FAQ #
Does FI Calc provide financial advice? #
No. We encourage you to speak to a licensed financial professional before making any financial decisions.
Where can I donate? #
FI Calc is provided for free.
The costs associated with running FI Calc, and the time spent maintaining and updating the app as well as responding to emails are supported by donations. You can donate here.
How do I factor in taxes? #
FI Calc does not automatically account for taxes. For this reason you must include the money to pay your taxes in your withdrawal amount.
To give a simple example, if you know that you need $40,000 per year to live off of, and you estimate that your tax bill will be $5,000 per year, then you should aim to withdraw $45,000 per year to cover both your expenses and taxes.
If you would like to model a scenario where your taxes change over the course of your retirement, you can use Income and Extra Withdrawals to decrease or increase your tax bill over time.
I do not live in the United States. Can I use FI Calc? #
Perhaps. There are a couple of things to consider if you live outside of the US:
- The historical data for equities and bonds are based on US assets. Do you have access to these assets, or similar US-based assets?
- Inflation in this calculator based on the Consumer Price Index, which is determined by the price of consumer goods in the US. It may not reflect historical inflation in your country.
- The historical values of the assets in this calculator are in USD. To convert these values to another currency would require knowing the exchange rate. Would it be appropriate to use the historical exchange rate, or something else?
Will you be adding new data? #
Yes, if the data is not currently up to date it should be updated soon. Data for each year will typically be added in the second half of the following year.
As an example, data for the year 2050 could be expected to be added some time around or after June 2051.
Are the dollars shown in the results page real or nominal? #
The results page shows real dollars. You can download the data as a CSV to see nominal dollars.
How can I enter real estate into FI Calc? #
You can use the Income feature of FI Calc to support real estate.
If you have a rental property, you can specify the annual cashflow as recurring income for as long as you intend to own the home.
If you intend to sell the property, then you can add your earnings from the sell as income in the year that you sell.
If there are more features you need to help manage your real estate investments, please let me know.
FI Calc is showing a 100% success rate for my retirement plan. Does that mean that I'll never run out of money? #
No, it's an unfortunate fact that there is always the possibility that you will run out of money during retirement. A 100% success rate in FI Calc only means that the portfolio didn't run out of money in any of the simulations that it ran using past data, but we cannot know what the future holds.
The goal of retirement planning isn't to obtain absolute certainty that the plan won't fail, as we cannot ever achieve that. Instead, it's about building the confidence that your plan can weather all kinds of different economic conditions. A 100% success rate in FI Calc could be perceived as a strong indicator that your plan is sufficient, but here are just a few things to consider:
- What is the smallest withdrawal made in the calculation? Is that a realistic minimum withdrawal for you? What if you needed to live off of that amount next year? Could you do it? If not, consider increasing the minimum withdrawal in the Configuration. Does that change your success rate?
- Are all of your expenses accounted for? Healthcare, for example?
- Is your retirement length set at the default 30 years, or is it longer? The 30 year retirement was originally used for individuals who were retiring at around 60 (optimistically assuming a 90 year life span). Maybe it would make sense to add a few extra years to see how the success rate changes, if at all.
- Do other retirement calculators return similar results?
- Have you run more advanced calculations, factoring in details such as RMDs and taxes (which are not a part of the FI Calc calculation)?
These are just a couple of questions you might want to ask yourself when running retirement calculations to make sure that you're being as accurate as possible.
And, please remember that FI Calc does not provide financial advice, and that you should always consult with a licensed financial professional before making financial decisions.
Other calculators return different results for the same inputs. Why is that? #
This is to be expected as different calculators use different data sources and different calculations with that data. We recommend using multiple calculators to get a range of results.
FI Calc's data is documented here and the algorithm is documented here.
How do you pronounce "FI Calc"? #
Eff eye calc.
About the Creator #
Who created FI Calc? #
My name is James. It's nice to meet you!
Are you retired? #
Not yet.
Do you have a favorite withdrawal strategy? #
I like Vanguard Dynamic Spending.
What are your favorite early retirement blogs and resources? #
I was introduced to FIRE through Mr. Money Mustache. These days I mostly listen to Paula Pant's podcast.
General Questions #
What's the business model of FI Calc? #
FI Calc is supported by donations. If you look around you might also find a single ad hidden in the guides.
Do you plan to monetize FI Calc? #
My goal is to always provide FI Calc for free.
When was FI Calc created? #
I started the project in 2018, although I didn't work on it much until 2020.