The Wealth Visionnaireยฎ
Financial Freedom Calculator
What does your work-optional life
look like for you?
look like for you?
Enter everything in today's dollars โ housing and basic costs are inflated to your freedom date automatically.
✦ Clarity Corner
Two paths — and both are valid
One of the most impactful decisions in freedom planning is what happens with your home. Here is how to think about your two choices:
- Stay in your current home: If your mortgage will be paid off, that removes one of your biggest monthly expenses — and is worth reflecting on. If you will still be paying, enter your expected payment at your freedom date. Either way, we estimate annual maintenance at 2% of your home value (you can override this).
- Downsize or move: This can be a powerful financial move. A smaller home typically means lower mortgage or rent, lower taxes, lower insurance, and lower repair costs. The equity from selling your current home can also fund a portion of your freedom fund (model that in the Real Estate step).
💡 Your primary home is not counted as a freedom asset here. If you plan to sell it and use the proceeds, add it as a property in Step 5 (Real Estate). The housing section is purely about your ongoing living costs in your freedom phase.
Housing in Your Freedom Phase
✓ Great news — no mortgage payment in your freedom phase. Monthly mortgage is set to $0.
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$
$
Enter your home value above to see the auto-estimate.
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Auto-filled at 2% of home value — the standard planning benchmark. Override with your own number.
✦ Clarity Corner
The life you actually want to live
This is the most personal section — and the one most women underestimate. Financial freedom does not mean spending less. It means spending differently.
- Travel: Many women find they travel more in their early freedom years — when health and energy are on your side. Plan for that season generously.
- The things that light you up: Horses, grandchildren, the gym, art classes, dinners out. These are not luxuries. They are the whole point.
- Not inflated: Travel and hobbies are entered as annual totals and treated as constant in real terms — you do not need to adjust them for inflation.
Enter what feels true to the life you want — not a cautious version of it. You can always adjust.
Lifestyle & Leisure (Annual โ entered as-is, not inflated)
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$
$
✦ Clarity Corner
Healthcare — the number most people wish they had planned for
Nobody loves talking about this, but a little planning here goes a long way.
- Before Medicare at 65: As a self-employed woman, health coverage can run $500–$1,500 per month. It is worth building this into your plan.
- After 65: Medicare helps significantly, but you will still have premiums, supplements, dental, vision, and prescriptions. A realistic budget: $500–$800/month.
- Fidelity research estimates the average retired couple needs around $300,000 for healthcare over their lifetime. That is not to scare you — it is to prepare you.
If you are planning to retire before 65, this is the line item to be most generous with.
Basic Needs (Monthly today's $, inflated to your freedom date)
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✦ Clarity Corner
Social Security — do not leave this money on the table
Your Social Security benefit is real money — and when you claim it changes everything.
- Get your number: Visit ssa.gov/benefits/calculators for a personalized estimate. It takes about two minutes.
- Timing is powerful: Claiming at 62 permanently reduces your benefit by about 30%. Every year you wait past that grows it. Waiting until 70 gives you the highest possible amount.
- Here is the math: Every $1,000/month in guaranteed income means you need $300,000 less in your investment portfolio at the 4% rule.
This is entered at today's value and is not adjusted for inflation — consistent with how the underlying model is designed.
Income Offsets (entered as today's $, NOT inflated)
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US: estimate at ssa.gov Quick Calculator
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Your timeline
& assumptions
& assumptions
These drive every calculation. Defaults match The Wealth Visionnaireยฎ Excel model.
Location & Timeline
Plan generously
✦ Clarity Corner
Plan for a long, full life
This is the number that determines how long your money needs to work for you — and it deserves some real thought.
- A generation ago, planners used age 85. Today, planning to 95 or 100 is becoming the standard — and for good reason.
- The risk of planning too short is far greater than the risk of planning too long. Running out of money at 88 is not a scenario worth taking chances on.
- If your family tends toward longevity, if you are in good health, or if you simply take care of yourself — lean toward the longer end.
The “extra” years in your plan are not wasted. If you do not need them, you leave a legacy. If you do — you are covered.
✦ Clarity Corner
The numbers that shape your whole picture
You do not need to be a math person to understand this. Here is what each one means in plain terms.
- Portfolio return: How much your investments grow each year on average. The stock market has historically returned around 10% per year over long periods. A balanced mix of stocks and bonds: closer to 6–8%. The calculator defaults to 8% before your freedom date, 5% after — both reasonable and grounded.
- The 4% rule: Research from 1994 found that withdrawing 4% of your portfolio each year has historically lasted 30 years through nearly every market condition. It is the gold standard for freedom planning.
