I didn’t read this piece fully or spend too long in the file, but passing on my feedback.
I found several parts unclear:
By “Traditional retirement age” do you mean “target retirement age?” if so, I’d revise the language accordingly. As of now it reads more like a fixed number than a variable to adjust, and aiming to retire early seems like a big part of FI from what I’ve seen, so would imagine varying it is the intent
Should I include my passive cash flow in my “annual income,” or do those get added together in the background (and hence would be 2x counted if included in income)?
I’d label rows 13-17 as “calculations” or “calculated fields” in Column A
Should I count savings “locked up” in retirement accounts in my portfolio value?
Is there a way to account for future Social Security benefits?
And I think a formula or two may be broken
Donations % seems to be using passive cash flow as the denominator, rather than income (or income + passive cash flow)?
“Years to FI” doesn’t seem to return a number of years but instead “You’re FI” or “You won’t hit FI.” And I don’t think “You’re FI” means I can retire now but instead is saying if I keep earning, saving, and spending at the same rate then I’m okay… which is not what I’d have expected it to mean?
Hey Jeremy—Thanks for commenting. Some of the simplicity comes from the fact that the user will have likely used a traditional FI calculator first. So there is a little learning bump if you have not! Else, there are descriptions of each input if you hover over their names. Here’s some further explanation to your questions:
“Traditional retirement age” depends on where you live. In the US it’s 65-67. This input is there to help with the calculations for Coast FI and to understand your wealth if you kept working until this age. It is not meant to be your retirement age goal if that’s different than what’s the traditional one.
“Passive Cashflow” is separate than your income—it’s for things like additional income sources like collecting rent from an investment property or a side hustle you have,
Retirement savings should definitely be included in your portfolio value.
Re: Social Security—There is a lot of back and forth in the FI community if this should be counted. Many say yes, some say no. To be conservative it’s usually not included in this type of calculator, but I think it’s well worth getting those estimates and knowing what they are. Typical FI calcs don’t include this just because it’s hard to build in!
“Years to FI” will output a text statement if you are FI already (years would be 0 to FI) OR if you have no chance of hitting FI with the financials you put in (years to FI would be n/a). Else it does output a number of years to FI if you are on the right path. It may just be the inputs you used? I’ll double check that just in case.
Else—great catch on that error. I thought i caught it in a previous round of edits. Huge help, gonna double check everything.
I didn’t read this piece fully or spend too long in the file, but passing on my feedback.
I found several parts unclear:
By “Traditional retirement age” do you mean “target retirement age?” if so, I’d revise the language accordingly. As of now it reads more like a fixed number than a variable to adjust, and aiming to retire early seems like a big part of FI from what I’ve seen, so would imagine varying it is the intent
Should I include my passive cash flow in my “annual income,” or do those get added together in the background (and hence would be 2x counted if included in income)?
I’d label rows 13-17 as “calculations” or “calculated fields” in Column A
Should I count savings “locked up” in retirement accounts in my portfolio value?
Is there a way to account for future Social Security benefits?
And I think a formula or two may be broken
Donations % seems to be using passive cash flow as the denominator, rather than income (or income + passive cash flow)?
“Years to FI” doesn’t seem to return a number of years but instead “You’re FI” or “You won’t hit FI.” And I don’t think “You’re FI” means I can retire now but instead is saying if I keep earning, saving, and spending at the same rate then I’m okay… which is not what I’d have expected it to mean?
Hey Jeremy—Thanks for commenting. Some of the simplicity comes from the fact that the user will have likely used a traditional FI calculator first. So there is a little learning bump if you have not! Else, there are descriptions of each input if you hover over their names. Here’s some further explanation to your questions:
“Traditional retirement age” depends on where you live. In the US it’s 65-67. This input is there to help with the calculations for Coast FI and to understand your wealth if you kept working until this age. It is not meant to be your retirement age goal if that’s different than what’s the traditional one.
“Passive Cashflow” is separate than your income—it’s for things like additional income sources like collecting rent from an investment property or a side hustle you have,
Retirement savings should definitely be included in your portfolio value.
Re: Social Security—There is a lot of back and forth in the FI community if this should be counted. Many say yes, some say no. To be conservative it’s usually not included in this type of calculator, but I think it’s well worth getting those estimates and knowing what they are. Typical FI calcs don’t include this just because it’s hard to build in!
“Years to FI” will output a text statement if you are FI already (years would be 0 to FI) OR if you have no chance of hitting FI with the financials you put in (years to FI would be n/a). Else it does output a number of years to FI if you are on the right path. It may just be the inputs you used? I’ll double check that just in case.
Else—great catch on that error. I thought i caught it in a previous round of edits. Huge help, gonna double check everything.
Thank you!