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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: catccc on May 16, 2014, 08:23:24 AM

Title: years to FI apps?
Post by: catccc on May 16, 2014, 08:23:24 AM
Can anyone recommend (or make?) an app that calculates years to FI, and maybe does other fun FI related calculations?  I know the math is not that complicated, but I just like to play around with this stuff.
Title: Re: years to FI apps?
Post by: arebelspy on May 16, 2014, 08:45:46 AM
Can anyone recommend (or make?) an app that calculates years to FI, and maybe does other fun FI related calculations?  I know the math is not that complicated, but I just like to play around with this stuff.

There's a bunch.

Some on the web:
http://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement
http://mustachecalc.com/
http://www.madfientist.com/fi-laboratory/

And various apps for iOS/Android, such as:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/retirement-napkin/id738897088?ls=1&mt=8
http://thume.ca/stashline

(All 5 of the above links were created by MMM readers.)

There's more if you do some searching around.

And then there are other retirement calculators that aren't necessarily "Time to FI" type calculators, such as this:
http://financialmentor.com/calculator/best-retirement-calculator

The best retirement calculator, IMO, though it's not really a year to FI calc directly, but you can use it that way by playing around with the inputs, is cFIREsim: http://www.cfiresim.com/
Title: Re: years to FI apps?
Post by: catccc on May 16, 2014, 09:08:12 AM
thanks arebelspy!  I was specifically looking for mobile apps.  After looking at the Stashline app yesterday (and unfortunately finding it not quite intuitive enough for me), wanted another toy for my phone.  I'll check out retirement napkin!
Title: Re: years to FI apps?
Post by: catccc on May 16, 2014, 09:09:58 AM
I love mustachecalc, and it is kind of the benchmark in what I'm looking for in an app.   It's straightforward with a simple interface and does the job succinctly.  I just messaged destron in hopes that he can make this into an app...
Title: Re: years to FI apps?
Post by: arebelspy on May 16, 2014, 09:22:23 AM
I was specifically looking for mobile apps.

Bookmarking a website that looks good on a mobile device to your homescreen as an icon accomplishes the same thing, besides offline access.

There are a few other apps out there though.  Retirement napkin is good. There used to be one called retirement calculator that is unfortunately no longer available on the app store, but I still have it on my phone.  If you are jailbroken I can send you the .ipa file.
Title: Re: years to FI apps?
Post by: pim69 on May 16, 2014, 12:09:23 PM
Unfortunately the mustachecalc website domain is suspended, it says the domain is down due to pending ICANN domain owner email address verification. :(

thanks for the rest of the resources though.
Title: Re: years to FI apps?
Post by: catccc on May 16, 2014, 12:18:10 PM
I'm not sure if I am jailbroken, is that just the opposite of locked?  I have a locked AT&T phone on AirVoice, and don't use data, so I was looking for offline use... although I usually do have wifi, so you are right, I probably should just bookmark mustachecalc.  Hopefully it will be up and running again soon?  I was just using it yesterday.
Title: Re: years to FI apps?
Post by: RetireAbroadAt35 on May 16, 2014, 03:54:54 PM
I use LibreOffice's free spreadsheet.  Probably not the type of "app" you're thinking of but I highly recommend it.  It's super-simple to write your own calculations and once you do, you can model it any way you like without having to figure out the assumptions that the app maker made.  Plus mobile phone apps are lame :)

Here's my approach:
1) Estimate post-retirement expenses, for example $32k annually.
2) Apply to the 25x or 30x rule to come up with "the number".  $800,000.
3) Use the Future Value function to project the ending annual balance year-by-year until you reach "the number."  Example:

=FV(APR/12, 12, MONTHLY_CONTRIBUTIONS, STARTING_BALANCE)

APR/12 is expected rate of return as a %, divided by 12 to indicate monthly compounding.
MONTHLY_CONTRIBUTIONS indicates how much you'll invest at that APR each month
STARTING_BALANCE should be POSITIVE if you're in debt and NEGATIVE if your net worth is positive.  It is not intuitive.


Then made a small table that shows the future value on an annual basis.  Each year I add a % to contributions to account for increasing 401k limits and raises in income.  It looks something like this.

Date401k balanceMonthly ContributionTaxable BalanceMonthly ContributionTotal Balance
5/16/2014$50,000$1,450$10,000$2000$60,000
5/16/2015$71,687.02$1,450$36,251$2060$107,938.65
5/16/2016$95,974.52$1,540$65,166.85$2120$161,141.37
5/16/2017$122,017.76$1,540$96,961.19$2,185$218,978.95

Projecting out this way, with each row taking the its starting balance from the previous row, one would be FI on May 16, 2024 with a total balance of $802,331.24 split between a 401k and a taxable investment account assuming 3% pay raises, 7% investment returns and modest increases to the 401k limits.