A replacement for FIREcalc?

[Dd852]

((edited this as I originally had the wrong end of the stick))

It isn't surprising that you'll get different results from different calculators as there will always be slightly different assumptions.
And anyway, looking backward can only be indicative anyway.

 

[Dd852]

And this just underscores once again that all the calculators are just the roughest of guides. History never repeats itself in precisely the same way. 90% success rates can give you confidence that you are broadly ok, but you still need to be ever vigilant and be ready to go to plans B, C and D if you have to. What do I do? I don't claim any wisdom, but I keep a 2-3 year cushion of my actual spending rate in cash. That's anathema to most investors, but it gives me the ability a/to sleep at night knowing I am safe for 24-36 months no matter what but more importantly b/it buys me 24-36 months to evaluate, adjust spending, think about getting some cash through projects etc. Money is time and having the time to sit out volatility is important to me

 

[siamond]

This calculator shows I can spend 23% less than FireCalc shows. I sure hope Im entering something incorrectly.

******** is still a pretty new tool, not fully mature. I know the author wanted to take great care of emulating the Firecalc's results though, even in its quirks (e.g. end of the year's math).

If you stumbled upon a case where this isn't the case, I'm sure the author would love to know and investigate.

If you click on the "******** Forums" on the upper left corner of the display, you'll find easy access to a forum where you can report issues, ask questions, make suggestions, etc. In my experience, the author has been remarkably responsive.

 

[siamond]

+1 I used that text string thing so I could recreate a scenario but if I want to fiddle with assumptions I have to enter everything in again. Not happening - I'm retired - I have better things to do than reenter the same numbers I entered yesterday.

This is a great point, actually. Let me log this one on your behalf as an improvement request.

 

[sengsational]

Does anyone know of a way to save the inputs, so if I want to call back up this site it will have what I entered in before?

You can load the LastPass plug-in for your browser (free for non-mobile). I'll admit, it's overkill for this purpose, but once you fill-out the form, you can just click "Save All Entered Data" and the next time you come back to the page, that data will be pre-populated.

The real purpose of LastPass is that it encrypts as many passwords as you want under one master password. If you make the master password long and unguessable, the encryption, done locally on your machine, should be uncrackable. The company (LastPass) just stores a blob of psudo random data and does not have the ability to decrypt it. Although it's not open source, there are folks sniffing the connection and have confirmed it's doing what it says. I pay the $12/yr so I can have all my passwords on my tablet and phone.

Long digression, but you could just install the free LastPass and just use the thing that saves all the inputs on the page. You can have multiple named versions, even.

 

[ClockWatcher]

Like It!

I've been playing with ******** on and off today. I like it's layout, with everything on the same page. I also like the interactive graph that results. I find this format easier to use than FIRECalc. Like others, I discovered differences in the calculations such that failures seem to occur more often in ******** when I plugged in similar scenarios to it and FIRECalc.

I tried using LastPass to save my data, as Sengsational recommended, and was successful at storing my data in an intelligible manner. Of note, Last Pass does not recall the additional "Other Income/Saving" that I input for my wife's savings, but re-inputting this small amount of data is minor for me.

A big thank you for sharing this.

 

[SoReady]

You can load the LastPass plug-in for your browser (free for non-mobile). I'll admit, it's overkill for this purpose, but once you fill-out the form, you can just click "Save All Entered Data" and the next time you come back to the page, that data will be pre-populated.

Excellent! I use LastPass for all my passwords, but didn't realize I could use it to save the data for this form. Thanks!

 

[Midpack]

I like the one page input approach of this calculator

+1. I also like the results graphs much better than FIRECALC, clearly easier to read and more meaningful for me at least (you can see trends/patterns, FIRECALC is basically a distribution the way it's presented). And having more current data is a plus, as far as I can tell FIRECALC is no longer supported (too bad, it is/was a great tool).

 

[razztazz]

At 9:30pm EST I was beginning a Head-to-head Firecalc to ******** and noticed right at the top of the Firecalc home page it says:

FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator
(Data updated 9/8/2013)

 

[marko]

I like the single page inputs, but where are all these graphs that everyone is talking about? The only graph I get is when I request Monte Carlo

 

[Katsmeow]

At 9:30pm EST I was beginning a Head-to-head Firecalc to ******** and noticed right at the top of the Firecalc home page it says:

FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator
(Data updated 9/8/2013)

I think the data has been updated through 2012. I was able to run something which gave a spreadsheet which included a 30 year run beginning with 1983.

Need to go run numbers with the new data....

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks for everyone's participation


Porky Pig Cartoon Ending "That's All Folks!" - YouTube