PaceWhen could you afford to stop working?
Start with your accessible savings, regular monthly income, and living expenses. See when your money could support your life without work, and compare how life decisions shift your timeline.
When can your income become optional?
Estimate when wealth could support your monthly spending without needing work income. Everything stays in your browser.
Accessible savings, cash, and investments you could access.
Regular monthly living costs (housing, groceries, bills).
Regular take-home pay, or 0 if you are not working.
Any debt to include?
Add your largest scheduled debt, or combine multiple monthly loan payments into one. Don’t include this payment in monthly spending. (For tracking individual loan timelines, Pace for iPhone supports multiple independent payoff schedules.)
32 years
This estimate combines your wealth and income.
You have $1,465 left each month. Money left over builds wealth when kept as savings.
$58,400
$4,335
+$1,465
Wealth over 30 years
Projected balance based on your monthly spending, savings, and returns.
Compare a decision
See how taking time off, changing spending, or boosting income affects when you can stop working.
How your plan works
Monthly cash breakdown and money left
How your plan works
Monthly cash breakdown and money left
Income − spending − debt payments = money left. A shortfall uses wealth; a surplus increases wealth only when saving it is included in the assumptions.
Plan details
Coverage, monthly funding and decision inputs
Plan details
Coverage, monthly funding and decision inputs
$58,400
Available balance at month 0 before compounding or draws.
$4,335/mo
$4,335 living costs.
1. Monthly spending, income & debt commitments
Monthly income of $5,800 against monthly spending of $4,335 leaves a left each month of $1,465.
2. Rising prices & inflation context
Rising prices increase future spending at 2.85% per year, based on the World Bank 10-year compounded geometric CPI average.
3. Growth on existing wealth & future savings
Existing wealth compounds at 7.00% per year (+$340.67/mo). Newly saved money grows separately at 3.00% per year.
4. The work-optional condition (sufficiency proof)
Under these amounts and growth estimates, wealth does not reach ongoing coverage within 100 years.
Assumptions
Growth 7.00% · Inflation 2.85% · Surplus saved
Assumptions
Growth 7.00% · Inflation 2.85% · Surplus saved
Turning growth off previews both rates at zero. Income, spending and debt schedules stay the same.
Source: World Bank 10-year compounded geometric CPI average for United States (USA).
Money left each month is assumed to be saved.
Both lines use these growth rates and the same saving rule. Your decisions can use different assumptions from your current estimate.
Projections are estimates based on your entered amounts and compounding rules, not financial guarantees.
Model your financial future
Take your work-optional plan beyond a single calculation.
Pace for iPhone models your savings, ongoing investments, inflation, and debt payoff to show exactly when work becomes optional. Compare real-life choices side by side, such as stepping back, changing careers, or adjusting your spending, with a private, living financial model that stays with you.
Your web inputs stay here. They are not transferred to the app.
How work-optional forecasting works.
Traditional retirement planning asks you to multiply your yearly expenses by 25 or rely on a static 4% withdrawal rule. Pace takes a different approach: it models your actual cash flows forward month by month, accounting for rising living costs and compounding savings.
The Work-Optional Test in Pace:
Instead of guessing an arbitrary corpus number, Pace tests whether the real purchasing-power growth on your wealth exceeds your monthly living expenses:
Real Net Growth = Wealth × (Growth Rate − Inflation Rate)
When your real net return strictly covers your monthly bills, your savings never decrease in purchasing power even with zero future income.
Two different questions: runway versus lifelong coverage
Living on savings for a limited sabbatical is different from reaching ongoing financial independence. A pot of money that funds three or five years without work has not yet proven that income is optional permanently. Pace keeps these two questions strictly distinct:
- Finite cash runway: How many full months your accessible cash can fund before depletion.
- Work-optional milestone: The date by which your accumulated savings and compounding returns can fund living costs indefinitely without needing a new paycheck.
What this calculation excludes.
A deterministic projection models what you enter. It does not replace personal tax advice, legal employment counsel, or estate planning.
Taxes and deductions: Income and living costs should be entered in after-tax net terms. Pace does not calculate capital gains tax, dividend withholding, or regional tax bracket shifts.
Market volatility: Investment growth is assumed at constant annual rates. Real investment markets fluctuate; an early downturn during a drawdown phase (sequence-of-returns risk) can deplete savings faster than a steady mathematical average.
Health insurance & emergencies: Unplanned medical costs or major life repairs can exceed typical monthly averages. Maintain a dedicated liquid emergency reserve separate from long-term investments.
Review your plan before relying on the milestone.
- Audit your real living expenses: Check bank and credit card statements over the past 12 months for irregular annual costs that a typical monthly budget misses. Use the CFPB spending assessment checklist to help identify less frequent bills.
- Include all ongoing commitments in monthly spending: Count housing, groceries, bills, and any continuing debt payments once in your single monthly living cost figure.
- Test a lower growth estimate: Explore what happens if returns are lower than expected to see how sensitive your timeline is to market performance.
- Compare a decision: Use the decision tools below the chart to see how taking a break, cutting spending, or boosting income affects your milestone.
Sources and method.
Inflation benchmarks are derived from the World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI) dataset (indicator FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG, Inflation, consumer prices, annual %), which compiles sovereign macroeconomic data from national statistics offices and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) International Financial Statistics. Historical inflation rates are compounded over ten consecutive complete years using a geometric annual mean (cpiCompound10y.v1). For expense categorization and emergency cash principles, consult the CFPB spending checklist and emergency fund guidance. Public reference data from the World Bank, IMF, and CFPB does not imply endorsement of Pace or guarantee future individual investment returns or purchasing power.