Plot My Money and FI Calc compared

FI Calc and Plot My Money both help you judge how much you can spend from savings. FI Calc backtests withdrawal strategies quickly and lets you compare many of them. Plot My Money builds a full household plan with taxes, Social Security and accounts. This page sets out what each one does.

Who each one is for

FI Calc is for people who want to compare withdrawal strategies before or during retirement. Its about page describes it as a calculator that uses backtesting to evaluate withdrawal strategies. It says FI Calc "does not provide financial advice".

Plot My Money is for US households planning for retirement or already retired. It shows what's safe to spend each month, tests the plan across thousands of simulated markets, and plans taxes, Social Security and withdrawals year by year. It runs in a browser on phones and computers, and has an Advisor plan for planners who work with clients.

Features side by side

“Not published” means we didn't find the feature on FI Calc's public pages. It doesn't mean the feature is missing.

Notes on the table:

• Withdrawal strategies. The calculator lists 13, including constant dollar, percent of portfolio, VPW, Guyton-Klinger, the 95% rule, CAPE-based, Hebeler Autopilot II and Vanguard Dynamic Spending.
• Income. You can add income "for wages, Social Security, or other sources of income in retirement", and extra withdrawals for known future costs.
• Results. The calculator shows a success rate, end-of-plan values, charts of portfolio value and spending, and a table of every simulation. The page says results can be shared or exported but doesn't give the file format.
• Plot My Money. Monte Carlo runs up to 1,000 simulated markets on the free plan and up to 10,000 on Plus. Balances are entered by hand or imported from files.

Pricing as published

Plot My Money has a free plan and two paid plans. Plus covers your household, at a yearly price of the amount shown before you subscribe. The Advisor plan covers a set number of client households, at a yearly price of the amount shown before you subscribe. Until paid plans go on sale, every feature is included for every household. See plans and billing.

FI Calc (from its about page, checked November 5, 2026):

• "FI Calc is provided for free, and is supported by donations."
• The calculator page asks you to consider donating if it's been useful.

Where FI Calc is stronger

• Free and supported by donations, according to its about page.
• A long list of withdrawal strategies to compare, including several that adjust spending to markets.
• Fast results from a short set of inputs on one page, with a table of every historical run.

Who should pick which

• Pick FI Calc if you want to compare withdrawal strategies quickly at no cost.
• Pick FI Calc if your main question is how a spending rule would have behaved in past markets.
• Pick Plot My Money if you want taxes, Social Security claiming, Medicare and withdrawal order worked out for your household.
• Pick Plot My Money if you want a saved plan you update over time, with a monthly safe-to-spend figure and scenarios.

How to switch

Plot My Money doesn't import FI Calc files, so you set up your plan again. Have your latest balances, pay, spending and Social Security estimates to hand.

1. Start a plan and answer the setup questions about your household, income, spending and accounts.
2. If you have a holdings file, import it as Excel or CSV on the Accounts screen.
3. Add Social Security from your SSA statement, plus pensions and any other income.
4. Compare the results with your old plan. Differences usually come from assumptions about returns, inflation, taxes and spending.

You can download your plan as a JSON file at any time. See getting started and importing and exporting.

Sources

Each page below was read on November 5, 2026.

• FI Calc calculator
• FI Calc about page