How long until work becomes optional?
The Freedom Calculator helps you explore how your spending, investing and future income could work together to buy more freedom.
The calculator isn't judging you. It's testing the plan.
Try different scenarios. Change the numbers. Explore what's possible.
You might love the answer. You might hate the answer. Either way, it's information, not a sentence.
👇 Have a play.
The Freedom Calculator
See how much freedom you have already built, what your Freedom Fund could cover at the age you choose, and when full Financial Freedom could become possible.
Your numbers
Use one consistent currency. Open the sections you want to edit, then jump straight to your results.
Your Freedom Fund today
The life you want
Later income
Adjust assumptions
Look how much freedom you have already built
0 a year
What could freedom look like?
Your Freedom Path
FREE
Your Full Financial Freedom Fund
0 still to build
This is the Freedom Fund the model estimates you would need today to support the full lifestyle entered, allowing for income that begins later. Later pensions and other permanent income can reduce the amount required today.
Compare withdrawal-rate assumptions
A higher rate produces a lower target, but leaves less margin and requires more flexibility.
| Withdrawal-rate assumption | Full Financial Freedom Fund target | Full Financial Freedom age |
|---|
See how your Freedom Fund grows
What changes could you make?
These examples show how each change could affect your projected full Financial Freedom age.
Found a bug? Got an idea? Think we've missed something?
Wow, such as massive upgrade! Thanks 😃
Hi, this is a very nice and detailed calculator. Comparing this calculator with the double bridging one, I seem to get vastly different numbers for ISA/ SIPP split needed to retire, despite entering the same current age, pension access ages and desired income. The suggested SIPP figure is quite low/ unrealistic.
first save
Absolutely love this. I have been made redundant at 57 years old and due to the package that was on offer and other savings with a bit of jiggery-pokery I will be able to retire at 57 and have full freedom yay!
I’ve entered SIPP and DBs but where do I put the ISA fund which is funding my retirement pre pension?
S&S ISA is part of your freedom fund, so you add it in the current freedom fund box
This is an amazing tool. Thank you so much to you both and the ninjas! Hopefully I’ll be able to find it again when I’ve ‘fully’ understood it 🤞
The boxes for putting the amounts are quite small for side hustle income and other dependable income
Does the monthly amount added for personal pension payments take into account me increasing every year for inflation
Hi, this is great, a question about doing this as a couple, it is better to start with the older or younger persons age, as we have a 6 year age gap and I will still be working for a couple of years when hubby plans to retire, so I am not sure what to enter in where. We also have 3 different DB pensions between us as well as SIPPS, so this is all a bit confusing. Thankyou
Love the spreadsheet. Is it possible to please create a uk freedom fund calculator just for UK residents. Breaking down current investment into isa and sipp. And also monthly savings into isa and sipp.
Plus ability to have a time line for additional monthly contribution. Ie I can invest £300 monthly for first 3 years, then £500 monthly, etc
I’m not sure if this is a bug in the Freedom Calculator or if I am misunderstanding something. When I input my info, under the “Your Freedom Path” it says I will reach full financial freedom at age 60. I had chosen 61 as my freedom age. Based on that, shouldn’t my freedom fund fully cover my essential and flexible annual spending? It shows that it is covering about 85%?
Under the “What could freedom look like at Age 61?” section, I get this message.
At Age 61, your projected Freedom Fund is xxx.xx.
Using your 4.0% Burn Rate assumption, the fund could provide approximately xx,xxx a year.
No other income is available at Age 61, so total support is approximately xx,xxx a year.
That could cover all xx,xxx of your essential spending and xx,xxx of your xx,xxx flexible spending.
The remaining difference is approximately xx,xxx. You could cover it by increasing your Gap, earning part-time or other income, adjusting spending, or continuing to build your Freedom Fund.
I have the same thing. Makes zero sense to me.
I have an almost identical issue – I also have input my desired freedom age as 61 (though have input one-day-a-week of part-time income between age 60 (now) and 61). It tells me at the top of the results section that my freedom fund will currently cover 100% of my desired spending and shows my freedom path as age 60 across the board because ‘the model estimates that you have already built your full bridge-aware target’.
However under ‘What freedom could look like at 61’ it then tells me I have a shortfall each year!
This happened to me too.
I input my figures. It said I’d reach 100% Financial Freedom by my target age but then further down, it shows that not all flexible spending is covered. So does it calculate financial freedom based on Essential Spending only?
No, because as with some people above, at 4% mine doesn’t cover my essential spending even though I’m supposedly at Full Freedom.
I put the wrong figure in the freedom fund box at the top. I used the freedom fund number from the Net Worth tracker. This is much higher than my investment pot. Worked it out as I didn’t think i was so financially well off.
