Budget and Financial Independence Planning
This section has two planners that work as a pair. The Monthly Budget Planner shows where income goes each month, and the FIRE Planner uses income, spending and savings to project when your investments could cover your costs. They suit households setting up a first budget and people deciding how far to push their savings rate.
2 free tools · no sign-up · no ads
All Planning Tools (2)
Which tool do I need?
See where my monthly income goes
List income, fixed and variable expenses by category and read off each category's share and the money left over.
Check whether my emergency fund is big enough
Enter your current fund and expenses to see how many months it covers against the suggested target for your household.
Find my FIRE number and the age I could reach it
Combine net worth, savings, spending, return, inflation and a withdrawal rate to get a target and a timeline, with what-if cases.
About Planning Tools
Start with the budget. List income sources, fixed and variable expenses, a savings goal and your emergency fund, and the planner reports money left over, each category's share of income, your savings rate, months of emergency cover and a health rating that adjusts for single, couple or family households. Then take your monthly income and spending into the FIRE Planner. It works out a FIRE number from your safe withdrawal rate, projects net worth at a constant return, models withdrawals under the 4% rule, and re-runs scenarios with higher and lower returns and inflation.
Each has a limit to plan around. The budget planner keeps nothing between visits and resets to its example figures on reload, so download the CSV. The FIRE Planner keeps inputs in the page address, does not model tax on withdrawals, and its constant return hides sequence-of-returns risk. For single formulas such as compound growth, or a retirement target with an employer match, use the Calculators section next door. Both are planning models, not financial advice.
Guides
- The 50/30/20 Budget: Needs, Wants and Savings in PracticeWhere the 50/30/20 rule came from, how to sort real expenses into needs and wants, what to do when housing alone breaks the 50%, and how to size an emergency fund.
- Your FIRE Number: The 4% Rule and Years to Financial IndependenceWhere the 4% rule comes from, why savings rate drives your timeline, how inflation changes the target, and the risks a 25x number does not cover.
- How Much Do You Need to Retire? Building the Number Step by StepTurn today's spending into a retirement target: inflation, income ratio, guaranteed income, one-off goals, and the assumptions that move the answer most.
Frequently asked questions
Should I make a budget before using a FIRE calculator?
Yes. A FIRE projection is only as good as the spending figure in it, and a budget is how you find that figure. Use a few months of real expenses from the budget planner rather than a guess, and adjust for costs that change in retirement, such as health insurance.
What savings rate do I need to retire early?
There is no single figure; it depends on your spending, current savings and returns. Higher savings rates shorten the timeline quickly because they raise contributions and lower the target at the same time. The FIRE Planner's What-If panel shows how saving more or spending 10% less moves your FI age.
How is a budget planner different from a FIRE planner?
A budget planner looks at one month: income, spending and what is left. A FIRE planner looks at decades: how today's savings rate and returns turn into a portfolio that can pay for your spending. The first finds the money to save; the second shows what saving it achieves.
Do these planners save my budget and FIRE inputs?
The FIRE Planner keeps its inputs in the page URL, so bookmarking or sharing the link restores them. The budget planner saves nothing and resets on reload, so use Copy Summary or Download Report to keep a copy each month.
Can a couple plan finances together with these tools?
Yes. Enter both incomes and all shared expenses in the budget planner, choose the couple household type for the emergency fund suggestion, and use combined net worth and spending in the FIRE Planner. Share the FIRE link and the budget CSV so both partners work from the same numbers.