Lurker here

[Not too ?]

After lurking for some time I finally registered. Two questions, first how reliable is the FIRECalc calculator? And why is the latest data for 2002?

Not too ?

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Not too ? Two questions, first how reliable is the FIRECalc calculator?

Not sure. Ask me again in 25 or 30 years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Not too ? And why is the latest data for 2002?

Dory36 created it while he was working. After he retired he discovered that keeping the data up to date was work. Sooooo, he gets to it when he gets to it.

Question for you Not too? There are 130+ years of data in FIRECalc. Will another year or two of data have a material impact on your retirement decision? If so, maybe you are slicing it a little thin. My advice: measure it with a micrometer, mark it with a grease pencil, and cut it with an axe.

[Nords]

Welcome to the board, Not too?!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Not too ? Two questions, first how reliable is the FIRECalc calculator?

If you're asking whether the website stays up, that seems pretty reliable.

If you're asking whether you can trust the results, the answer is "We don't know". *It's based on historical data and it runs your portfolio numbers through the actual returns data of various asset classes all the way back to 1873. *If your retirement plan survives the repeated runs through FIRECalc then we're hoping it'll survive your future retirement, too.

We can say that FIRECalc is the best retirement calculator available, which admittely isn't saying much unless the future resembles the past. *However you can't beat that fee schedule, and Dory is much more likely to make improvements to the system than some other giant soulless MegaCorp's biased pay-to-play websites.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Not too ? And why is the latest data for 2002?

FIRECalc works from actual returns data, and some of that does not exist in a useable format since 2002 for certain asset classes. *If you know where to find the answers to Dory's data search, he'd appreciate hearing from you.

http://early-retirement.org/forums/i...p?topic=5587.0