2 pointsby Retirology4 hours ago1 comment
  • Retirology4 hours ago
    After several years of dealing with fussy custom spreadsheets and my utter refusal to pay exorbitant monthly subscription fees for professional financial planning software, I decided to build my own web app.

    Then, after several more months of utilizing it for my own modelling/analysis, I realized this thing might actually be good enough for others as well, so I turned it into a full-on desktop app.

    The Retirology app was built with a few things in mind:

    1. Be adaptable to as many retirement scenarios as possible.

    2. Include all the pro-level tools competitors lock behind subscriptions.

    3. No account or connections to external services.

    4. No subscriptions ever.

    What Retirology is capable of:

    - Multi-bucket accumulation modelling covering over two dozen account types, with custom growth rates, employer match, and bond tent capabilities.

    - Drawdown engine that runs year-by-year analysis and includes features such as Roth conversion ladders, ACA premium subsidy optimization, SEPP 72(t), RMD modelling, and Social Security planning.

    - Full state and select locality tax modelling (NYC, Detroit, Maryland counties).

    - Robust Monte Carlo stress testing.

    - Income and budget tracking.

    - A Sankey diagram that models full accumulation and drawdown phases into an easily understood cash flow visual.

    - Side-by-side comparison table to see how multiple planning scenarios stack up.

    As for the technical details, if you’re so inclined:

    - Available on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

    - All data stays local, saved in a SQLite file on your machine.

    - No account, logic, or cloud sync.

    - A single network call the app makes at launch to a version.json to check for updates.

    - Backend is Python, FastAPI, Pydantic v2, SQLite, reportlab, and PyInstaller.

    - Frontend is React 19, TypeScript, Electron 33, electron-vite + Vite 6, Tailwind CSS 4, Radix UI, and Recharts 3.

    Happy to answer questions about any of it, and thank you in advance for checking it out!