Launched this week
Retirology
FIRE planning without the subscription.
3 followers
FIRE planning without the subscription.
3 followers
Professional retirement planning as a one-time $19+ purchase, not a $20-40/month subscription. Roth conversion ladders, Monte Carlo, ACA optimization, full 51-state tax across all four filing statuses, year-by-year drawdown Sankey. An affordable, privacy-first alternative to ProjectionLab, Boldin, MaxiFi, and YNAB. Runs locally on macOS, Windows, and Linux. No accounts. No telemetry.
Hey Hunters 👋
A bit on why this exists:
Most retirement planning tools sell themselves on a $20-40/month subscription. For a tool you'll lean on for 30+ years of planning, that math doesn't work, you'd pay thousands over time for software that should have been a one-time purchase. The FIRE community in particular tends to either patch things together in spreadsheets or grit their teeth and pay the recurring bill.
Retirology is what I wished existed. A desktop app, sold once per major version, that handles the calculations FIRE planners actually need, including:
- Roth conversion ladders with four optimization modes (fill-the-bracket, ACA-cap, fixed, RMD-targeted)
- Monte Carlo with historical bootstrap from a bundled 1928–2024 dataset (S&P 500, 10-yr Treasury, T-bills, CPI)
- ACA premium-subsidy optimization with full MAGI strategy
- Full state + locality income tax across 51 states and all four filing statuses
- Year-by-year drawdown with a Sankey that traces every dollar
- Built-in budget analyzer that sets your FI target from real spending, not a guessed round number
A few design choices worth flagging:
Local-only. Your data lives in a SQLite file on your laptop. The app makes one network call per launch: a static version JSON check. No cloud sync, no account, no telemetry. Run Little Snitch, and you'll see exactly what I'm describing.
Pay-what-you-want above $19. The floor is $19. Suggested tier is $65, about one month of a typical advisor subscription. You pick what feels fair.
Yearly major versions, never a subscription. Each year ships a new major (refreshed tax tables, app-wide redesigns) as a separate purchase, with a discount for prior-year customers. Mid-year patches are free and include all new features and enhancements. Check out https://retirology.app/changelog.html to see what we just shipped. Each annual version will keep working forever, even if I disappear; there's no server it depends on.
Genuinely looking for feedback, especially from anyone currently running their plan in a spreadsheet or paying for a tool that doesn't quite fit your situation. What's the gap you'd want closed?