Made the same comment on the video but I think the headline figure should take into account future income, rather than be just fund x burn rate.
Apart from that, the only other change would be to split funds according to tax rate. And, to be selfish, it would be nice to have an option which covered UK tax regime. But I understand that you are trying to make this generic.
Amazing tool. Best and simplest yet comprehensive that I have seen on this .
@Lisa, i just tried this and entered a far higher income, it results the same as you, if i understand your current pot does not support the income level you entered (lower it try again) the answer you got suggests to maintain freedom at your figure you would need to increase your pot to cover the shortfall or lower desired income or flexi spend, try bare essential figures to start then adjust flex from that, I entered my figures and I do not get the outcome you did, I only got it after inputting a much higher income that I know my pot will run out or increase pot or part time work etc, play about with figures, good luck
I love this calculator! Is there a way of saving your results down as a PDF? I’d like to be able to compare my results every 6 months or annually?
Hello,
Currently it’s only possible to add in the current amount I’m investing. Could the ability to have multiple staged investments be added? For example, I need to pay down multiple debts and plan to invest more once each has been paid off. Some debits have early repayment fees it’s that mean it’s better to start investing before all debits are repaid.
It would be great to have an “add investment plan” button that I can specify the age I would be when I start to invest.
Thanks very much. Loving the calculator and course so far!
Just tried the calculator…it’s great, love the way you can keep tweaking the figures, different spending, income ect. good work Donegans…and the ninjas of course! It says I have already reached my freedom fund target, albeit I did set a low spending target. It gives me a good feeling that I am somewhere on the right track especially as I don’t always enjoy my job. Makes my plan to work another 4 years full-time before switching to part-time seem very realistic and gives me hope to help me get through the bad days in work. One tweak I would suggest, The monthly amount added maybe needs a start and end date, as I’d like to stop contributing or reduce my SIPP / ISA contributions when I go part-time. (how long does the calculator assume I will be contributing monthly? perhaps an end date is already factored in?)
It would be amazing to have a few more boxes in the ‘later income’ box. We have 2 x state pensions, 2 x DB pensions but want to add in part time working for both of us, we are both different ages. Thank you for developing this tool.
Absolutely amazing tool, so insightful and easy to use. Thank you so much
When I change the Investment growth before inflation figure it is not changing any figures anywhere else, can you advise why this is.
I have change the figure from 10% down to 4%.
Can you advise what funds are available in NZ that are great for the bridge it phase.
Thanks
Hi – I have had similar results to Lisa results and beginning to wonder if it is me misunderstanding what financial freedom means in this context?
This feature is fantastic! Thank you.
Great for visualising where I might be in X years with current numbers – then working backwards to adjust parameters to refine and define a realistic goal for getting back to music full time!
Hello,
This calculator is fantastic! Thank you for building it. I have two questions;
– Is there a way to enter a lump sum? A future real estate sale will make up part of our freedom fund, so want to include that if possible.
– Is there a formula for the 5% burn rate? As it’s flexible in nature, I’m curious how you captured that in a formula, or is it a complex modeling with assumptions?
Thanks!
Absolutely loving the new look Freedom Calculator! Great work Alan and Katie (and the Ninjas) :) I know it’s likely a level of detail too far, but if looking at this for a couple, each of different ages, one of the two will able to draw down from pensions ahead of the other, or doesn’t it really matter? Only other question is how to consider income tax on pension income, or is that factored into the calculator too?
Hello,
Thank you for all the content you have made. This is an excellent calculator.
As the last comment suggested, an option for a lump sum on retirement would be a good addition. I have a DB pension and the lump sum would make a big difference to the overall calculation.
Thanks again 👍
Steve, that is a GREAT idea. noted. Will speak to Katie and see what we can do. Didn’t think of that! THANK YOU. Alan
Thank you so much for this wonderful tool, it is so useful and fun to play with!
I am a bit confused on one bit, as when I enter my numbers and a desired retirement age of 47, the freedom path shows me as financially free by 47 (yay), however the ‘what would freedom look like at age 47’ says there is a shortfall in funds of a few thousand I could make up with part-time work etc.
I’m wondering if this is a bug, because if I am financially free at 47, there should not be a shortfall? Or whether it’s because *at some point* in the year I turn 47 I will reach financial freedom, but just not quite at the start of that year.
Also, I didn’t understand the explanations under the ‘where your freedom fund might need to sit’ part (e.g. bridging curves etc) and would love to understand how this has been calculated.
Any thoughts much appreciated!
I wish I could download this! I’ve taken oodles of screenshots though!
