Personal Finance Decision, Tracking, and Projection Tools
Helping You Make Critical Decisions on the Way to FI, and Looking at Lots of Pretty and Exciting Plots
The tools below are built using a popular programming language called Python, which is both easy to learn and run. You can download the Python script file for each tool from the Engineering Your FI GitHub page.
September 2022 update: I’ve now placed an embedded Python interpreter in many of the posts corresponding to these tools, which means you can edit the inputs and/or code and then run directly from the post! See the “Code” section in each post, which you can access easily via the Table of Contents at the top.
One day I may create nice graphical interfaces for these tools, but for now I’ve made it as easy as possible to modify and run these Python scripts. All user inputs are in a distinct “Inputs” section at the top, so all you have to do is tweak those to your liking and hit run.
If you’d like to install and run Python on your computer, you can download it and follow any number of great instructions available. I also recommend downloading and installing PyCharm (my favorite) or VS Code, which are programs that make it easier to edit and run your code.
If you’d rather not deal with installing Python and you’re not a fan of the Python interpreter I’ve placed in each post, you can also use one of the many other online interpreters (though I have not tested my scripts on these): Repl.it, Tutorialspoint, Geekflare, Programiz, Python.org, OneCompiler, OnlineGDB, PYnative, CoCalc, Online Python.
Accounting for Investment Opportunity Costs
Choosing the Optimum Health Insurance Plan
Computing Your Time To Financial Independence for Your Savings Rate
Compute Your Time to Debt Freedom and Then Subsequent Financial Independence
Assess the Impact of Expenses or Income Growth Relative to Inflation on Time to FI
You’re FI / Retired! Or you’re about to be! Time to see how your collection of assets will fare with different withdrawal methods.
Compute How Much of Your Social Security Income Is Taxed
For a given Social Security Income (SSI), compute compute the maximum non-SSI standard income and long term capital gains you can have such that you pay no federal income taxes.
Assess the Impact of Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) on Asset Balances
Compute the withdrawals and other actions needed to follow the Tax and Penalty Minimization (TPM) withdrawals strategy for the current year.
Compute ACA (Obamacare) subsidies and subsidy loss rates for a range of income levels, family sizes, and tax filing statuses.
Compute current and future Social Security Income with your earnings history, expected future earnings, social security starting age, and birth date.
Determine if it is worth leaving a warehouse club membership for some period of time.
Learn how much Social Security income you’ll lose by retiring early, how much more you’ll need to save to offset that lost income, and how long it’ll take to save that extra money.
Choosing the best Obamacare (ACA) health insurance plan for you and your family.
Potential Future Tools
Let me know if you’d like to see one or more of these tools sooner rather than later!
FI Projection Tool
Computing Your Exact Day of Freedom!
How Much Can I Invest?
Projecting Expected Expenses to Compute Exactly How Much You Can Invest Each Month
Credit Card Selection tool
Selecting Your Optimal Next Credit Card
Travel Rewards Credit Card Tracking Tool
Tracking Tasks for Credit Cards You’re Using to Travel for (mostly) Free
Expense Tracking Tool
Tracking All Your Expenses, both Monthly and Yearly
Money Saved By Biking
How Much Money You’ll Save By Biking Instead of Driving