Calculator Hub

I’ve made a number of useful tools throughout my website in an effort to help others educate themselves on how to retire, become financially independent, or save/ invest for a big goal such as their first beach house!

Below is a quick reference list so you can quickly find the calculator you are looking for. I’ve also included a link to the article I’ve created that provides further information on how each tool works.

Also if you have ideas for future calculators you’d like to see made let me know! I enjoy creating free tools to help others.! My email is adam@blindluckproject.com

Quick Reference List: (Jump Links)

• How Long Until I Can Retire?

  • Estimates your retirement date base on current NW, Contribution amount, and the 4% rule

• FIRE Number Tool

  • How much you would need to retire today (4% Rule)

• Life Energy Calculator

  • How much does a purchase cost in terms of “Life Energy”

• Savings Rate Calculator (SR)

  • What is your savings rate?

• How Long Will It Take?

  • How long will it take to reach your Net Worth (NW) Goal?

• How Much Do I Need To Contribute Every Month?

  • Given a NW Goal and End Date - This tool tells you how much you have to contribute every month. (Starting with the end in mind)

This is the question we all came here for! how long do I need to keep working in this job instead of living live 100% on my terms?! Enter your current situation below and adjust the assumptions as you see fit to get your answer! anything under 10 years is good, anything under 5 is even better! if the number is negative, well grab a beer my friend because you’re ready to RETIRE!!

For more details about what these numbers mean and how I came up with them check out my post How Long Will It Take Me To Retire?

Your FIRE number is the amount of money you need to save before you are able to retire today. It is different for everybody, but it is relatively easy to calculate if we assume your spending habits won’t change much after you retire. (If you feel your spending will change, adjust the spending rate as needed.) 

FIRE# = Spending Rate X (100 / (Safe Withdraw Rate*))

For Example: $40,000 X (100/ (4% SWR*)) = $1,000,000 needed to retire today.  

*SWR – Safe Withdraw Rate (also known as the 4% rule): This is a generally accepted good starting place for calculating what you can safely live off of in retirement. It comes from the Trinity Study.

I’ve made a calculator that you can use below to save you the trouble of getting one.  

In the book Your Money or Your Life, Vicki Robin goes into detail about how money represents “Life Energy”. I really like her analogy. Every purchase you make costs you a certain amount of time or working years. There are a couple different ways to calculate this number. To keep it simple, I like to put it into days of work.  

For example, if you are an average household making around $63,000 per year, it might look like this.  

$63,000 per year / 365 days per year = $172.60/day or $7.19/hour.  

Notice I am calculating this based on total days and hours in a year and not by working hours.  This is because spending a year’s salary delays your retirement a full year, not just the 2,000 or so hours you work in a given year. This is a powerful way of looking at spending money because it shows you exactly how much you are delaying your goal of retirement with every purchase. 

I include some real world examples in my Spend Less Save More post

This is the percent of your earnings that you save. The higher the percentage, the earlier you’ll be able to retire. It really doesn’t matter how much you make if you spend it all. You could make a million dollars a year and still be flat broke! The table below demonstrates how many years it’ll take for you to retire based solely on your savings rate. I made a few assumptions for you, but regardless of your parameters, the savings rate is the most important factor in your ability to retire early. Also, even a small change in savings rate has a dramatic effect on how long you’ll have to work

If this is a new concept to you I strongly encourage you read my Send Less Save More post for a detailed breakdown of how powerful your savings rate is in shortening your required working time.

How long will it take to save for a specific goal?

You’ve already gotten started and have a bit invested, and know how much you can contribute every month. But how long will it take to get there?

First appeared in: The First $100K Is The Hardest: Why It’s So Important & How Long Will It Take?

This calculator answers all of this!

I often say “start with the end in mind” and figure out what you need to do to reach your goal by a specified time.

By working backwards you don’t leave it to chance, you identify what it’s going to take to be successful and can change your behavior to ensure the desired result is achieved.

This calculator will tell you how much you need to contribute every month to achieve a given investment goal given the starting amount, rate or return, and desired completion date.

First appeared in: Beach House Fund Milestone Check-In #1

I hope you find these tools helpful, if you have ideas for future calculator tools make sure to let me know!