An Instrument for Long-Range Planning

The Compounding Ledger

A working model of your capital, your contributions, and the long arithmetic that turns one into the other.

The Forecast

—

Portfolio at Retirement
—
in today's dollars: —
FIRE Number Required
—
25× projected expenses
Total Contributions
—
incl. employer match
Years Portfolio Lasts
—
in retirement
Annotations & Marginalia
Wealth Trajectory
Fig. 01

The arc of your portfolio over the full horizon, in nominal terms and inflation-adjusted to today's dollars. The dashed line is the FIRE target — the wealth required, in real terms, to fund retirement indefinitely.

The Anatomy of Compounding
Fig. 02

Your portfolio decomposed into what you put in versus what the market gave you. Watch the green overtake the cream — that crossover is the moment compounding starts working harder than you do.

Retirement Cashflow
Fig. 03

Year-by-year through retirement: monthly income from portfolio withdrawals, Social Security, and pension stacked against your monthly expenses. A persistent shortfall means the portfolio will drain.

Year-by-Year Ledger
Age Phase Salary Contribution Withdrawal Income (SS+Pen) Portfolio (Nominal) Portfolio (Real)

The figures herein are projections built on the assumptions you provide. Markets do not deliver smooth annual returns; sequence-of-returns risk, taxes, healthcare costs, and unforeseen events all matter. Treat this as a directional instrument, not a guarantee — and revisit it often.