What is ProjectionLab?
ProjectionLab is a financial planning app for building a model of your whole financial life. Its home page describes defining milestones, planning for financial independence and other goals, drilling into each simulated year to see estimated taxes, cash flow and drawdown, and modeling estate planning. It lists Monte Carlo simulations, historical backtesting, Roth conversions, 72(t) distributions, rental income, going part-time, planning as a couple, international account types and a choice of display currency, among many other features[1].
Its risk tools go further than most. You can backtest a plan against historical data, build Monte Carlo simulations with your own probability distributions, look inside individual trials and decide how success rates are characterized[4]. An optimizer tests strategies for Roth conversions, capital gains harvesting and drawdown order against targets such as federal brackets, IRMAA cliffs or ACA limits[1]. It does not link to your financial accounts; you enter your own figures[1].
ProjectionLab is a paid product with a free tier. The Basic plan is $0 a year; Premium is $129 a year; Pro, for advisors, is $549 a year[2]. Its home page also mentions monthly, annual and lifetime pricing[1]. The pricing page explains that subscriptions fund the product rather than advertising, and says it never sells your data[2].
Around the app sits a wider business: a Pro version for financial advisors and coaches, an advisor directory, a financial wellness offer that employers can provide as a benefit, a help center, one-on-one sessions and a public roadmap[1][2]. It is a product meant to be lived in over years, with support to match.
How do ProjectionLab and FIRE Calculator Pro compare?
| Feature | ProjectionLab | FIRE Calculator Pro |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Whole-life financial planning app[1] | Focused FIRE and retirement calculators |
| Price | Basic $0, Premium $129/yr, Pro $549/yr[2] | Free; no paid tier |
| Account | Sign up with Google or email[3] | None |
| Monte Carlo and backtesting | Yes, on the Basic plan[2] | 2,000-run Monte Carlo and every start year since 1928 |
| Taxes | Tax estimation and optimization on Premium[2] | Enter spending including tax; a simple tax rate in Fat FIRE |
| Couples | Plan as a couple[1] | Household option with combined figures in the FIRE calculator |
| Countries | Presets for Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and more[1] | US, plus UK, Canada and Australia editions of the FIRE and Coast FIRE calculators |
| Where your inputs go | Held as financial planning data to provide the service[5] | Stay in your browser; nothing is sent to us |
| Coast and Barista FIRE | Model going part-time and when you can FIRE[1] | Dedicated Coast and Barista FIRE calculators |
ProjectionLab details checked on its own pages in November 2026; prices as listed then. FIRE Calculator Pro details are from our methodology page.
Is ProjectionLab a calculator or a planner?
A planner, and that is the main thing to understand before comparing. ProjectionLab is built for a plan you return to: you enter accounts, income, expenses and milestones, then refine them as life changes and track your actual progress against the projection[1]. The depth that makes it powerful also takes time to set up, and its getting-started page asks you to create an account first[3].
Our calculators are built for a question you want answered now. How much do I need? When can I stop? Have I reached Coast FIRE? Each one asks for a handful of numbers, answers immediately and then shows how the plan holds up in a Monte Carlo test and a replay of every historical start year since 1928. There is nothing to save, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere. You can share a plan as a link or export it as a CSV file.
The two overlap most on the risk tests. Both run Monte Carlo simulations and historical backtests, and ProjectionLab offers them on its free plan[2]. Where they part ways is everything around them: taxes, account types, Roth conversions and estate planning in ProjectionLab; speed, privacy and single-question tools here.
How do the risk tests differ?
ProjectionLab gives you control over its simulations. Its Monte Carlo page describes backtesting against real historical data, building Monte Carlo simulations with your own probability distributions, drilling into individual trials to see the effect of a particular sequence of returns, and adjusting how success rates are characterized and which outcome categories you use[4]. That flexibility suits people who want to shape the test to their own view of markets.
Ours are fixed and fully documented instead. The Monte Carlo test draws 2,000 lifetimes of whole historical years from 1928-2025, keeping each year's stock return, bond return and inflation together, with a fixed seed so the same inputs always give the same answer. The historical test starts a retirement in every year that has a complete record and replays it in order, without looping back to the start. A plan succeeds if the money lasts to the age you chose. The one switch you get is “Match my return”, which shifts history so its long-run average equals the return you entered. Every step is written out on the methodology page, so you can see exactly what a success rate means before you rely on it.
