Plan Your Path to Financial Independence

Financial independence means having enough invested that your portfolio's returns cover your living expenses—indefinitely. Getting there requires a clear target, disciplined savings, and a realistic picture of your future spending. Our Goals feature brings all three together in one interactive page that updates in real time as you plan.

What Is a Financial Independence Number?

Your Financial Independence (FI) Number—often called your FIRE number—is the total invested capital required to cover your annual living expenses indefinitely without needing to work. The math is straightforward:

Annual Future Expenses ÷ Safe Withdrawal Rate = FI Number (FIN)

With a 4% safe withdrawal rate, someone expecting to spend $40,000 per year in retirement needs $1,000,000 invested. That 4% rule comes from the Trinity Study and Bengen's research: historically, withdrawing 4% of a balanced portfolio annually had a high probability of lasting 30+ years. The Goals feature can calculate your FIN automatically from your FI budget, or you can set a manual target.

Knowing your number turns a vague dream into a concrete target. Instead of "I want to retire someday," you get "I need $1.2M by 60." That clarity reduces anxiety and makes it possible to plan: how much to save each month, how many years it will take, and whether you're on track.

Why Your Future Budget Matters More Than Your Salary

Your FI Number is driven entirely by expenses, not income. Two people earning the same salary can have wildly different FINs depending on how much they plan to spend in retirement. That's why building a future budget is one of the most valuable steps you can take.

A future budget forces you to think through which costs disappear (mortgage paid off, no more commute or childcare), which shrink (food, clothing, work-related spending), and which may grow (healthcare, travel). Many people find they can live on 70–80% of their pre-retirement spending—but the only way to know is to line up your categories and decide, line by line.

The Goals feature's FI Budget does exactly that. You see a Now column (current spending by category) and a Future column (projected retirement spending). A Future Budget Multiplier gives you a starting point—e.g., 80% of current expenses—and you can override any line. Set mortgage to $0, bump healthcare, add pension income. Your target FIN updates automatically from that budget, so your number stays tied to the lifestyle you actually want.

The Power of Starting Early: FI Number by Age

Compound interest is the most powerful variable in the equation. To show how much starting age matters, consider one consistent scenario:

Assumptions: Target FIN of $1,000,000 (enough for about $40,000/year at a 4% withdrawal rate). Real (inflation-adjusted) return of 7% per year. No money invested today—we're calculating the monthly contribution needed to reach $1M by age 60.

Age 25, 35 years to go: About $555/month gets you there. Your Coast FIRE number—the amount that would grow to $1M with no further contributions—is about $94,000.
Age 35, 25 years to go: About $1,234/month needed. Coast FIRE number: about $184,000.
Age 45, 15 years to go: About $3,155/month needed. Coast FIRE number: about $362,000.
Age 55, 5 years to go: About $13,968/month needed. Coast FIRE number: about $713,000.

A 25-year-old needs roughly $555/month; a 55-year-old needs about 25 times that. The takeaway: investing early doesn't just help—it dominates. The Goals feature lets you plug in your own age, timeline, and target to see your required payment and whether you're on track.

FIRE Variants: Different Paths to Independence

The FIRE movement has spawned several approaches. All rely on the same core idea—your FI Number—but differ in target lifestyle and strategy. You can model any of them in the Goals feature.

Traditional FIRE — Save aggressively (often 50%+ of income) and retire early. Your FIN is 25× your annual expenses at a 4% withdrawal rate. The Goals page shows whether your current savings rate and timeline get you there.
Lean FIRE — Retire on a modest budget, typically $40,000/year or less. Lower expenses mean a lower FIN and a shorter path, but require a frugal lifestyle. Use the FI Budget to model lean future spending and watch your target drop.
Fat FIRE — Retire with plenty of cushion, $100,000+/year in spending. A higher FIN means more savings and/or a longer timeline. Set a manual target FIN or build a future budget that reflects the lifestyle you want.
Coast FIRE — Save enough early so that with no further contributions, compound growth reaches your FIN by retirement age. Once you hit that "coast" number, you only need to cover current living expenses; investments do the rest. The formula is: Coast FIRE Number = FIN ÷ (1 + r)^n, where r is your expected real return and n is years until retirement. The Goals feature doesn't compute this explicitly, but you can compare your current portfolio to the coast number you calculate elsewhere and track progress.
Barista FIRE — Reach a partial FI Number, then work part-time to cover the gap while your portfolio keeps growing. Model a lower target or a longer timeline and use the budget to see how much part-time income you'd need.

The Goals feature supports all of these approaches. Adjust your timeline, target FIN, future budget, and savings contributions to see how each path plays out.

How the Goals Feature Works

FI Plan Settings

Every user gets a single FI Plan—automatically created the first time you visit the Goals page. Open the settings drawer to configure:

Target FIN: Your target Financial Independence Number. Leave it blank and the app will auto-compute it from your FI budget's future expenses and withdrawal rate. Or set a manual value to override.
Current Portfolio: A read-only total showing the combined starting balances from your savings goals. Set each goal's principal to see this update.
S&P 500 Return Rate: Historical average return (default: 10.11%)
Inflation Rate: Expected inflation (default: 3.1%)
Real Return Rate: Automatically computed as the difference between return and inflation
Safe Withdrawal Rate: The annual percentage you plan to withdraw in retirement (default: 4%). Used to compute your FIN from future expenses.
Timeline: How many years until your target date
Future Budget Multiplier: Many people spend less in retirement. Use this to adjust your current expenses to reflect your expected future lifestyle (e.g., 80%).