Hey Effie, we need to get it to create a PDF output or something like that. Next version. We did a LOT of screen shotting in early calculators too! Alan
I’ve tested it as someone who has already retired with a DB pension in payment. Just to confirm that it works fine and told me my Freedom Fund will cover fixed and discretionary spending. I’m now increasing the discretionary value to see what I could get away with, but it would also be interesting to reduce the burn rate and see what effect that has. Any other tips for retirees?
Hi, I’m not sure I’ve done this correctly because I put 900k in the freedom fund box as the info guidance says to include DC pension pots, but my 900k is made up of 300k in ISAs, plus 600k in NEST + SIPP pension pots.
So as I’m 50 now, I can’t access 600k of it until I’m at least 55 but I think actually 57 yrs old.
However the calculation result seems to think i have 900k available as of now. (Which would be amazing but unfortunately incorrect!).
So does the freedom fund box need to exclude DC pension pots as well (and have these as a separate box like the state pension box below etc), as the DC pots are only available from a specific age?
Thank you
Hi Alan I would love to see the reply to Francesca’s question as I am in the similar situation.
Hey Dean, just recovering after running the course. It is on Katie and my list of things to do to go through all the comments on the page and develop a new versoin of the tool… We will do it soon.. Sending happiness.. Alan
In early weeks the advice is to x any DB pension by 25 and add it to freedom fund – now when using calculator you do nor include it freedom fund and instead add it as annually income in the Defined benefit or final-salary pension section. Can this be confirmed?
Hey Micka, that is exactly right. The 25 x gives you a value for your freedom fund in the Networth tracker but for this it is included as future income and so we can’t double count and put into the Freedom Fund Too! Alan
Love this!! Would be great to print this off in an easy to read format.
Good idea. We want to put that feature in next!
Hi, potentially silly question, but does the ‘Monthly amount added’ ‘stop’ being added when I reach Freedom age / is there a way to set an age limit after which I will not be making any more monthly payments? I’m trying to see what would happen if I was made redundant next year so my monthly ISA, GIA, and pension contributions would stop.
hey Lily, never a silly question. And yes the calculator adds it until you get to the number and then stops contributions… To do more complex things the best tool is a spreadsheet and you could use the financial forecasting tool: https://rebeldonegans.com/finance/fire/forecasting/
This is a fantastic tool – I have been looking for just this exact thing and have downloaded and given up on countless others which were either too complicated or not thorough enough. As others have said, an option to add more boxes to take account of partner income etc, the ability to save/download and the addition of lump sum boxes would enable many of us to tailor it to our exact circumstances and never need to go searching for another spreadsheet again! Thanks so much.
Jen, got it. Thank you. i am so glad this is useful and I will chat to Katie about building this. We are just recovering after the course and creating then next version of this is on our minds… Check back and we will have a new version for you. Or if you are on the mailing list we will let you know! Sending happiness and thank you. Alan
This is an amazing calculator! Loving it!
Even though I don’t love my numbers…. just yet! ;)
Agreed that a printable version would be great!
Thank you so much Allan and Katie!!
Hey Caro, thanks for commenting and it is always possilbe to improve the numbers. LOVE the use of Yet! Will speak to Katie about the printable version! Alan
In the small print it states the calc assumes 100% equities, however as part of the course the advice is to hold 80% equites vs 20% low risk assets for retirement.
Can you clarify if this changes the freedom fund amount needed in anyway?
hey Mickey, the course does not suggest having 20% bonds. We give it as an option for dealing with sequence of returns risk… We suggest (we can’t give advice as we are not financial advisors) that on the journey to when investing (the built it phase) to be 100% in index funds… Does that help? Alan
Hey, great calculator thank you! For the ‘Defined benefit or final-salary pension’ would this be where I’d put in the projected KiwiSaver balance at age 65? Or should this not be included as I’ve added the monthly KiwiSaver contribution as part of my ‘Monthly amount added’ and my current KiwiSaver balance in the ‘Current Freedom Fund’ figure?
Hey Jennie, Kiwi saver goes in the current Freedom Fund balance as it is investments not a promised income in the future! Sending happiness. Alan
Hi. I like the format but I don’t understand why I’m the freedom pathway as ok for next year but then the detailed out put says there is a shortfall.
hey Jo, can you share a screen shot? I would think it is because the age you want to retire is in one section, but just because you want to retire then doesn’t mean you actually have enough to be able to do it… Did that make sense? Did you see the video that goes with the calculator? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlK6AlikAdo
This is so kick-ass – great stuff, thanks for upgrading my retirement planning!
Thanks Bruce! it is our please. We had fun doing it! Alan