FIREcalc hope, cFIREsim reality check? Depressing...

[SavingMon(k)ey]

So, this is so depressing. A few days ago I allowed myself to dream and ran some numbers on FIREcalc. Something remotely resembling ER seemed possible, if I pay off my $12,000 debt soon, decrease my spending a bit more (time to become really badass) and increase my income significantly through some sort of career change. I got to something like a 97% success rate.

Then... I ran the same scenario on cFIREsim, and it completely tanked. As in, 0% success. Was FIREcalc just too good to be true? Is cFIREsim telling me, "forget about it. I'm the REAL retirement calculator, and you ain't nowhere close to even just plain old traditional retirement, let alone FIRE. Go back to the grind and stay there forever, you freakin' loser!"

Or... Did I mess up something? How can this be? Oh, this is so, so, depressing.

[arebelspy]

You messed something up.  They're based on the same data.

Rerun both scenarios. If they're still drastically different, tell us your inputs on both, and we can probably help you figure out what happened.

[lauren_knows]

You messed something up.  They're based on the same data.

Rerun both scenarios. If they're still drastically different, tell us your inputs on both, and we can probably help you figure out what happened.

Yup, same data. Likely, something was messed up. Worldstrad, I saw that you registered on cFIREsim... did you save your scenario? If so, provide me with the ID (it's in the drop down of saved scenarios) and I can review it.

[SavingMon(k)ey]

You messed something up.  They're based on the same data.

Rerun both scenarios. If they're still drastically different, tell us your inputs on both, and we can probably help you figure out what happened.

Yup, same data. Likely, something was messed up. Worldstrad, I saw that you registered on cFIREsim... did you save your scenario? If so, provide me with the ID (it's in the drop down of saved scenarios) and I can review it.

I don't think I saved it. In any case, I did find a mistake and got closer, but the two are still not quite matching up. I'll take a look at it again sometime. I should just focus on paying off the god damn debt, anyway. Lol!

[lauren_knows]

You messed something up.  They're based on the same data.

Rerun both scenarios. If they're still drastically different, tell us your inputs on both, and we can probably help you figure out what happened.

Yup, same data. Likely, something was messed up. Worldstrad, I saw that you registered on cFIREsim... did you save your scenario? If so, provide me with the ID (it's in the drop down of saved scenarios) and I can review it.

I don't think I saved it. In any case, I did find a mistake and got closer, but the two are still not quite matching up. I'll take a look at it again sometime. I should just focus on paying off the god damn debt, anyway. Lol!

Well, they're not going to be exact. 1) cFIREsim updates the backend data more often.   2) As of yesterday, cFIREsim updated how their bond return is calculated, due to some discussions that led me to believe that FIREcalc was doing it wrong.

Either way, good luck on killing your debt.  If you have any questions about using tools like FIRECalc or cFIREsim, feel free to ask here or their respective individual forums.

[SavingMon(k)ey]

Thanks, bo_knows! I was wondering if maybe there are slight updating differences or something like that.

I will KILL this debt. You watch me! Mwah-ha-ha...