I ran my own numbers in 2023 and didn't like what I saw.
I'm in my early fifties. I have a wife, kids, a mortgage I refinanced at a rate I'll never see again, and a 401(k) that's been growing since the late nineties. By every measure the financial-services industry uses, I'm doing fine. The big retirement calculators give me a green checkmark. My advisor's software says I'm on track.
And then I opened a spreadsheet and ran the math myself.
I used real inflation — not the 2% number every calculator quietly assumes, but the 3 to 4% number that matches what's actually happened in our household over the last ten years. I planned to 100 instead of 85, because both of my parents made it past 90 and the actuarial tables say I probably will too. I added the healthcare bridge between retirement and Medicare. I added a long-term care window. I let inflation eat at Social Security the way it eats at everything else.
The green checkmark went away.
That's the moment this calculator started. Not because I was scared, exactly. Because I realized that "doing fine" by the standard tools didn't mean doing fine by any future I could honestly defend. And I started wondering how many other people my age were in the same situation, looking at the same green checkmarks, and never opening the spreadsheet themselves.
Bitcoin is one variable. Not a religion.
I own some Bitcoin. I've owned it for years. I'm not going to pretend I'm neutral about it. But I'm also not the guy you're going to find on Twitter telling everyone to sell their house and go all in. This site does not exist to convert you. It exists to show you the math.
What I noticed when I ran my own numbers is that a small allocation to Bitcoin — the kind of allocation that mainstream financial advisors have started recommending — changed my plan in a meaningful way. Not because Bitcoin is magic. Because my plan had a real gap, and Bitcoin's expected return profile is one of the few things in the planning universe that has any chance of closing a gap that size without me working another ten years.
That's the question this calculator helps you answer for your own household: does it close your gap? For some of you it will. For others, the gap will be too big for Bitcoin alone, and you'll need to look at retirement age, spending, or both. For a few of you with strong pensions and modest lifestyles, the calculator will tell you that Bitcoin is optional. That's a real answer too.
I don't use my name. Here's why.
I have a day job. I have a family. I have professional relationships I don't want complicated by being known as "the Bitcoin retirement guy." That's the practical reason.
The principled reason is that I think the math should speak for itself. If you find what's on this site useful, it's not because of who I am — it's because the numbers are honest and the assumptions are visible. If you don't find it useful, knowing my name wouldn't change that either way. The calculator should be judged by what it does, not by who built it.
Everything on this site that requires payment — and there will be a small amount, eventually — runs through Bitcoin's Lightning Network. No credit card processors. No KYC. No email signups for the free stuff. The whole architecture is designed so that you can use it, learn from it, and pay for it (if you want to) without ever telling me anything about who you are.
What I won't do.
- I won't tell you to buy Bitcoin. I'll show you what happens to your plan if you do, at five allocation levels. You decide.
- I won't predict the price. The calculator uses a conservative real-return assumption — 7% per year, below historical performance. Honest planning math, not a moon chart.
- I won't ask for your email. No mailing list, no lead magnets, no "enter your email to see your results."
- I won't track you. No Google Analytics, no Facebook pixel, no third-party scripts. Your inputs stay in your browser.
- I won't pretend to be a financial advisor. I'm not licensed to give you advice and I won't try to. This is a planning tool. If you need a plan, hire a planner.
- I won't shame anyone. If you don't own Bitcoin, you're not behind. If you do own Bitcoin, you're not ahead. The math is what it is.
The pitch, if there is one.
Open the calculator. Put in your real numbers. Spend ten minutes with it. See what your plan looks like under three different inflation futures and five different Bitcoin allocations. Take the result as a shape, not a destination.
If something surprises you, sit with it. If nothing does, that's fine too — at least now you've seen the math yourself, and that's worth more than another green checkmark from another piece of software that wasn't built for you.