The year you're free, tested.
Last Chair measures your nest egg against the number it has to reach, names the year work becomes optional and the moment you could stop saving and still arrive on time, then replays the plan from each of the 98 start years since 1928 and through 2,000 markets resampled from that record. The sample household's money lasts in 1,848 of those 2,000.
- Work becomes optional
- 2033
- Could stop saving
- Already
Every year of US markets since 1928.
How sure is the year? The plan is replayed from every start year on record, through the crash of 1929, the stagflation that began in 1966 and the financial crisis of 2008. Recent start years run out of recorded markets before the plan ends; they finish with the years from 1928, as if history repeated, and the result on recorded years alone is shown beside it.
Every year since 1928
Your plan is run as if today were January of each year from 1928 on, through the US markets that actually followed.
Your spending, every year
What you spend, less any rent, pension or Social Security coming in, drawn every year whatever markets do. A real household would cut back in a bad year; the test does not, so it errs on the safe side.
In today's dollars
US stocks, Treasuries and bills from the historical record, deflated by that year's inflation and rebalanced to your mix every year. International funds replay US stocks; crypto earns the return you assume.
A range, not a forecast
Index returns before fund fees and taxes. Past markets show how wide the road has been, not where it goes next.
start years since 1928 in which the money lasts to 2084, drawing $79,960 a year from 2033. Start years from 1969 on run out of recorded years before your plan ends, so they finish with the years from 1928, as if history repeated (the hatched bars). With recorded years alone (1928–1968), the money lasted in all 41.
The crash of 1929: the money lasts, with $6.83M left in 2084.
One bar per start year, as if today were January of that year: height is what is left in 2084, rust where the money ran out. The hardest, 1966, still ends with $1.14M. Hatched bars run past 2025 and continue from 1928.
When saving becomes optional too.
There is a point where what you have already saved, left alone, compounds to your number by the age you choose. Past it you could stop saving and still get there; every dollar you save still brings the year closer, it is just no longer what gets you there. Some call it coast FIRE.
Left alone, $529K grows to the number by age 60. The household has $1.18M.
Homes, rentals and mortgages
Equity, mortgage payoff dates and rental cash flow sit beside the portfolio. When a mortgage is paid off, its payment drops out of the spending the plan has to cover from that year on. Thinking of selling? Try the sale as a what-if and see what it does to the year.
- Home equity
- $155K
- Mortgage-free
- 2051
Sample household: 1 home, 1 mortgage.
Not "rebalance." Which trades, in which accounts.
Markets pull your mix off target. Last Chair reads every account you hold and writes out the trades, account by account and in order, that put it back, with the rationale, the estimated tax and the fee change of each. You place the trades yourself, at your own brokerage.
- 1 $74KPriya · 401(k)FXAIX → FXNAX
- 2 $66KPriya · 401(k)FXAIX → FSPSX
- 3 $124KSam · Rollover IRA2 funds → VTI
- 4 $49KSam · Rollover IRAAEPGX → VXUS
Result: on policy, fees down $1,096 a year
Last Chair provides planning tools, not investment advice.
The same order, every time.
The plan does the work a good advisor does before a meeting, in the same four steps, so you can see why each trade is there.
- 1
Cut fees where it costs nothing
Expensive funds are swapped for cheaper twins inside retirement accounts first, and in taxable accounts only when the sale is free.
- 2
Put new money to work
Cash goes to the most underweight class, staged over months if you'd rather not go all in at once.
- 3
Exchange inside retirement accounts
Sales there trigger no tax. Bonds are placed in pre-tax accounts, where their income is sheltered.
- 4
Taxable sales only if you allow them
Never at a gain unless you permit it, and then within a yearly tax budget you set. Losses worth harvesting are flagged, and nothing is bought that would wash one.
It reads everything you own.
Every account, from 401(k)s to self-directed IRAs (15 account types), every home and rental, every coin, valued together in today's dollars.
Your mix against its target
Set your targets once. See how far each asset class is off target across every account, with tolerance bands that ignore noise.