Withdrawal rate guide: 4% for a 25–30 year freedom phase · 3.5% for 30–35 years · 3% for 40+ years. The longer your freedom phase, the more conservative this number should be.
Investment Assumptions
%
Excel default: 8%
%
Excel default: 5%
%
%
4%=25โ30yr ยท 3.5%=30โ35yr ยท 3%=40+yr
✦ Clarity Corner
Where your money sits changes how much you keep
The tax treatment of your accounts determines your real, after-tax freedom income. Enter actual dollar balances — the calculator figures out your blended tax rate automatically.
- Tax-Deferred (IRA, 401k, SEP — US): Every dollar withdrawn is taxed as ordinary income. A $1M balance becomes less once the IRS takes its share.
- Tax-Free (Roth IRA, HSA — US): Withdrawals are completely tax-free. These are your most valuable dollars in your freedom phase — dollar for dollar worth more than a traditional IRA.
- Taxable Brokerage: Capital gains taxed at 15–20% long-term — more tax-efficient than most expect.
Outside the US? The same principle applies everywhere: some accounts are taxed when you withdraw (like Canada's RRSP or the UK's workplace pension), while others grow and withdraw tax-free (Canada's TFSA, UK's ISA). Enter your balances in whichever bucket matches your account type.
Freedom Fund Balances (today's $)
Blended tax rate is calculated from actual $ balances โ not percentages โ matching the Excel model exactly.
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IRA, 401k, SEP, RRSP
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Roth, HSA, TFSA, ISA
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Non-registered
Annual Contributions
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SEP IRA, Solo 401k, SIMPLE — syncs to Step 3 only if “My biz” is checked
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W-2 employer plan or traditional IRA — tax-deferred, does not sync to Step 3
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Tax-free growth — withdrawals not taxed in your freedom phase
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After-tax investing — gains taxed as capital gains in your freedom phase
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Your businesses
& optimization
& optimization
Freedom fund contribution limits are tailored to your country. The Compensation Optimizer below is US-only — it is hidden for non-US residents.
✦ Not sure which account is right? Your CPA is your best resource โ the right choice depends on your income, entity type, and what you are optimizing for this year.
✦ Compensation Optimizer
Find your optimal salary & contribution mix
Enter your tax rates below and we will model three scenarios side by side — showing how different salary and distribution splits affect your freedom wealth, tax burden, and take-home pay. This is a planning model, not tax advice — always verify with your CPA.
Your Tax Rates (for optimization model)
%
Your marginal federal rate (22%, 24%, 32%...)
%
MA: 5% · TX/FL: 0% · CA: 9.3%+
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Social Security wage base. Updates annually.
Additional assets
today
today
Investment account balances are entered in Step 2. Add savings, brokerage contributions, and whole life here.
Savings & Brokerage
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Exclude your emergency fund (3–6 months of expenses). Enrolled in a high-deductible health plan? Max your HSA before adding more here — it is the most tax-efficient account available.
✦ Annual brokerage contributions are entered in Step 2 under “Taxable Brokerage” in the Annual Contributions section. They are already included in your projections.
✦ Clarity Corner
Whole life insurance — choose your freedom phase strategy
Whole life insurance can play two very different roles in your freedom plan. For each policy, you will tell us which path fits your intention.
- Tap into cash value to fund your freedom: You stop paying premiums when you retire and access the cash value as a lump sum (or take policy loans). The projected value is added to your freedom portfolio. The death benefit is no longer active. This is the most common strategy for using whole life as a freedom asset.
- Keep contributing — policy stays in force: You continue paying premiums in your freedom phase to maintain the death benefit and keep growing the cash value. Because you will still be paying premiums, this calculator adds those premiums to your annual freedom phase expenses — so your income target is high enough to cover them. The cash value is still counted as a freedom asset.
Cash value is the amount on your most recent policy statement — not the death benefit and not what you have paid in. Growth rate: 3–5% is typical for whole life. Your policy illustration will show your specific rate.
Whole Life Insurance Policies
Real estate
properties
properties
Investment, rental, and non-primary properties. If you are selling your primary home to downsize, it appears automatically below — pre-filled from Step 1.
✦ Clarity Corner
Real estate — clarity before complexity
Real estate can be a powerful part of your freedom picture. The key is being clear about what role you want it to play.
- Selling at financial freedom gives you a lump sum to invest or spend. Account for selling costs (about 7%) and capital gains tax on appreciation.
- Keeping it as a rental gives you ongoing income — but also ongoing responsibility. You remain a landlord, which means repairs, tenants, and management.
