How much will I have, and how long will it last?
A financial life has two (sometimes overlapping) phases: building up savings while you earn, and living on them after you stop. finfire has a calculator for each.
Markets do not move in a straight line.Test your plan against a market slump, simulated markets and tax slabs, see what it would take, and save and compare plans.
Privacy first.Your financial figures are sent only to work out your answer, then thrown away: never stored, logged or tracked.
- EarningPhase 1 · Accumulate
- Stop working
- RetiredPhase 2 · Burndown
Not sure? If you still draw a salary, start with Phase 1. Everything Pro adds
The 3-bucket strategy for retirement drawdown
Many retirement plans assume one steady withdrawal rate, but markets do not move in straight lines. The 3-bucket strategy splits your savings by when you will spend them: the next few years of spending sit in safer buckets, and the rest stays invested to grow. This is how Phase 2 runs it, with the bucket sizes and mixes it opens with:
Bucket 3 · long-term money
Whatever is left after the other buckets, invested to grow: unless you change it, 80% mid/flexi-cap equity and 20% bonds and gilts.
At each year end, Bucket 3 tops Bucket 2 back up to 48 months of the next year’s spending, in good years and bad (or hold back refills during a fall with Pro refill rules).
Bucket 2 · the next few years
48 months of spending: unless you change it, 80% bonds and gilts and 20% large-cap equity.
At each year end, Bucket 2 tops Bucket 1 back up to 18 months of the next year’s spending.
Bucket 1 · your spending money
18 months of spending: unless you change it, all in ultra-short debt.
Every month, your spending comes out of Bucket 1.
Your spending
The same each month within a year, rising with inflation every year.
Emergency fund
12 months of spending, set aside first and never spent: it is not counted as money to spend.
You choose every bucket’s size, what it holds and the tax on it.
Tax is paid on the gains in whatever leaves a bucket.
Your spendable savings run out when Buckets 1, 2 and 3 are all empty.
Read the guide: The three-bucket retirement strategy →
Mitigating sequence of returns risk
Sequence of returns risk is the danger that poor market returns in the early years of retirement permanently deplete your savings. When you withdraw money while asset prices are depressed, you must sell more investment units to fund the same living spending. Even if markets rebound later, the sold units can never recover.
How finfire models market reality
Your plan takes returns as steady every year; real markets are not. Four things in finfire help with that:
- Years of spending kept apart: with the bucket sizes Phase 2 opens with, Buckets 1 and 2 hold 66 months (5½ years) of spending, mostly in debt. Bucket 3 still tops Bucket 2 back up at every year end, in good years and bad; Pro lets you switch from this default annual top-up to drain-first, guardrail or gains-only refill rules.
- Market slump simulation: Test what happens if a sharp market downturn strikes in the early years of your retirement plan.
- Simulated markets (Monte Carlo): runs your plan through 2,000 simulated markets, each year's return drawn at random around the one you typed, with a market volatility you can set for each investment, and shows in how many of them your savings last.
- Realistic tax modelling: works out each year's tax on Indian slabs (new or old regime, FY 2026-27, with rebate, surcharge and cess) or on US federal brackets, instead of flat rates.
Read the guide: Sequence of returns risk →
How the two calculators guide your financial journey
Phase 1 · Accumulate Calculator
For while you are still earning. Determines what your current investments and ongoing monthly investments will grow to by the year you stop working.
- Key inputs: Starting investments, monthly investing amount, annual investment raises (yearly raise), expected return, and general inflation.
- Life goals: Add milestone goals along the way (such as buying a home or funding education), which are funded from your growing savings.
- Real vs nominal: View your final savings in both today’s money (purchasing power) and actual money of that future year.
- Bridge to Phase 2: Pro carries your savings, your monthly spending once you stop, your inflation, the share of your savings that is gain not yet taxed, and your goals after you stop into the Burndown calculator.