What does a quick answer look like?
Here is the kind of question our FIRE calculator answers in one screen. A couple, the younger partner 40, take home a combined $140,000 a year, spend $80,000, and have $400,000 invested. They expect $36,000 a year of combined Social Security from 67. Following the calculator's household mode, every age here is the younger partner's, so the money has to last as long as either of them. We used our default assumptions: 7% returns, 3% inflation, 0.1% fees (3.79% real), a 4% withdrawal rate, 80% stocks, and money that must last to 95.
Without Social Security, they would need $2,000,000, 25 times their spending, and would reach it at 56. With the benefit counted from 67, the portfolio needed falls to $1,522,547 and they reach it at 53. Here are the odds that the money lasts to 95 if they stop at 53 or work a little longer.
| Retire at | Monte Carlo | Monte Carlo, matched to 3.79% | Historical |
|---|---|---|---|
| 53 | 86% | 61% | 88% |
| 54 | 89% | 68% | 97% |
| 55 | 92% | 73% | 100% |
Our calculation with the FIRE Calculator Pro engine. Monte Carlo: 2,000 runs from age 40 to 95, seed 2026. Historical: every start year with a full record, from the projected balance at retirement. US data 1928-2025[6].
The table shows why we report two Monte Carlo figures. Replaying history as it happened assumes the past century's returns, which were higher than 3.79%. Matching history to the return you entered is the more cautious view: on that basis, working until 55 instead of 53 lifts the success rate from 61% to 73%. Your own Social Security estimate is available from the Social Security Administration[8].
What this answer leaves out is just as important. It has no tax brackets, no account types and no Roth conversions, so the spending figure has to include the tax you expect to pay. If those details could change your retirement date, a planner like ProjectionLab is built to model them.
What should you look for in any FIRE tool?
Whichever tool you use, a few questions decide whether its answer is worth acting on:
- Does it count income that starts later? Social Security or a pension that begins at 67 can cut the portfolio you need by a large amount, as the example above shows. A tool that ignores it overstates your number.
- Does it test more than one return? A single average hides sequence risk. Look for a Monte Carlo or historical test, and check how success is defined.
- Does the horizon match your retirement? The 4% rule was based on retirements of about 30 years[7]. If you retire at 45, you need a tool that lets the money last 50 years or more.
- Are inflation and fees handled explicitly? Small differences in the real return compound into large differences over decades.
- Where does your data go? Read the privacy policy. Some tools store your figures to provide the service; others never see them.
Use the list on any tool, ours included. Our answers to each are on the methodology page and in our privacy policy.
Can you use both?
Yes, and they fit together well. Our calculators are a quick way to get a ballpark: your FIRE number, the age you reach it and how much margin the plan has, before you invest time in a detailed model. Once you know roughly where you stand, a planner like ProjectionLab can layer on the tax rules, account types and life events that a single-question calculator leaves out. Going the other way, if a detailed plan gives you a retirement date, entering the headline figures into our FIRE calculator is an independent check that the core math and the risk lines up.
When should you use ProjectionLab instead?
- Taxes are a big part of your plan. Tax estimation, Roth conversions, capital gains harvesting and ACA subsidies are part of its Premium plan[2].
- You want one living model of your finances. Milestones, progress tracking and multiple plans suit a plan you maintain for years[1][2].
- You plan in another country. It lists presets for Germany and the Netherlands as well as Canada, the UK and Australia[1].
- You work with an adviser. Its Pro plan is built for advisers and their clients[2].
When should you use FIRE Calculator Pro?
- You want an answer now. No sign-up and no setup: open a calculator and the result updates as you type.
- You would rather not hand over your numbers. Everything runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to us or to our analytics. There are no ads.
- Your question is a FIRE question. Your FIRE number, FI age, Coast FIRE point, Barista FIRE point or how long savings will last, each with Social Security and pensions.
- You plan in pounds or Canadian or Australian dollars. The FIRE and Coast FIRE calculators have UK, Canada and Australia editions with local accounts and government pensions, free like everything else here.
- You want to sanity-check a bigger plan. Our results are a quick, independent cross-check on a figure from any planner, ProjectionLab included.
Every formula and assumption behind our numbers is on the methodology page.