14 comments

  • Mike Wilson, 5 years ago

    When I google "investment calculator" this is the first thing that comes up:

    https://www.daveramsey.com/smartvestor/investment-calculator

    To be honest, I think the Dave Ramsey one is easier to use/read and the ability to test other return percentages is a huge plus. Also, what CAGR are you basing your "Aggressive" and "Conservative" returns on? They're extremely optimistic.

    To get the" aggressive" return you would likely have to invest in mostly the American small cap value index (the riskiest stock index) during one of the best 30 year periods in US history...back when small cap value index funds didn't even exist. Statistically almost no investors will be getting those returns consistently over an extended period.

    To get the "conservative" returns, you would still have to invest mostly in large cap American stocks during one of the better 30 year periods in US history until the day you retire. This is the opposite of a conservative portfolio, nor is it how investing is supposed to work (hint: you reduce your exposure to risk assets as you age).

    I'm somewhat scared about the idea of you giving people "investment tips" based on the above. I recommend you consult a lawyer and read the SEC guidance on internet investment advice before writing further if you are US-based.

    3 points
    • Art VandelayArt Vandelay, 5 years ago

      Funny thing about your comment.

      Screenshot of OP's tool vs Ramsey

      Dave Ramsey calculator nets a higher return over the same time frame than OPs tool.

      And if you note the average annual return, its 1% below the average the market has seen throughout its lifetime.

      2 points
  • Stevie EStevie E, 5 years ago

    Love the colour palette. Gorgeous.

    One tiny thing, I had no idea there was more content below until I accidentally scrolled, might want to add some affordance that there's more stuff down there.

    Great job otherwise!

    2 points
  • Darren Treat, 5 years ago

    Really like the look of it, but just a statement... Seeing your age on a graph of 0-100 is freaking terrifying.

    1 point
  • Florian GrauFlorian Grau, 5 years ago

    Looks stunning, but holy crap is the calculation optimistic! :D

    1 point
    • Caleb Barclay, 5 years ago

      Thank you! I'm glad you find it optimistic. Many people say it's too pessimistic / conservative so that must mean your retirement is on point :)

      0 points
  • Scott Burns, 5 years ago

    It looks quite pretty, but having previously done some design for a pension company, for the average person, this may not work well for that sort of customer.

    Given that the majority aren't saving anywhere near enough for retirement (including me haha), in user testing we found that showing them that big target number actually encouraged further disengagement; telling someone who isn't saving they need X hundred grand plus made them think it was even more hopeless than they already did.

    In the end we created a calculator that showed what their future monthly income would be, based on varying the amount they saved per month now, this seemed to encourage more engagement and made the users feel like it was a more achievable goal.

    Saying that, very well off ones did respond to the big target number, but they were also much more likely to have financial advisers who did this sort of stuff for them...

    0 points
  • Taylor PalmerTaylor Palmer, 5 years ago

    Nice! I've been using a number of these fairly heavily recently, and this is by far the nicest one I've seen.

    There are a number of other calculators you could add here (401k, High-yield savings account, etc).

    Edit: Also your newsletter sign up has a type: "Subcribe"

    0 points
    • Caleb Barclay, 5 years ago

      I'm glad you like this one! The traction from today is super motivating so we have a lot of ideas to vet, including 401k, savings, inflation calculations, etc. Great catch with the typo, I'm always missing those.

      1 point