- One property, one strategy: A property cannot fund your freedom through both a sale AND rental income. Choose one path per property.
Inherited a property? Good news: the IRS gives you a “stepped-up basis,” which means all the appreciation before you inherited it is not subject to capital gains tax. Only growth from the date of inheritance forward counts.
Business exit
potential
potential
Optional upside. Net proceeds are converted to today's dollars (รท (1+inflation)^years), matching the Excel model.
✦ Clarity Corner
A business sale can change everything — when the time is right
Selling your business one day is a possibility worth planning for — just not the only plan.
- What buyers pay depends on your revenue size, how fast you are growing, whether income is recurring, and how much the business depends on you personally. A business that runs without you commands a premium.
- The costs of a sale are real: broker fees, legal, accounting, due diligence. Budget 7–12% of the sale price.
- Tax planning before the sale is essential. Strategies like installment sales and qualified small business stock exclusions can significantly reduce what you owe — but must be set up before you sign anything.
The net proceeds are shown in today's dollars so you can compare them directly to the rest of your freedom picture.
Include a Business Exit?
Your debt
picture.
picture.
This step is optional. Including your debt gives you a true net worth view alongside your assets โ so you're seeing the complete, honest picture of where you stand.
✦ Clarity Corner
Debt is information, not a verdict.
Seeing it clearly is not discouraging — it is the first step to eliminating it. Your assets and freedom projections are calculated independently of your debt, and shown in full. This step adds a separate debt summary so you can also see your true net worth — assets minus liabilities.
- We do not include your primary home mortgage here — that is already captured as a monthly expense in Step 1. Your home is not counted as a freedom asset either, so netting the mortgage out here would double-count it.
- Business debt is worth including if you plan to sell your business — the net proceeds from a sale are reduced by any outstanding business loans.
- Student loans and personal debt reduce your monthly cash flow and therefore your ability to contribute to your freedom fund. Seeing the total clearly helps you prioritise.
Your freedom projections already assume you continue contributing at your current rate. If you were to redirect debt payments toward your freedom fund after payoff, your projected portfolio would be even higher.
Include Debt in Your Picture?
Your financial
freedom picture
freedom picture
✦ Clarity Corner
What your results are really telling you
These numbers are the beginning of a conversation, not a verdict.
- Portfolio Needed is the total you would want invested at your freedom date so that your portfolio generates enough each year to cover your lifestyle — without depleting the principal.
- Projected Freedom Portfolio is where you are headed based on what you have today and what you are building toward — in today's dollars, so the comparison is apples-to-apples.
- Annual Freedom Income Need is the total you would withdraw each year before taxes — slightly higher than your net lifestyle number to account for what goes to the IRS.
Seeing a gap is not bad news. It is useful news. It tells you exactly what to focus on — and that is what working together is for.
Overall Assessment
Calculatingโฆ
Understanding your two portfolio targets
Legacy Freedom Number — Based on the 4% rule. You live off investment returns each year and never touch the principal. Your wealth stays intact and passes to the people and causes you love.
Full Life Freedom Number — The minimum you need if you plan to spend every dollar over your freedom years. This is always a lower target. Neither choice is wrong — they reflect different intentions for your wealth.
Full Life Freedom Number — The minimum you need if you plan to spend every dollar over your freedom years. This is always a lower target. Neither choice is wrong — they reflect different intentions for your wealth.
Legacy Freedom Number
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Live off returns · leave a legacy
Full Life Freedom Number
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Spend every dollar · no inheritance
Projected Freedom Portfolio
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At your freedom age
Annual Freedom Income Need
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Before-tax withdrawal/yr
Years to Financial Freedom
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Years of Freedom
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Asset Breakdown at Financial Freedom
All calculations use the same methodology as The Wealth Visionnaireยฎ Excel model. For educational purposes only โ not financial, tax, or legal advice. Results cannot be guaranteed. ยฉ 2026 The Wealth Visionnaireยฎ.
Julie Praline ยท The Wealth Visionnaireยฎ
Ready to close the gap?
Let's review your results together and build your personalized roadmap to financial freedom.
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ยฉ 2026 The Wealth Visionnaireยฎ ยท Educational purposes only ยท Not financial advice
Refresh IRS Limits
Claude searches IRS.gov for the latest contribution limits and updates the calculator automatically.
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Searching IRS websiteโฆ
Solo 401k Employee
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Solo 401k Catch-up
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Solo 401k Total
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SEP IRA Max
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SIMPLE IRA
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IRA / Roth
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Always verify with your CPA.
