What does work-optional actually mean?

The point where your portfolio could cover your spending without you earning. It is deliberately not the same as retiring. Most people who reach it keep working for a while, and the value is in knowing the date exists rather than in stopping on it. It changes how a bad quarter at work feels.

What assumptions does this make?

Two, both shown on the page. Your savings grow at 5% a year after inflation, which is deliberately below what most planning software assumes. And you draw 4% of the portfolio in the first year, which is the convention rather than a guarantee. Everything is in today's dollars, so there is no inflation figure to reason about.

Why does it not include Social Security?

Because including it means guessing at your earnings record and at what the benefit looks like decades out. Leaving it out makes the answer later than it probably is, which is the safer direction for an estimate to be wrong in. For most households it moves the date earlier by a few years once it is counted properly.

Does it account for tax on withdrawals?

No, and that pulls the other way. Drawing from pre-tax accounts is taxable, so the real portfolio needed is somewhat higher than the figure shown. That omission and the missing Social Security push in opposite directions. They do not cancel neatly, which is exactly why a five-input tool is a starting point rather than a plan.

I own a business. Does this work for me?

Yes, and it is the reason the fifth input exists. Most owners hold the majority of their net worth in the company, so a calculator that only asks about invested assets tells them a date years later than reality. Enter what you would expect a sale to net after tax. It is counted at face value with no growth assumed, which keeps the estimate conservative.

What happens to the numbers I enter?

The estimate runs in your browser and nothing is transmitted while you type. If you choose to see the ranked levers, your name, email, and the figures you entered are sent to us so the follow-up is about your situation rather than generic. There is no mailing list and no automated sequence.

Free tool

At what age does work become optional?

It has a specific answer. Most people wait years before going to look for it, usually because they assume the process is long. Five inputs will get you close enough to know whether the date is where you thought.

Five inputs

Nothing is sent anywhere while you type. The estimate updates as you go.

Your age

Invested today

Retirement accounts and taxable investments. Leave out the house.

Added each year

Your contributions, the match, and anything from vesting equity you keep.

Annual spending once you stop

In today’s dollars. Most people land near their current spending, minus the saving.

Business or property sale, after tax (optional)

What you would expect to keep from selling a business or a second property. Counted at face value, with no growth assumed.

Work becomes optional around

About 16 years from now, at a portfolio of $4,500,000.

Portfolio needed at 4%: $4,500,000
Counted so far: $1,200,000
Share of the target covered: 27%

This assumes 5% a year after inflation and drawing 4% in the first year. It leaves out Social Security, which pushes the date earlier, and tax on withdrawals, which pushes it later.

How it works

Two numbers doing all the work

The first is the portfolio your spending requires. At a 4% first-year withdrawal, every dollar of annual spending needs about 25 dollars behind it. That is why the spending figure moves the answer more than anything else you can enter: it sets the target and frees the cash to reach it at the same time.

The second is how fast what you have compounds toward that target. We use 5% a year after inflation, which is deliberately below what most planning software assumes. Working in today’s dollars means you never have to translate a number decades out into what it buys.

What the tool leaves out matters as much as what it includes. Social Security is missing, which makes the date later than it probably is. Tax on withdrawals is missing, which makes it earlier. Those two do not cancel neatly, and no five-input tool can settle them. What it can do is tell you whether your date is roughly where you assumed, which is usually the thing people are actually afraid to check.

If a business is the asset that funds the answer, the business exit planning page covers why the net figure matters more than the headline price. If equity compensation is doing the heavy lifting, the RSU tax gap calculator is the more specific tool.

Straight answers

What this does and does not tell you

This material is for general educational purposes only and is not intended as tax, legal, or investment advice. Neither GGM Wealth Advisors nor Cambridge provides tax or legal advice. Please consult a qualified professional about your specific situation. Estimates are illustrative, based solely on the figures you enter and simplified assumptions. Your actual results will differ. Projections are hypothetical, do not reflect actual investment results, and are not a guarantee of future results. The withdrawal rate used here is a planning convention rather than a promise about any portfolio.

Bring the date to the conversation

If the age surprised you in either direction, that is worth an hour. We will run it properly, with your equity, your tax picture, and Social Security counted, and tell you what actually moves it.

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