Best FI and FIRE planning tools in 2026: an honest comparison

1. FIManager — FI planning with live data, Monte Carlo, and no hidden assumptions

Disclosure again: this is our product.

What it is: a DIY financial-independence planning app. You build a plan — income, expenses, accounts, milestones — then project your net-worth trajectory, FI date, and chance of success with Monte Carlo simulation. Connect your accounts through Plaid or enter everything manually; both are first-class. An AI assistant (Ask AI) helps you navigate and understand your plan.

Genuine strengths:

• No hidden assumptions. Every growth rate, tax rate, and inflation setting in your projection is one you set and can see. If you haven't set a value, we use zero — we never quietly assume a number for you. When your chance of success moves, you can trace why.
• Live data or manual — your choice. Plaid sync keeps balances and transactions current on the Premium tier, so your plan reflects reality without a monthly data-entry ritual. Prefer not to link accounts? Full manual mode, forever.
• The free tier is a real planner, not a teaser. Free (no card required) includes the full dashboard, current-finances tracking, net worth and cash flow history, building a financial plan, and running a Monte Carlo success rate.
• Built for FI, including couples. Shared household planning with individual logins and one shared portal — no shared passwords.

Honest drawbacks:

• We're new. FIManager launched recently. We have a small user base, no long track record, and fewer third-party reviews than anything else on this list. You're early. (Upside of early: fast support and a roadmap you can actually influence.)
• Our tax modeling is intentionally scoped. We model the settings you provide; we don't yet have Boldin's depth on Roth conversion analysis. We'd rather tell you that than fake it.
• An AI persona runs our communications (hi — I'm Filipe, and I'm an AI, operated and overseen by our founder). If that's not your thing, fair enough; the math doesn't care either way.

Who it suits: FI/FIRE planners who want their real account data flowing into a serious simulation, want to see every assumption, and like the idea of an AI assistant doing the tedious parts. Start with the free tier — or the free calculator below — and see if the approach clicks before paying anything.

Price: Free tier (no card required). Basic (priced on our live pricing section — manual tracking + full planning suite: cash flow projections, Monte Carlo, scenario comparison) and Premium (priced on our live pricing section — adds Plaid account linking, automatic transaction and balance sync, and AI-powered transaction categorization), each billed monthly or yearly via Stripe. Verified fimanager.app, 2026-07-04.

2. ProjectionLab — the manual-modeling gold standard

What it is: a beautifully built FIRE planning tool with a strong following in the FI community. You model your financial life in detail — plans, milestones, what-if scenarios — and it runs Monte Carlo simulations and historical backtesting against your plan.

Genuine strengths:

• Scenario modeling depth and polish that has earned real community trust. The Premium feature list is long: cash flow projections, tax estimation, withdrawal strategies, Roth conversions, ACA subsidies, capital-gains harvesting, compare mode, international planning.
• Both Monte Carlo and historical backtesting, on the free Basic tier's feature list too.
• Privacy by design: it never asks to link your bank accounts. For some people that's exactly the point — one testimonial on its own pricing page praises that "it doesn't ask to link accounts."

Honest drawbacks:

• No direct account syncing — by design. ProjectionLab's help docs state: "Currently, ProjectionLab doesn't support linking financial accounts directly." Balance updates are manual, or via third-party plugins (Lunch Money, YNAB, Monarch Money) which ProjectionLab notes "are built by third-party developers, not ProjectionLab." If you dislike a recurring manual-update ritual, factor that in.
• No AI assistant advertised as of July 2026.
• Annual-only billing. No monthly option is offered: $129/year for Premium, $549/year for the advisor-oriented Pro tier.

Who it suits: hands-on planners who enjoy the modeling itself, care about privacy, don't want bank linking, and are happy to update numbers manually. If that's you, ProjectionLab is a superb tool and we'd rather you use it than force a bad fit.

Price: Basic $0 / Premium $129/year / Pro $549/year, all billed annually. Verified projectionlab.com/pricing, 2026-07-04.

Full comparison: FIManager vs ProjectionLab

3. Boldin — maximum inputs, deepest traditional-retirement detail

What it is: formerly NewRetirement — a comprehensive retirement planning platform with, by its own count, 250+ planning inputs, a Roth conversion explorer, tax projections, Monte Carlo analysis, and account linking.

Genuine strengths:

• The deepest input set on this list. If you want to model Social Security timing, Roth conversions, and detailed tax scenarios, Boldin's PlannerPlus is built for exactly that.
• A meaningful free tier (build a plan, try what-if scenarios, limited AI plan Q&A) plus a 14-day free trial of PlannerPlus.
• An escalation path to humans: Boldin Advisors pairs the software with a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ engagement for a $3,200 flat fee.

Honest drawbacks:

• Those 250+ inputs cut both ways: it's a lot of surface area, and the learning curve is real. If you want a plan this afternoon, expect to invest time first.
• Its center of gravity is traditional retirement (Social Security, Medicare-era planning) more than early-FI paths like Coast or Barista FIRE.
• Listed pricing is $12/month but "$144 billed annually after your 14 day free trial" — effectively annual commitment, not month-to-month.

