From the Sanskrit निवृत्ति — freedom from obligation.The state financial independence is meant to be.

The problem

Why this is worth an evening

• Roughly 12 years

  How long it takes prices to double at 6%

  Inflation is quoted yearly, which makes it sound like a yearly problem. Over a thirty-year plan it is the deciding one — and prices never give the ground back once they have risen.

• Faster than everything else

  How healthcare and education costs move

  Both have outpaced general inflation in almost every economy, often by several points a year. A plan that prices a child’s degree at the general rate understates it, and the gap widens until the fees fall due.

• Ten years of delay

  Costs more than doubling what you save later

  Compounding rewards time far more than it rewards contribution size. Starting a decade earlier is usually the single largest lever anyone has, and it is the one that expires.

• Eleven countries

  Because where you live changes the arithmetic

  A number is only meaningful against the inflation, returns and costs of the place the money gets spent. We plan in the currency and conditions of the country you will actually be living in — not a converted answer.

Figures above are illustrative, to show the shape of the problem. Your plan uses the published assumptions for the country you choose, and shows you every one of them.

The process

How it works

1. 1

   Tell us about you

   Your age, where you will be living, and the assumptions we project with.

2. 2

   What you own and owe

   Savings, property, schemes, and the debts against them.

3. 3

   What you are working towards

   What you earn, what you spend, and the one-off costs ahead.

4. 4

   Get your plan

   A year-by-year projection, a plain verdict, and what would break it.