RetireePlan

RetireePlan is a free, open-source retirement planning app built around Canadian financial and tax rules. It is best suited to individual investors who want detailed projections and the option to keep their data on their own hardware. Its breadth of modeling is a strong draw; the results are illustrative, not financial advice.

Overview

RetireePlan combines year-by-year cash-flow projections with simulations, tax modeling, and scenario comparisons. That makes it useful for exploring how assumptions and choices may affect a retirement plan, especially in a Canadian context. It is not a substitute for professional financial or tax advice.

Key features

The deterministic engine follows income, expenses, account growth, withdrawals, and taxes year by year. Alongside that baseline, 1,000-trial Monte Carlo simulations can use normal, log-normal, or historical-bootstrap returns. Together, these views let users examine both a defined plan and a range of modeled outcomes, but neither should be read as a promise of future results.

Canadian tax modeling covers federal and provincial brackets, CPP/QPP, EI, OAS/GIS clawback, pension splitting, and RRIF minimums. This makes the app a more natural fit for Canadian planning than a tool without those systems. The maker cautions that the tax calculations are illustrative, so users should not rely on them as formal tax determinations.

A rule-based insights engine ranks recommendations and estimates their dollar impact, including potential RRSP meltdown opportunities, OAS clawback avoidance, and TFSA utilization. Named scenarios help compare alternative plans. Estate modeling includes rental properties, principal-residence exemptions, probate, and beneficiary designations, offering useful scope for users who want to account for more than investment balances alone.

YNAB imports can bring spending categories and transaction data into projections. Users can export multi-scenario PDF reports or CSV files with one row per year. The context-aware AI assistant can use local Ollama or GitHub Copilot; users who prefer not to connect an AI service can still use the other planning features.

Pricing

RetireePlan is free forever and open source under the MIT License. Its Free plan costs nothing and includes income projections, savings growth projections, withdrawal planning, detailed tax modeling, and scenario analysis. There is no paid tier to weigh against a cheaper plan, making it a practical option for users who want extensive modeling without a subscription.

Platforms

RetireePlan supports web, macOS, Windows, and Linux, with desktop installers and self-hosted Docker containers. Its API platform designation may suit users seeking API access. Running it on personal hardware supports the maker’s privacy-first approach, with data kept on the user’s own system rather than shared. Account synchronization is read-only, so it is not designed for editing financial account data from within the app.

Who it's for

RetireePlan is aimed at individual investors in Canada who want to compare retirement scenarios using Canadian tax rules and detailed cash-flow modeling. It is particularly appealing to users comfortable with self-hosting or desktop software and those who value keeping data on their own hardware. It is a weaker fit for anyone who needs financial advice, definitive tax calculations, or write access to synchronized accounts.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Canadian tax coverage spans federal and provincial systems, benefits, clawbacks, pension splitting, and RRIF minimums, giving projections country-specific depth.
• Pro: Deterministic projections, Monte Carlo simulations, named scenarios, and ranked dollar-quantified recommendations support several ways to examine retirement choices.
• Pro: Free forever and open source, with web, desktop, and self-hosted options for users who want control over where the app runs.
• Con: Tax calculations are illustrative and the app is not financial advice, so it cannot serve as the final authority for tax or retirement decisions.
• Con: Account synchronization is read-only, limiting its usefulness for users who expect to manage or update account data through the app.

Alternatives

Boldin is worth considering for users who want a free web or mobile plan with interactive explorers, charts, and up to five Boldin AI questions per day; its Basic plan is also free, while the product offers paid options.

Flexible Retirement Planner is another free option for individual non-commercial use, with Linux, macOS, web, and Windows support. Consider it when those platform choices matter more than RetireePlan’s stated Canadian tax and estate modeling.

ProjectionLab offers a free Basic plan with forecasting, financial planning, Monte Carlo simulations, historical backtesting, and flexible modeling. It may suit users looking for those capabilities across web and mobile platforms.

driftcurve may suit users who want a free self-hosted tool with no accounts in its default local mode.

FI Calc is a free web calculator supported by donations.

Fidelity Planning & Guidance Center offers a free web plan, though investment expenses and account transaction fees may still apply.

FIRECalc provides a free core retirement calculator, with some additional features available by request through supporter registration.

Retireator is a free, open-source retirement simulator for web and Windows.

Browse more options in Retirement Planning Software.

Verdict

Choose RetireePlan if you are a Canadian individual investor who wants extensive retirement projections, tax scenarios, and local or self-hosted use without paying a subscription. Its Canadian-specific modeling and broad scenario tools are the main reasons to choose it. Look elsewhere if you need professional advice, authoritative tax calculations, or writable account synchronization.