For when the simple answer isn't enough.
Highly detailed, deeply customizable financial models. Same price as everything else on Money Scale — free.
Which should I use?+
Retirement Planner answers what do I need, and will it last? It starts from your life — ages, spending, and savings split by how each account is taxed — solves for your number and the date you reach it, then spends the money down account by account with federal tax, early access rules, Social Security, pensions and required distributions in the loop.
Portfolio Forecast answers what happens to this portfolio? It starts from a balance and a monthly contribution and projects forward through thousands of random market paths, with fees, glide paths and guardrails. One blended bucket, no ages, no income tax — by design.
Use the planner when the question is how much, by when, and from which account. Use the forecast when you already have a target and want to see how a volatile market could treat it. They hand off to each other in one click.
Retirement Planner
Ages, spending and savings in; your number, your date, and a year-by-year drawdown by Roth / pre-tax / taxable out. Simple mode takes two minutes and asks five questions. Advanced mode knows about withdrawal order, Social Security, pensions, RMDs, capital-gains tax, and the bridge years before 59½ and Medicare.
What it models
- FIRE number and Coast FIRE number
- Years to financial independence
- Burn-down by tax bucket
- Bridge to 59½ and to Medicare at 65
- Social Security and pensions
- Federal tax by year, including RMDs
Portfolio Forecast
Run your portfolio thousands of times against randomly drawn market returns and see the full range of outcomes — not one falsely precise number. Models glide paths, custom return schedules, life events, a drawdown phase with spending guardrails, advisor and fund fees, and capital-gains tax on withdrawals.
What it models
- Monte Carlo simulation with fat-tailed returns
- Percentile fan and probability of success
- Glide path to a safer mix over time
- Life events and custom return schedules
- Drawdown with spending guardrails
- Sequence-of-returns risk analysis
Every assumption exposed
Volatility, distribution shape, fee drag, tax treatment, withdrawal sequencing. Nothing is hidden behind a friendly default you can't see or change.
Ranges, not single numbers
A forecast that returns one number is telling you a comforting story. These tools return distributions, percentiles, and probabilities.
Runs entirely in your browser
Your scenarios never leave your device. There is no account, no tracking of your inputs, and nothing to delete later.
Take your numbers with you
Every professional calculator can hand you your results three ways, so a scenario you spent time on doesn't vanish when you close the tab.
Every input is encoded in the URL. Opening it restores the scenario exactly.
Year-by-year CSV, a reusable data file, or a print-ready PDF.
A clean, print-ready version of your results to keep or hand to an advisor.
Professional-grade, and free. Here's how that stays true.
Tools like these normally sit behind a $200/year subscription or a "book a call with an advisor" form. Ours don't, and we don't plan to change that — no paywall, no account, and the numbers you model never leave your browser for us to sell.
What it does cost is real: hosting, market-data feeds, and the hours that go into building and checking each model. That comes out of one person's pocket. If the pro suite saved you a subscription — or just gave you a clearer answer than the free stuff elsewhere — a coffee helps fund the next calculator. It's entirely optional, and every tool here stays fully unlocked either way.
Free newsletter
Money and Technology Simply Explained
Money and investing broken down with simple technology, to help everyday humans reach financial freedom. Written by Brett Axler. Free, always.
- Two Minute Tuesday — a short read to start your day.
- A weekly deep dive — on money, markets, and technology.
- New calculators first — every tool we build, explained when it lands.
- Real numbers, run in public — rent vs buy, freedom numbers, actual trades.
Questions about the pro suite
Which one should I use?+
Use the Retirement Planner when the question is how much, by when, and from which account — it starts from your age, your spending and your savings split by tax treatment, then spends the money down year by year with federal tax, Social Security and required distributions in the loop. Use Portfolio Forecast when you already have a target and want to see how a volatile market could treat it: it runs one blended portfolio through thousands of random return paths. The planner can hand its numbers to Portfolio Forecast in one click.
Do these run a Monte Carlo simulation?+
Portfolio Forecast does — thousands of runs with fat-tailed returns, a percentile fan, and a probability of success. The Retirement Planner is deterministic on purpose: it models taxes, account types and the years before 59½ in detail at a single assumed return, and shows a sensitivity strip instead of odds. When you want the odds on a plan, the planner sends it straight to Portfolio Forecast.
What makes these different from the free calculators?+
The tools under /tools answer one question quickly and in plain English. The professional calculators expose every assumption — volatility, distribution shape, fee drag, tax, withdrawal sequencing — and let you model scenarios that don't fit a simple form. They take longer to use and reward the effort.
Do professional calculators cost anything?+
No. Every professional calculator is completely free, with no account, no trial, and no feature held back. 'Professional' describes the depth of the modelling, not a price tier.
Is my data sent anywhere?+
No. Everything runs in your browser and your scenarios are saved to your own device. Nothing you type into a professional calculator is ever transmitted to us. To keep your results, download the CSV, save a share link, or print to PDF.
Can I save and come back to a scenario?+
Yes, several ways. Save named snapshots in the browser, download the year-by-year numbers as a CSV, export the scenario as a file you can reopen later, print to PDF, or copy a share link that encodes every input — opening that link restores the scenario exactly.
Looking for something quicker?
Browse the free calculatorsImportant — please read
These are calculators, not advice. Use at your own risk.
Every number these tools produce is a hypothetical projection generated from assumptions you entered yourself. It is not a prediction, not a guarantee, and not a statement about what your money will actually do. Real results will differ, and they may differ enormously.
Not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice
Money Scale publishes free educational tools. We are not licensed financial advisors, registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, accountants, or attorneys. Nothing here is personalized advice, a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security, or an offer or solicitation of any kind. Using these calculators does not create an advisory, fiduciary, or client relationship. We don't know your age, health, job security, tax situation, debts, dependents, risk tolerance, or goals — and every one of those changes the right answer.
Talk to a professional before you act
A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, a fee-only fiduciary adviser, or a CPA can look at your whole situation in a way no calculator can. That matters most before you retire, change your contribution rate, move money between accounts, start drawing down a portfolio, or make any decision that is expensive to reverse.
Known limits of the models
These tools use simplified models. They generally do not account for historical market sequences and crash clustering, changing correlations between asset classes, variable inflation, individual assets or rebalancing, tax-lot accounting, longevity, Social Security, pensions, annuities, healthcare and long-term-care costs, income and state taxes, RMDs, or future changes to tax law and retirement rules. Each calculator documents its own specific assumptions and gaps on its page. Past performance does not predict future results.
No warranty, no liability
These tools are provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of accuracy, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. Calculations may contain errors. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Money Scale and its author accept no liability for any loss or damage — financial or otherwise — arising from your use of, or reliance on, these tools or their output. You use them entirely at your own risk, and every decision you make with them is yours.
If any part of a projection is load-bearing for a real decision — when you retire, how much you can safely spend, whether you have enough — please have a qualified professional review it with your full financial picture in front of them. See our privacy policy and terms.