Phase 2 · Burndown Calculator
For when you have retired or are planning retirement drawdown. Calculates how long your savings will last when you spend from three buckets.
- Key inputs: Total retirement savings, monthly spending, inflation rate, bucket sizes, and asset allocation across equities and debt.
- Refill cascade: your spending comes out of Bucket 1 every month; at each year end Bucket 2 tops up Bucket 1, and Bucket 3 tops up Bucket 2.
- Tax slabs & glide path: Accounts for capital gains taxes on withdrawals, deductions, and a Bucket 3 asset mix glide path over time.
- The answer: the year your spendable savings run out, or that your savings last all the years you plan for, worked out as you type.
The rules both follow, step by step: How finfire works →
Latest research
Papers that put one question to finfire’s calculators, in plain language, with the inputs and results published.
- The Pre-Retirement Glide Path Paradox — De-Risking 5 Years Early vs. Staying 85% Equity Until Day Zero
24 min read
- VOO vs. CSPX (Ireland UCITS) — Quantifying Dividend Tax Drag, the Cost-Basis Reset Penalty, and the $60k Estate Tax Cliff
38 min read
- The "Lumpy Cash Flow" Multiplier Myth — Why a 40x Corpus Fails When Kids' Education Collides with Sequence Risk
23 min read
Frequently asked questions
What is the three-bucket retirement strategy?
The three-bucket strategy is a retirement drawdown framework that divides your savings into three distinct pools based on timeline and purpose. Bucket 1 holds 1 to 2 years of cash for immediate monthly living spending. Bucket 2 holds 3 to 7 years in stable debt and bonds to refill Bucket 1. Bucket 3 holds equities for long-term growth to beat inflation. This keeps the next few years of spending mostly out of the share market.
How does a retirement savings burndown simulator work?
A savings burndown simulator calculates how a retirement portfolio depletes over time under regular withdrawals, inflation, taxes, and investment returns. Rather than a simple flat formula, finfire works month by month through your spending, the yearly bucket top-ups, the tax on the gains you realise and, if you choose, simulated markets, to show how many years your savings last on your figures.
Why is sequence of returns risk so critical in retirement?
During wealth accumulation, market drops can actually benefit investors by allowing them to buy units at lower prices. In retirement, as you live on your savings, the reverse is true: taking withdrawals during a market crash locks in permanent capital loss. The 3-bucket strategy softens this by keeping several years of spending in cash and debt, so your spending for the next year or so is not paid by selling shares. Bucket 3 still tops up Bucket 2 every year; Market slump shows what a bad start does to your plan.
How does finfire protect my data privacy?
finfire is built with privacy first. Your financial figures are never stored on our servers, logged, or tracked. The figures you enter are processed in memory for calculation and immediately discarded. There are no advertising scripts, no third-party trackers, no analytics SDKs, and no external font requests. Saved plans remain entirely within your own web browser.
Is finfire free to use?
Yes. Anyone can enter their own figures and edit the basic parameters in both calculators, with no account and no email address. A free account opens plan links someone sends you, and is the way to Pro. Pro unlocks advanced modelling features including simulated markets, tax slabs, asset mix glide paths, and tools that work out ‘What would it take?’.
About finfire
finfire was created by financial engineering enthusiasts and software builders with deep interest in retirement planning and research.
Traditional retirement calculators online are often lead-generation funnels designed to sell financial products, insurance, or advisory services. They frequently oversimplify critical realities like sequence of returns risk, multi-tier tax slabs, and time-bucketed asset allocation.
finfire was built to solve this problem: an ad-free, tracker-free, affiliate-free, realistically accurate and privacy-first planning tool that models realistic multi-bucket retirement drawdowns, sequence of returns risk, and tax realities. It is designed to be easy to use and understand by anyone without a finance background.
Disclaimer: We are not SEBI registered advisers; finfire is an educational and analytical planning tool, and no financial advice is provided. Feedback and inquiries are welcome at hello@finfire.org.