Creating Your AccountBeginner Create an account, get the seven-day Pro trial, and let the setup turn a few answers into a plan.
Create an account with an email address and a password, or use Apple, Google or Microsoft. A confirmation email arrives first, and the link in it opens your account.
Every new account starts with a seven-day Pro trial, with no card needed. When it ends you keep everything on the free plan and lose only the Pro tools.
The first time in, a short setup asks your age and retirement age, your monthly take-home, six spending buckets, one debt or none, and what you have saved. It turns those into a budget, a payoff plan, a FIRE number and a FIRE date. Skip it and the tabs fill with labeled example numbers instead.
- Open Create Account and enter your email and a password, or use Apple, Google or Microsoft.
- Open the confirmation email and follow its link.
- Answer the setup’s questions, or skip it to look around first.
- Read your FIRE number and date on the last step, then choose Open my dashboard.
- Example numbers are marked on every tab they fill. Start fresh clears them, and Set up my plan runs the setup again.
- What you do with the setup and the tips is kept with your account, on every device: a setup you close stays closed, tips you have seen stay seen, and a tab stops calling its numbers examples once you change one of them.
- Settings › Help & Support has Try the setup flow, which previews the setup without changing your numbers.
Dashboard OverviewBeginner One screen with your FIRE number, this month’s checklist, and a card for every tab.
The bar across the top carries today’s date, your invested assets, your FIRE number, your FIRE date and the years between, with a progress line beneath. It refreshes whenever a number that feeds it changes.
Below it, the Monthly Checklist card shows what is left to pay this month, and a card for each area, budget, savings goals, debt payoff, subscriptions, net worth and the FIRE Health Score, shows the headline figure. Each card opens its tab.
The sidebar lists every tab, with the Pro tools marked. Search sits in the top bar and Settings at the foot of the sidebar.
- Read the top bar for where you stand.
- Open the Monthly Checklist card to see what is due.
- Choose any card, or a sidebar entry, to work in that area.
- Press ⌘K, or Ctrl+K, to search for a page, an account, a goal, a subscription or a bill.
- A banner on a tab means it still holds example numbers.
- Every card that opens a tab works from the keyboard: Tab to it, then press Enter or the space bar.
- On a phone the sidebar becomes a menu behind the button at the top left.
Setting Your FIRE NumberEveryday Yearly spending times a multiple. Change the multiple in Settings, or by picking a FIRE model.
Your FIRE number is your yearly spending multiplied by a FIRE multiple. Spend 40,000 a year with the default multiple of 25 and the number is 1,000,000. A multiple of 25 is the same as a four percent withdrawal rate.
Yearly spending comes from your budget, bills, subscriptions, debt minimums and goal contributions, unless you type a figure into Annual Expense Override under Settings › Goals & Calculations.
The multiple comes from the same settings page, or from a FIRE model on the Simulator: LeanFIRE uses 20, Standard FIRE and BaristaFIRE 25, FatFIRE 33. Picking a model changes the number everywhere at once: the top bar, the progress line, the calculators and the What-If builder.
- Open Settings › Goals & Calculations.
- Set FIRE Multiplier, or leave it at 25.
- Set Annual Expense Override only if the budget does not reflect your real spending.
- Or open the Simulator and choose a model; the multiple follows it.
- If the number looks wrong, check the budget first. A forgotten bill moves it by 25 times its yearly cost.
Adding Income & BillsEveryday Income sources and bills with due days, which feed the calendar and the monthly checklist.
The Budget tab holds what comes in and what goes out each month. An income source has a label, an amount and how often it arrives. A bill has a name, an amount, a category and the day of the month it is due.
Due days place each bill on the calendar at the foot of the tab and in the Monthly Checklist, where you tick it once it is paid.
The summary at the top sets income against everything committed, bills, debt minimums, subscriptions and goal contributions, and shows what is left.
- Choose Add Income Source and enter a label, an amount and how often it is paid.
- Choose Add Bill and enter the name, the amount, a category and the due day.
- Read the summary for what remains after everything committed.
- Choose Expand calendar to see the month at a glance.
- Subscriptions live on their own tab but count in the budget total.
- Everything saves as you enter it; there is no separate save step.
Monthly ChecklistEveryday Tick bills and debt payments as you pay them; loans charge interest by the day you paid.
Open the checklist from its card on the dashboard. It lists this month’s bills, subscriptions, debt payments and goal contributions by due day, with a progress line and the amount left.
Tick an item when it is paid. A debt row can take part of a payment, and every payment carries the day it was made. Set Paid on when you tick a loan, because auto, student, home-equity and other loans accrue interest by the day between payments; cards, mortgages and buy-now-pay-later stay monthly. Move the day and the interest recalculates.
Sinking funds set money aside each month for a quarterly or annual renewal, and a manual item covers a one-off. Paid-off debts drop off future months, and the arrows at the top move between months.
- Open the Monthly Checklist card on the dashboard.
- Tick each item as you pay it.
- For a debt, set Paid on to the day you paid before ticking, or use Add payment for part of it.
- Untick an item to reverse it; the balance and the interest follow.
- Use the month arrows to look back or ahead.
- The day matters for loans only; a card ticked on the 3rd or the 13th charges the same month.
