Best Retirement Planning Tools for Self-Directed Investors

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Capital at risk. A retirement plan is a set of assumptions about returns, inflation and spending. Every tool below turns those assumptions into projections; none of them can tell you what markets will do. Nothing here is advice.

The best retirement planning tool for a self-directed investor is ProjectionLab if you want one plan covering your whole financial life — its free tier already includes Monte Carlo simulation and historical backtesting, and the paid tier adds international planning. Boldin and Pralana go deepest on US-specific questions such as Roth conversions and Social Security timing. To stress-test a withdrawal rate for free, use FI Calc or cFIREsim, which replay your plan through historical markets. And if you will draw your retirement income in one currency and spend it in another, the conversion cost is a planning line of its own — that is where Wise fits. Prices were read on each provider's page on 30 September 2026; ProjectionLab and Boldin were re-checked on 17 October 2026, when Boldin's paid plan had risen to US$168 a year.

This guide is part of our series on tools for self-directed investors. Start with the 8 best investment tools for self-directed investors; the companion guide compares portfolio tracker apps, which is where the numbers you feed into a retirement plan should come from.

What a retirement planning tool should answer

A good tool answers three questions a pension statement does not: how much can I safely spend each year, when can I stop working, and in what order should I draw on my accounts? The first depends on how long the money has to last and what sequence of returns you get; the second on savings and spending; the third on tax, which varies by country. Our guides to retirement account types and the FIRE approach cover the strategy; the tools below do the arithmetic.

The six tools at a glance

1. ProjectionLab — Whole-Life Financial Plan

What it does: ProjectionLab models your income, spending, accounts and life events year by year and projects your net worth and retirement readiness. The free Basic plan includes forecasting, Monte Carlo simulations, historical backtesting and flexible modelling.

Why investors need it: Most retirement calculators ask for one savings figure and one return. ProjectionLab lets you model the messy reality — a career break, a house move, a pension that starts later. Premium adds cash-flow projections, tax estimation, what-if scenarios and a compare mode, estate planning, capital-gains harvesting, Roth conversions and international planning, which matters if your retirement will not follow US rules. ProjectionLab states that it never sells your data.

Best for: Investors who want one detailed plan and live outside, or plan to retire outside, the United States.

Cost: Basic free ($0/year, no sign-up or credit card needed to start); Premium US$129/year with a free trial; Pro US$549/year for financial advisers and coaches.

2. Boldin — US Retirement Planning With Tax Detail

What it does: Boldin is retirement and financial-planning software with a free plan for building a personalised plan and trying "what if" scenarios. PlannerPlus adds Monte Carlo analysis, state and federal tax projections, a Roth conversion explorer, side-by-side scenario comparison, account linking and unlimited use of its AI assistant.

Why investors need it: For US savers, the big retirement decisions — when to claim Social Security, how much to convert to Roth and when — are tax questions, and Boldin is built around them. It also offers a flat-fee plan review with a CFP® professional if you want a human check.

Best for: US-based self-directed investors in or approaching retirement.

Cost: Free plan; PlannerPlus US$168/year, billed annually after a 14-day free trial (re-read 17 October 2026 — it was US$144 when we first checked on 30 September); a flat-fee advisory plan checkup costs US$3,200.

3. Pralana — Spreadsheet-Grade Detail

What it does: Pralana offers three retirement calculators: Pralana Bronze, a free downloadable Excel model; Pralana Gold, a paid, high-fidelity Excel model; and Pralana Online, a web version of Gold. The full models calculate outcomes with deterministic, Monte Carlo and historical methods and can optimise Roth conversions, withdrawal order, Social Security start age and retirement age.

Why investors need it: If you want to see every line of the calculation — income streams, federal and state tax, account-level returns from your own asset allocation — Pralana exposes it. The free Bronze version keeps your data on your own computer.

Best for: Detail-oriented US investors who like spreadsheets and want to test withdrawal order and tax in depth.

Cost: Bronze is free (it needs Microsoft Excel). We did not find a price for Gold or Online on the page we read, so check the current price.

4. FI Calc — Test Your Withdrawal Strategy

What it does: FI Calc evaluates a retirement plan against historical market data. You set the duration, portfolio size and asset mix, and choose a withdrawal strategy — constant dollar, percentage of portfolio, variable percentage withdrawal (VPW), Guyton-Klinger, CAPE-based, Vanguard Dynamic Spending, an endowment strategy and more — and it reports how often the plan survived.

Why investors need it: The single most important retirement number is how much you can withdraw each year. FI Calc lets you compare rules side by side instead of assuming one fixed percentage, and it shows the spending volatility each rule would have caused. Remember that a historical "success rate" describes the past, not a guarantee.