Tax buckets, clearly
Pre-tax, Roth and taxable, side by side, so you can see what each bucket holds and where each trade lands.
Digital assets, included
Cold storage and exchange balances priced daily, held to the same allocation discipline as everything else.
Fees, cut along the way.
Expense ratios, advisory fees and pricey share classes are quiet, but they compound against you every year. The plan's first step swaps them for cheaper twins wherever the sale costs nothing, and shows what each one costs in dollars and in months of work.
- $3,142
- a year in fees
- $299K
- lost by age 60
- 1 mo
- of extra work
Fees barely move the year here because it is close; they cost far more by 60.
Sample household. Seeing your own total is free, in the Fee Finder
| HOLDING | FEE | COST / YR |
|---|---|---|
Growth Fund of America A AGTHX · Sam · Rollover IRA | 0.61% | $491 |
EuroPacific Growth A AEPGX · Sam · Rollover IRA | 0.80% | $388 |
AMCAP Fund A AMCPX · Sam · Rollover IRA | 0.64% | $278 |
Target Retirement 2055 Trust Entered by hand · Sam · 401(k) | 0.12% | $248 |
Advisory fee Sam · Rollover IRA | 0.85% | $1,466 |
10 index funds The low-cost core | 0.04% | $270 |
| Total | 0.14% in funds | $3,142 |
Last Chair provides planning tools, not investment advice.
Every career is a long ride up. Know when you're on your last chair.
The ride up
Saving, with compounding doing the lifting. We show how far up you are, and when you reach the top.
Tuning
Small, deliberate adjustments. Your rebalance plan, trade by trade, tax-free where possible.
One more run
The final working years. Pick a different year to stop saving and see what it does to the year you are free.
The fall line
The run you saved for: your spending drawn every year, tested against every year of US markets since 1928.
Questions.
What does Last Chair work out?
Your number: a year of spending, less any pension or Social Security, divided by the safe withdrawal rate you choose (25 times spending at 4%). Then the year your investments reach it, which is the year work becomes optional, and the point where you could stop saving and still get there on time, sometimes called coast FIRE. Alongside: your net worth, the trades that put your mix back on target, and what your fees cost.
Is it a FIRE calculator or a retirement calculator?
Both. Financial independence and retirement are the same question asked at different ages: when does what you have pay for what you spend? Earlier on it names the year; near retirement it shows whether the money lasts to 95.
How is the year tested?
The plan is replayed as if today were January of every year since 1928, through the US markets that actually followed, 1929, 1966 and 2008 included: a historical backtest. It also runs through 2,000 markets resampled from that record in 5-year blocks, a Monte Carlo test. The answer is how many of those histories the money lasts in. International funds replay US stocks, and crypto earns the return you assume.
Do I have to link my bank or brokerage?
No. Last Chair never asks for a bank login and uses no aggregator. You enter tickers and share counts, coins and quantities, or a plain balance; tickers and crypto price themselves.
Who can see my numbers?
Only you. Your household is encrypted in your browser with AES-256-GCM, under a key derived from your passphrase, before it is saved. We store ciphertext we cannot read, and every calculation runs on your device.
What does it cost?
$99 a year for the whole household: both of you on one plan, under one sign-in. It renews yearly until you cancel. Setting up and seeing your year is free. Membership opens the full statement, the trades and the plan. The Fee Finder is free and needs no account.
Is this investment advice?
No. Last Chair provides planning tools, not investment advice. It shows the math and proposes trades; you decide, and you place them yourself at your own brokerage.
One plan. A flat fee.
For the whole household. Cancel any time. Have a code? Enter it at checkout.
Renews yearly at $99 until you cancel. Full refund within 30 days of your first payment. Setting up and seeing your year is free. Membership opens the full statement, the trades and the plan.
- The trades that put your mix back on target, account by account, with the tax of each
- Fund swaps, fund by fund, into cheaper equivalents
- The year work becomes optional, when you could stop saving, and what-ifs
- Every account on one page, with a printable statement
- Monthly check-in reminders
- Both of you on one plan, one sign-in