Navigate Your Journey to Financial Independence
A UK-focused FIRE planner that connects income, spending, ISAs, pensions, and scenario stacks into a bridge-aware path to Coast, Lean, and Full FI.
Most FIRE calculators give you a single FI number and a hopeful date. Useful for five minutes — then you close the tab. Real UK planning is messier: salary sacrifice, ISA allowances, SIPP access ages, mortgage refixes, childcare years, and the awkward gap between stopping work and unlocking pension pots.
FIRE Compass was built for that journey. It centralises your finances and projects when you will reach Coast FI, Lean FI, and Full FI — with UK tax, pensions, and the ISA/SIPP bridge built in.
Why We Built FIRE Compass
Spreadsheet FIRE models are flexible but fragile. Generic calculators ignore UK wrappers and treat retirement as one smooth withdrawal curve. Neither approach helps when you need to answer practical questions: what if I go part-time? Can my ISAs cover spending until SIPP access? Does a mortgage refix bring FI forward more than boosting pension contributions?
We focused on three gaps:
- No UK bridge logic. Early retirement often depends on liquid assets spanning the years before SIPP and State Pension access.
- Disconnected money views. Payslips, budgets, ISAs, SIPPs, workplace pensions, and property/mortgages usually live in separate tools.
- Static what-ifs. Life events stack — sabbaticals, childcare, market shocks, contribution pauses — and need to be tested together, not one at a time.
FIRE Compass addresses all three in a browser-first workspace: track the money you have, model the path you want, and stress-test the plan before life does it for you.
A Tour of the Platform
From payslip to pension bridge — a connected workflow for UK FIRE planning.
FIRE Dashboard
The dashboard is the compass rose of the app. It surfaces net worth, progress toward Coast FI, Lean FI, and Full FI, and a 30-year net worth projection with post-FI drawdown.
Bridge-aware cards show whether liquid runway (ISA + taxable) covers spending until SIPP access, and when State Pension enters the picture. Hover a milestone for the formula; click through for the full calculation trail.
Accounts, Property & Liabilities
Accounts cover the UK wrappers that matter: Stocks & Shares ISA, SIPP, workplace pension, taxable GIA, and cash. Property can be linked to a mortgage so outstanding balance and equity update with the repayment schedule.
That single balance sheet feeds every projection. Change a SIPP balance or refinance a mortgage, and Coast / Lean / Full FI dates recalculate from the same source of truth.
Income, Budget & Savings Allocation
Income tracking understands UK payroll reality: gross pay, HMRC tax, National Insurance, salary sacrifice, and employee/employer pension contributions. Payslips can be uploaded for extraction, then reviewed before they become current income.
Budgets split spending into essential, lifestyle, and discretionary buckets so your true savings rate is visible. Smart allocation visualises how surplus flows into ISA, SIPP, GIA, and cash — the tax-efficient order that actually moves FI dates.
Scenario Planning
Scenarios are first-class objects, not one-off calculator toggles. Presets include going part-time, sabbaticals, retiring earlier, boosting ISA or SIPP contributions, childcare years, big purchases, market shocks, high inflation, mortgage refixes, and overpayments.
Active scenarios stack in priority order. Higher-priority events take precedence in conflicts, and the impact chart compares the combined path against your baseline in real time — so you can see whether a mortgage refix plus ISA boost offsets a planned career break.
Projections & Pension Bridge
Projections run a monthly simulation from today through accumulation and post-FI drawdown. Your FI number is annual spending divided by a conservative UK safe withdrawal rate (default 3.5%), then discounted back with real returns and contribution schedules.
The ISA bridge view is the differentiator: liquid assets must sustain spending until SIPP access (currently from age 57, rising to 58), while pension assets continue compounding. Bridge shortfalls and Lean FI optimisation prompts appear when the runway is thin.
FIRE Sandbox
The sandbox is for fast, low-commitment experiments. Nudge ISA contributions, spending, SWR, returns, or inflation and see Coast and Full FI dates update instantly — without mutating your saved baseline until you choose to keep the change.
It is the scratchpad between serious scenario stacks: useful when you want a gut-check answer in seconds before formalising a named path.
Recommendations
Recommendations turn the model into prioritised actions across savings allocation, lifestyle, investing, and scenario analysis — for example, unused ISA allowance, discretionary spend trims, or Lean FI bridge fixes.
Each insight links back into the relevant workspace so the advice is executable, not just another tip list. Learning links (including UK-specific communities and tax wrapper primers) sit alongside the action items.
Tax, Pensions & Assumptions That Match Reality
FIRE Compass is opinionated about the UK system: England/Wales/NI vs Scotland tax bands, National Insurance, salary sacrifice, SIPP access ages, and State Pension inputs sit in Settings alongside inflation and return assumptions.
Wrappers first
ISA, SIPP, workplace pension, and taxable accounts are modelled as distinct pots — not one blended portfolio — so tax efficiency and access rules stay visible.
Milestone clarity
Coast FI, Lean FI, and Full FI are tracked separately, with Lean FI sensitive to the pension bridge so early-retirement plans do not quietly fail at age 55–57.
Private by design
Profile, accounts, income, budgets, and scenarios are secured to your account. Your financial picture stays private while remaining available across sessions.
A Compass, Not Just a Calculator
Financial independence is a navigation problem. The destination matters, but so do the waypoints: Coast FI, the ISA bridge, SIPP access, and the spending level you can actually live with.
FIRE Compass keeps those waypoints connected — income and budgets feeding accounts, accounts feeding projections, scenarios and sandbox stress-testing the path, and recommendations pointing to the next useful move.
If you are planning a UK path to early retirement, open the live app, complete the short setup wizard, and see how your Coast, Lean, and Full FI dates respond to the decisions you are weighing today.