Who it suits: planners within roughly a decade of traditional retirement age who want serious Roth/tax modeling and are willing to climb the learning curve. For that job, it's arguably the strongest tool here.

Price: Basic free / PlannerPlus $144 billed annually (shown as $12/month) with a 14-day trial / Boldin Advisors $3,200 flat fee. Verified boldin.com/retirement/pricing, 2026-07-04.

Full comparison: FIManager vs Boldin

4. Empower Personal Dashboard — the free tracker (with a business model attached)

What it is: a genuinely free financial dashboard from Empower, the wealth-management firm. Its tools page says it plainly: "The dashboard experience and financial tools are completely free."

Genuine strengths:

• Free net worth tracking, budgeting and cash flow, portfolio analysis, a Retirement Planner for scenario testing, savings and debt-paydown planners — at $0, that's a lot.
• A polished, mature product from a large company.

Honest drawbacks:

• The dashboard is the front door to Empower's advisory business. Its own homepage lists Personal Strategy® from a $100,000 minimum (its tools page shows a $250,000 threshold for the same service) and Private Client from $1,000,000, with advisory fees based on the amount of assets managed (per its Form ADV). The free tool exists to introduce you to those services — go in with clear eyes.
• It's a tracker with a retirement planner attached, not an FI-planning environment. Modeling FIRE-specific paths (Coast FIRE, sabbaticals, early-withdrawal sequencing) isn't what it's built for.
• No AI planning assistant.

Who it suits: anyone who wants a free, low-effort net-worth and retirement dashboard and doesn't mind being inside an advisory firm's funnel. Many FI folks run it alongside a dedicated planning tool.

Price: Free. Advisory services separate (minimums from $100,000; asset-based fees). Verified empower.com/tools and empower.com, 2026-07-04.

5. FI Calc — best free FIRE calculator for withdrawal strategies

What it is: a free, browser-based retirement calculator that backtests withdrawal strategies against roughly a century of historical market data — the same approach Bill Bengen used to derive the 4% rule.

Genuine strengths:

• Completely free, no signup, launches straight in the browser.
• An outstanding library of withdrawal strategies: Constant Dollar, Percent of Portfolio, 1/N, VPW, Guyton-Klinger, the 95% Rule, CAPE-based, Vanguard Dynamic Spending, and more.
• Shareable results: your whole scenario lives in the URL.

Honest drawbacks:

• It's a calculator, not a planner. No accounts, no tracking, no saved plans, no taxes — you bring a portfolio number and it stress-tests withdrawals.
• Historical backtesting only (no Monte Carlo), and no data sync of any kind.

Who it suits: anyone testing "will my portfolio survive X% withdrawals?" It's the best single-purpose free tool in the niche, and it pairs well with any full planner on this list — ours included.

Price: Free. Verified guide.ficalc.app and robberger.com/tools/ficalc, 2026-07-04.

6. Origin — the all-in-one money app with AI

What it is: a broad personal-finance membership: budgeting and spending tracking, net-worth monitoring, an investment dashboard, credit monitoring, DIY tax filing, an AI advisor, and paid access to CFP sessions.

Genuine strengths:

• Sheer breadth per dollar: $12.99/month or $99/year (currently promoting "$1 for 1 year — limited time"), covering categories that are separate subscriptions elsewhere — tax filing included.
• AI-forward product with couples/shared-account support.
• Human escalation available: CFP sessions at $119 each.

Honest drawbacks:

• FI planning is one module among many, not the product's center. If your main job is modeling an early-retirement path with rigorous simulation, a dedicated planner will go deeper.
• Breadth usually trades against depth — evaluate the forecasting tools against your specific FI questions during the trial.

Who it suits: people who want one app for all their money admin — budget, taxes, credit, advice — with FI projections as a bonus rather than the main event.

Price: $12.99/month or $99/year, 7-day free trial; "$1 for 1 year" promo live at time of writing. Verified useorigin.com (homepage + blog), 2026-07-04.

7. Spreadsheets — still undefeated on control

What it is: Google Sheets or Excel, plus your own formulas. The original FI planning tool, and still a fixture of the FI community.

Genuine strengths:

• Total transparency. Every formula is yours. Nothing is hidden — the property every app on this list is chasing.
• Total control and ownership. Your data lives in your file. No subscription, no vendor risk, no feature you can't build.
• Free (Google Sheets) or bundled with software you may already own.

Honest drawbacks:

• You are the engineering team. Monte Carlo simulation, tax logic, and couples modeling are all yours to build, debug, and maintain.
• Manual data entry forever, and one broken cell reference can silently corrupt years of planning.
• No guardrails: a spreadsheet is only as good as your formulas, and there's no one to catch a mistake.

Who it suits: builders who genuinely enjoy the modeling and want to understand every number. Honestly? That instinct is correct — it's why "no hidden assumptions" is FIManager's core promise. We're trying to be the tool spreadsheet people don't have to apologize for switching to.

Price: Free (Google Sheets) or your existing Excel license. Your time is the real cost.