The Plan Life plan and FIRE calculator
Is the life you want realistic, and what does getting there look like? Start in Simple with a handful of numbers, and tax, super and the Medicare levy are worked out for you. Switch to Full for your home and mortgage, HECS, life events like a year off, kids or a pay rise, and versions compared side by side.
Simple or Full
Simple asks for a handful of numbers (your age, pay, super, investments, spending and any home loan) and gives you one answer: the age work could become a choice, not a must. Full is the whole calculator: your home and mortgage in detail, HECS, salary sacrifice, life events, scenarios side by side and every assumption. They're the same plan, so you can switch at any time and nothing is lost.
What it works out
Enter your age, super, investments and cash, what you earn and what you spend. The Plan shows how your money grows year by year, the age work could become optional (financial independence, or your FIRE age) and whether your money lasts once you step back. Australian income tax and the Medicare levy, HECS repayments, employer super and super being locked until 60 are all part of the maths. Every figure is in today's dollars.
Your financial independence target
Your target (your FIRE number) is what could pay for your life without a pay cheque: a year of the spending you want divided by your withdrawal rate. At a 4% withdrawal rate, spending $60,000 a year needs $1.5 million across super, investments and cash. Your home doesn't count, because you can't spend it without selling.
The bridge years
Stop or step back before 60 and you live off money outside super until super unlocks. The chart shades these bridge years separately, because a plan can look fine in total and still run out of money before 60.
Life events and scenarios
Add a pay rise, a child, a home purchase, part-time work or a big one-off cost from the year it happens. Save other versions of your plan as scenarios, like buying at 32 against renting, or four days a week against five, and compare them side by side.
Built on Australian tax and super
Most FIRE calculators are built for the US, with 401(k)s, IRAs and American tax. Here the maths is Australian: resident income tax brackets and the Medicare levy (2%, less on a low income), the 12% super guarantee (up to its maximum contribution base) taxed at 15% on the way in, salary sacrifice up to the $32,500 concessional cap, HECS repayments, and super you can't touch until 60. It also plans for a couple, with each person's pay, super and HECS kept separate.
Super and your preservation age
Super is the most tax-effective place to save, but it's locked until your preservation age, which is 60 for anyone born after 1 July 1964. So stopping work before 60 needs two things: enough outside super to live on until 60, and enough in super to carry you after that. The calculator projects the two separately, each with its own return, and only starts drawing on super once it unlocks.
Salary sacrifice: a trade-off
Salary sacrificing into super cuts your income tax now and grows your balance faster. But every dollar sacrificed is a dollar you can't spend in the bridge years. Try a higher salary sacrifice and watch both numbers: your FIRE target may arrive sooner in total, while the money outside super runs thinner before 60.
Which withdrawal rate to use
The 4% rule comes from US research on 30-year retirements. Stop at 45 and your money may need to last 50 years or more, so many people planning to stop early use 3.5% or lower for a margin of safety. The withdrawal rate is yours to change, and a lower one raises your FIRE target: $60,000 a year needs $1.5 million at 4% and about $1.71 million at 3.5%.
Your home and mortgage
If you own your home, enter its value and your loan. Choose whether to pay the mortgage off before you stop working or keep paying it in retirement, and add extra repayments to see how they move your FIRE age. Your home is tracked in your net worth but left out of your FIRE target, because you can't spend it without selling.
The assumptions, and changing them
It starts from long-run assumptions: 7.5% a year for shares, 7% for super, 4% for cash, 5% for property, 3% inflation and wages growing 1% a year above inflation. Every one of them is editable. Results are shown in today's dollars, so a figure means what it would buy now.
Your figures, and not advice
Your numbers are kept in your browser on your device, not in a cloud account, and Export plan saves them to a file you keep. The results are estimates to help you plan, not financial advice. Tax and super rules change, so check anything important against the ATO or a licensed adviser before acting on it.