MaxiFi vs SquirrelPlan

MaxiFi builds a lifetime financial plan and estimates sustainable annual spending using income, assets, taxes, Social Security and other inputs. You can revise the plan to compare choices such as changing jobs, buying a home or retiring early. It models federal, state, FICA and IRMAA taxes, Social Security benefits and Medicare Part B premiums. Paid optimizers cover Roth conversions, Social Security filing and retirement withdrawals. Living Standard Monte Carlo compares how investment strategies and spending behavior affect discretionary spending; the software also estimates life insurance needs using contingency plans. Annual reports can be exported as PDF or Excel files, and plans can be shared with an advisor who has a MaxiFi PRO subscription. MaxiFi is available on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web and Windows. It offers a 14-day trial with limited features and comparison of three alternate scenarios. The Unlocked plan is listed at $149 a year. Support is through online tickets; phone support is not included.

SquirrelPlan is a free, open-source tool for projecting and visualizing a financial future. Enter assets, liabilities, monthly income and expenses, then add assumptions for returns, interest or annual increases. You can direct surplus savings among asset classes and set different strategies for different life periods. Retirement inputs include current and legal retirement ages, estimated net monthly pension, and optional early retirement age and withdrawal rate. A standard simulation projects from those figures; an optional Monte Carlo run produces hundreds of projections using randomized annual asset returns. Charts and a table show wealth over time, while scenario analysis supports comparisons between assumptions. Preset plans cover Recent Graduate, Early Career, Mid Career and Late Career. SquirrelPlan is a client-side web application, also runnable by opening its static index.html file in a modern browser without installing dependencies. Plans are stored in browser local storage; the project has no backend server. Data can be imported or exported as JSON, and the README lists multi-language support. The free plan is free.