A "Compute from budget" button in settings lets you derive your target FIN from your FI budget's future expense projections with one click.

Investment Savings Goals

The savings goals table is where you define your investment vehicles. Each goal represents a savings account, brokerage account, or retirement fund:

Field	Description
Name	A label like "Index Fund", "401k", or "Roth IRA"
Principal	How much is in this account today (your current balance)
Payment	How much you contribute each month
Annual Rate	Expected annual return for this specific goal
Years	Time horizon for this goal

Every field is inline-editable—click any cell, type a new value, and the page recalculates instantly. No save button needed; changes auto-save as you type.

For each goal, the app computes its Future Value using the standard FV formula—the same formula used by Google Sheets and Excel. The calculation accounts for your starting balance, monthly contributions, interest rate, and compounding frequency.

The totals row shows your combined portfolio projection: the sum of all goals' future values becomes your Projected FIN. Your goals' combined principal balances also roll up into the Current Portfolio shown in settings.

Financial Independence Budget

The FI budget gives you a side-by-side view of your spending now versus your projected spending in retirement:

Now column: Your current monthly spending and income by category
Future column: Your projected retirement spending, automatically scaled by the Future Budget Multiplier

Each line's future value starts as a default (income passes through unchanged; expenses are multiplied by the budget multiplier), but you can override any individual line for fine-grained control. For example, set your mortgage to $0 if it will be paid off, or increase healthcare costs. Click "Apply Defaults" to reset all overrides back to the computed values.

The FIN Income row shows how much monthly income your projected portfolio would generate based on the real return rate. The Net row tells you whether your projected retirement income covers your projected expenses—the most important number on the page.

Progress Ring Chart

A visual progress chart sits alongside your FI budget, showing at a glance how close you are to your goal:

Progress percentage displayed as an animated ring that fills toward 100%
On Track or Behind badge based on whether your projected FIN meets your target
Auto-computed badge when your target FIN is derived from the budget rather than set manually
Key metrics listed below: Projected FIN, Target FIN, Payment for FIN, and Savings Gap

The chart updates in real time whenever you edit a goal or budget line—no page reload needed.

The Math Behind the Calculations

FV (Future Value) — Goal Projections

FV = PV * (1 + r)^n + PMT * ((1 + r)^n - 1) / r

Where PV is your starting balance, PMT is your monthly contribution, r is the periodic interest rate, and n is the number of compounding periods. This tells you how much each savings goal will be worth at the end of your timeline.

PMT (Payment) — Payment for FIN

PMT = -(FV + PV * (1 + r)^n) / (((1 + r)^n - 1) / r)

This tells you how much you need to save each month to reach your target FIN, given your current portfolio (the sum of your goals' balances) and expected returns.

Real Return Rate

Real Return = S&P 500 Return - Inflation Rate

This represents actual purchasing-power growth, stripping out the effect of inflation. Your FIN Monthly Income is calculated using this rate, not the nominal return.

FIN from Budget

FIN = Annual Future Expenses / Safe Withdrawal Rate

When you don't set a manual target, this formula derives your FI Number directly from your budget. As you adjust future spending lines, your target updates automatically.

Coast FIRE Number

Coast FIRE Number = FIN / (1 + r)^n

Where r is your expected real (inflation-adjusted) return and n is years until retirement. This is the amount you need invested today so that with no further contributions, growth alone reaches your FIN by retirement. Useful for planning a Coast FIRE path.

Getting Started

Visit the Goals page from the sidebar navigation
Add your savings goals — one for each investment account, with your current balance as the principal
Build your FI budget — add expense and income lines, or seed from your spending history
Adjust future amounts — override individual lines for expenses that will change in retirement
Review your progress — the chart and metrics update instantly as you plan

Everything on the page is interactive and recalculates in real time. Adjust your timeline, return assumptions, future spending, or savings contributions and watch the projections respond.

Planning Your Dream Life

Getting started with FI planning is a two-step process:

Step 1 — Set up your FI Budget. Build a realistic "now" budget on the Goals page. The app nudges you with dynamic category placeholders (suggesting the next tag group name), a hint that outflows are negative and inflows positive, and when you enter a category that matches a tag group with budget and transaction history, a suggested amount from recent budget and actual averages (up to 6 months). Use Settings for your target FI Number, safe withdrawal rate, future budget multiplier, and optionally "Compute from budget" to derive the target automatically from your expenses.

Step 2 — Set up goals from investment accounts. Mark your investment accounts (401k, IRA, brokerage) in Account Settings with the Investment checkbox and an optional expected return rate. On the Goals page, the "Add Goal" form suggests names from your investment accounts that don't yet have a goal, then falls back to names like Index Fund, 401k, IRA, Roth IRA, Money Market, and Emergency Savings. When you type a goal name that matches an investment account, the form can pre-fill the principal (current balance), payment (from recurring deposits), and expected return rate automatically.

Together, these two steps give you a complete picture: what you'll spend, what you'll save, and whether you're on track.

Who Is This For?

Traditional FIRE, Lean FIRE, Fat FIRE, Coast FIRE, or Barista FIRE — whatever path you're considering, the Goals feature lets you model it
Long-term planners who want to see whether their current savings rate gets them to financial independence
Anyone curious about how compound growth turns consistent monthly savings into a portfolio that funds retirement

Whether you're 10 years or 30 years from your target, the Goals feature gives you a clear, numbers-driven picture of where you stand and what it takes to get there.

Ready to plan your financial independence? Sign up and visit the Goals page to see your projections.

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