Straight answers, live calculators
The big decisions, with a calculator each.
These are the questions people type into a search bar before they change something big at work. Each page here has a live calculator, a case study with real numbers, the formula, and a screenshot of the same decision modeled inside Project Optional.
A note on the wordingYou’ll find these questions worded as retirement questions. We answer them as Work Optional questions. Same math, different frame. Retirement is a stop date. Optional is an unlock date: the day the money side of your life stops requiring the exact job you have now.
Can I afford a sabbatical?
Read →A 12-month sabbatical usually delays Optional by 4 to 15 months, not years, if you fund the year from cash reserves. The delay shrinks the later in your career you take it.
If I save an extra $500 a month, when can I retire?
Read →Enough to matter. On typical numbers, an extra $500 a month pulls your Optional Date forward by 1 to 3 years. Earlier in your career, the pull is bigger.
Should I quit my high-paying job?
Read →How funded you already are matters more than the size of the pay cut. Past a certain level, moving to lower-paid work you enjoy adds a couple of years, not a decade.
Can I work part-time after reaching Optional?
Read →Yes. Any income at all keeps the plan growing. Part-time work after Optional changes how you spend the milestone, not whether you reach it.
Should I sell my rental and stop working?
Read →The question is whether the sale proceeds carry you across your Optional Number. Ongoing rental cash flow is a separate question, and it usually loses to a clean invested balance.
How damaging would a one-year layoff be?
Read →Usually less than a chosen sabbatical, because you cut spending hard while you're out. The question that matters is how long your cash runway lasts.
Run all of these against your real numbers
Every calculator here runs the same engine as the full app. Sign up, enter your accounts once, and every question on this page gets an answer using your own numbers in the Scenarios Lab.
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