So we built the tool we always wanted: MoneyOnFIRE.
MOF calculates a personalized, tax-aware roadmap to financial independence—across account types, life goals, and withdrawal strategies. It shows you not just if you can achieve financial indepdendence, but how, when, and what to tweak to get there faster.
We’re still early and improving fast—would love your feedback!
One of the features we have built to make planning more accurate is code up taxes (state, federa, account contribution limits, tax deductibility limits, taxes on withdrawals etc, etc, etc). We think this differentiates us from other simpler calculators that do a simple calculation of assets + savings * years. However, this does mean it is tailored to the US.
We have had few requests for UK and Canada. While there are differences the broad principles are the same. What country would you be interested in?
I kid ...
On a serious note - we have had two somewhat relevant requests 1) if I retire in a different state in the US and 2) if I retire in a different country
#1 is easy for us to add. Unsurprisingly, it makes a materials difference. Particularly comparing CA to a 0 tax state like WA and the retirement income is high and this is amplified if the assets were accumulated in taxable accounts.
What of those interested in retiring to a cruise | floating accomadation ship?
That's a serious question for some, I saw a thing the other night and caught an elderly well off couple saying they looked at many options and shipboard life was cheaper and more interesting (personal opinion) than other assisted living retirement options.
Raises the question of a digital life on international waters > 9 months of the year.
Wondering if we need to add 'International Waters' to the retirement location dropdown.......!
This needs reasonably predictable markets and the economy to work ... both of which are currently lacking. The market yield and the inflation rate are now just two big blurs and the average answer will be "your FIRE is achievable within 7 to 177 years depending on random things that may or may not happen next".
That said, we still believe it’s useful to focus on what is in your control: contributing to the right accounts in the right order, investing wisely, and minimizing fees. Those fundamentals work in any market, and over time, the ups and downs tend to average out.
Anecdotally, we have found we have two personas: 1) Those early in their financial independence journey. They want to know what to do next to accumulate wealth 2) Those towards the end have saved and accumulated. Their questions are 'do I have enough'
The second persona are running more plans more frequently because the market volatility (and job market volatility) has made them want to check and check again if they have enough.
Markets being more chaotic and unpredictable is just reversion to the mean.
So it doesn't really matter when to release this tool. Might as well do it now.
I created a plan to check it out. I couldn't find a few items.
1. Rental properties in the Assets
2. How to report the whole life insurance plans?
3. A scenario to invest in index funds.
Overall, a great start. Will bookmark this and check back later.
1. Rental properties are coming in the next version. We want to get them right — especially the tax treatment and edge cases. Many people have rentals with slight negative cash flow each month, which they cover with income in hopes of long-term appreciation or principal paydown. Unlike primary residences, rental properties do count as income-producing assets toward financial independence, and we’re building that logic in.
2. We considered whole life insurance, but so far we’ve had very few requests for it. (We’ve actually had more interest in defined benefit pensions — though those are increasingly rare.)
3. We're also working on making investment recommendations clearer — this will be part of the next release. We actually do a lot in the back end we need to show.
And for your amusement — as hinted at in the post — our origin story also started with spreadsheets. When we (the two co-founders) met, we compared our personal finance spreadsheets, debated them over beers, and eventually merged the best of both. We thought our first product would be the ultimate “uber-sheet.” But once we added everything, the spreadsheet ballooned to hundreds of columns and took over 40 seconds to run... and testing it became a nightmare. That’s when we knew it was time to turn it into code. And that's how MoneyOnFIRE (MOF) was born.
There is a huge potential to make it easily accessible first and then bring in the FAs next.
Good luck.
Our initial focus is on the general population because we see a big opportunity to democratize basic financial planning. We’re passionate about this—and honestly, a bit dismayed—by how many people unintentionally add years to their working lives simply by not taking the most effective, “core” actions.
One thing we’ve been debating is whether a single tool can effectively serve both financial advisors and the general public. Advisor tools tend to be incredibly customizable. However, the feedback has been that it often makes them 'overwhelming' and hard to learn for the general population. Our goal has been to keep things simple and somewhat linear, so people can actually use the insights to take action.
We’ve also noticed that most traditional tools are geared toward “classic” retirement planning—working until a set age (often 65) and then figuring out how to live off whatever you’ve accumulated. Financial independence flips that on its head. You start by defining the lifestyle and expenses you want in retirement, then work backward to figure out how much you need to reach that goal—and how soon you can get there.
Software like this must be an application I run locally with zero internet connectivity.
Its something we have considered. At this stage you can use a temp email and we don't link to bank accounts.
For the hacker news crowd - I am sure they would be comfortable downloading and running containers etc. In theory we could have an offline mode (though we do use some market data that updates semi frequently so we would have to release a new binary periodically)
For the general population that becomes less of an option. We have also seen an increasing comfort in people sharing select financial information (and APIs to more safely share and constrain banking information). We also think we have some neat ways to provide a lot more value without needing to sync as much information as others but thats for 2-3 versions down the line.
We will add a 'new to FIRE' start here.
We do have this blog post which attempts to make it super simple. https://www.moneyonfire.com/article_page/1735791033509x16595...
choppaface•9mo ago
cyberax•9mo ago
Why the heck would I pay it off?
LambdaAndLatte•9mo ago
LambdaAndLatte•9mo ago
To add some more color: - Yes - unsurprisingly - we have found our initial users have strong representation from San Fran/FANG engineers and NY with high incomes. However, they are under half. We have users from almost every state and more 'normal' incomes. We were thinking of creating a blog with some aggregate data if it is of interest?
- What we also find is that the majority of the steps (what we call the 'waterfall') are consistent for most people. There are some differences (when 401k and IRA absorb most of peoples savings income).
- On housing specifically, this is a very common question. For people pursuing financial independence their primary residence does not count towards income generating assets (slightly different story if they plan to downsize). For people with very low mortgage rates then the most optimal planning is not to pay the mortgage off but to accumulate enough to offset it.