's worth reading before you enter any numbers. If a word anywhere on the site stops you, the plain-English list defines all of them.