Best for: Anyone deciding how to draw down a portfolio, especially early retirees.

Cost: The calculator runs in the browser; no sign-up or price was shown on the page when we checked.

5. cFIREsim — Historical Cycle Simulator

What it does: cFIREsim runs your retirement plan through every historical period in its dataset (or specific years you pick), or through a constant growth rate, from your retirement start and end years, portfolio value and spending. On 30 September 2026 it showed market data to 1 August 2026.

Why investors need it: It is a second opinion on the same question FI Calc answers, with a different set of inputs — useful for checking that a plan's result is not an artefact of one tool's assumptions.

Best for: FIRE-minded investors who want to see how their plan would have fared through past crashes and inflationary periods.

Cost: No price was shown on the calculator page when we checked.

6. Wise — If You Will Retire in Another Currency

What it does: Wise is a multi-currency account for holding, converting and spending money in different currencies. It converts at the mid-market rate and shows its fee upfront before each conversion.

Why investors need it: If your pension or portfolio pays out in one currency and you plan to live in another country, every withdrawal becomes a currency conversion, and a bank's hidden exchange-rate margin comes straight out of your retirement income. Build the conversion cost into your plan — and compare it with what your bank charges.

Best for: Retirees and future retirees who will spend in a different currency from the one their income arrives in.

Cost: Registering and holding money are free. On Wise's UK pricing page, sending money has a fee that varies by currency, from 0.24%; the debit card costs £7; ATM withdrawals are free up to £250 a month, then 2.69% on the amount above that. Fees differ by country, so check the price for your currency route.

Open a Wise account

Cost Breakdown

Prices as read on each provider's page on 30 September 2026:

A Worked Example: What to Feed the Tools

Take a hypothetical couple planning to retire with a 600,000 portfolio and essential spending covered by a pension, with the portfolio paying for the rest.

Run the same inputs through FI Calc and cFIREsim with a constant-dollar rule, then with a variable rule such as Guyton-Klinger, and compare how often each survived and how much spending moved from year to year. Then build the full plan, with taxes and pension income, in ProjectionLab, Boldin or Pralana.

The cost of retiring in another currency. If 2,000 a month of retirement income (24,000 a year) has to be converted, a hypothetical 2.5% bank margin costs 600 a year; a conversion fee of 0.24% — the lowest figure on Wise's UK pricing page, which varies by currency route — would cost 57.60. Over 20 years, without any growth, that gap is 10,848. Check the actual fee for your currency pair before putting a number in your plan.

How to Use These Tools Together

1. Get your real numbers first. A plan is only as good as its starting balance and cost basis — a portfolio tracker gives you both.

2. Build the plan in ProjectionLab, Boldin or Pralana, depending on where you live and how much tax detail you need.

3. Stress-test the withdrawal rate in FI Calc and cFIREsim. If the two disagree sharply, find out which assumption causes it.

4. Add the costs people forget: fund fees, tax and currency conversion. Our guide to how much you need to live off dividends shows how quickly they change the answer, and the 10-year lazy income portfolio shows one way to structure the money.

5. Re-run it once a year — or after any big change in markets, income or plans.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free retirement planning tool?

ProjectionLab's free Basic plan includes forecasting, Monte Carlo simulations and historical backtesting. Boldin also has a free plan, and FI Calc and cFIREsim let you test withdrawal strategies against historical data without paying.

Which retirement planner works outside the United States?

ProjectionLab lists international planning in its Premium plan. Boldin and Pralana are built around US rules such as Roth conversions, Social Security and federal and state tax, so non-US investors will need to adapt or ignore those parts. FI Calc and cFIREsim test withdrawal rates and are less tied to one tax system, though their historical data should be read with that in mind.

Is a Monte Carlo success rate a guarantee?

No. A Monte Carlo or historical success rate shows how a plan performed across simulated or past market paths under your assumptions. Future returns, inflation and your own spending can all differ. Treat it as a stress test and leave a margin.

How often should I update my retirement plan?

At least once a year, and whenever something material changes — a new job, a large market move, a change in expected spending or where you plan to live.

Sources

More in this series: 8 best investment tools for self-directed investors · best portfolio tracker apps · retirement account providers on our retirement hub.

This article was written by Thomas Lovas Lokoy — researched and drafted with AI assistance from published sources; edited and published by NorwegianSpark SA. YieldNav is operated by NorwegianSpark SA (org. 834 984 172), founded by Thomas Lovas Lokoy. We are not licensed financial advisers, and nothing here is personalised advice. Some links are affiliate links; where a partner pays us, your capital is still at risk and our editorial view is unchanged. Read our about page, editorial policy and affiliate disclosure.