- A logged payment’s day can be edited later from the row, and the interest recalculates.
- A card or mortgage that skips a logged month is charged for each month missed at the next payment.
- A tick that pays a goal, a debt or a fund saves both. If either is set aside because it was changed first somewhere else, the other is taken back too, so the bill and what it pays always agree.
- Undo on the Saved toast, for five seconds after a change, takes back the whole change, including what it paid into a goal, a debt or a fund.
Subscriptions TrackerEveryday Every recurring charge with its cycle, and what it all costs in a year.
Each subscription has a name, an amount and a billing cycle: weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual. The tab shows the monthly equivalent and the yearly total across everything active.
Active subscriptions count toward the monthly budget and yearly spending, so they move your FIRE number. Switch one off to keep it on the list without counting it.
With sinking funds on, a quarterly or annual charge is spread across the months before it, so the renewal is funded when it lands.
- Choose Add Subscription.
- Enter the name and the amount, and pick the billing cycle.
- Read the monthly and yearly totals at the top.
- Switch off a subscription you are not using rather than deleting it.
- Sinking Funds is a switch in Settings; the Monthly Checklist then shows the amount set aside each month.
Savings GoalsEveryday A target, a date and what you have saved; the app works out the monthly contribution.
A goal has a name, a target amount, what you have saved so far and a target date. From those the app shows the monthly contribution that reaches the target on time, and a progress bar.
Goal contributions count as committed money in the budget summary and appear in the Monthly Checklist, so saving is treated like a bill you pay yourself.
Update the saved amount as money goes in. Move the date out and the monthly figure falls; bring it in and it rises.
- Choose Add Goal.
- Enter the name (the field suggests Emergency Fund), the target and the date.
- Enter what you have saved so far.
- Read the monthly contribution the app works out.
- Update the saved amount as you go.
- An emergency fund is the first goal the setup creates for a new account.
Net Worth TrackingEveryday Assets minus liabilities, with retirement balances and debts folded in for you.
Assets sit in six groups: cash, investments, crypto, real estate, vehicles and other. Retirement balances from the Retirement tab and debts from the Debt tab are added on their own, so you enter them once.
Invested assets, the figure that drives your FIRE progress, counts investments, crypto and retirement accounts. Cash, property and vehicles count toward net worth but not toward FIRE.
Each month a snapshot of the totals is kept, and the history chart (Pro) draws net worth, assets and liabilities over up to 36 months.
- Open the Net Worth tab.
- Choose + Add in a group and enter a name and an amount.
- Add any liability that is not already a tracked debt.
- Read the totals at the top and the FIRE progress beneath.
- Come back monthly, update each balance with its edit button, and the history fills in.
- Add a loan or a card on the Debt tab rather than here, so it charges interest and appears in the checklist.
Debt Payoff StrategiesEveryday Track each debt, choose Snowball or Avalanche, and see when each one clears.
A debt has a name, a category, a balance, an interest rate, a minimum payment and a due day. Interest Accrues starts on Automatic, which means daily for loans and monthly for cards, mortgages and buy-now-pay-later; each card shows which applies.
Snowball pays the smallest balance first. Avalanche (Pro) pays the highest rate first and costs the least interest, and the comparison shows both. Extra Payment goes to the first debt in line, and when a debt clears its minimum rolls into the next.
Payments are logged in the Monthly Checklist, where they reduce the balance and charge that month’s interest. Paid-off debts move to a history section with their payoff date.
- Choose Add Debt on the Debt tab.
- Enter the name, the category, the balance, the rate, the minimum payment and the due day.
- Leave Interest Accrues on Automatic unless your lender does otherwise.
- Choose Snowball or Avalanche.
- Enter an Extra Payment to see the timeline shorten.
- If the minimum does not cover a month’s interest the balance grows; raise the payment.
- The timeline is a projection. The checklist is where real payments are recorded.
Retirement ProjectionsPro Balances and contributions across your accounts, projected to the year you can stop.
Enter your current age, your target retirement age and a nominal return. Then add balances and yearly contributions for the accounts you hold; the list covers workplace plans, IRAs, an HSA, taxable brokerage, pensions, annuities and more.
A workplace plan takes a second yearly amount as well: what your employer puts in. It goes on top of your own contribution, outside the IRS limit that applies to you, and counts in the projection, the FIRE date and the simulators. Your target retirement age lives in Settings › Goals and this tab follows it, so changing it in either place changes both.
The projection grows each account year by year and shows the age at which the total reaches your FIRE number. Three scenario cards compare your current pace with a moderate and an aggressive increase in contributions.
Everything saves as you type; there is no Save button. The balances also appear on the Net Worth tab.
- Open the Retirement tab.
- Enter Current Age and Target Retirement Age.
- Set the return.
- Add a balance and a yearly contribution for each account you hold.
- Read the projection and the scenario cards.
- An empty tab shows a notice. Enter ages and balances and it fills in.
FIRE CalculatorsPro Five FIRE models, each with a calculator. Picking one sets the multiple everywhere.
LeanFIRE uses 20 times spending, Standard FIRE 25, FatFIRE 33. BaristaFIRE keeps 25 but lets part-time income cover part of your spending, and Coast FIRE asks what you need invested today for growth alone to finish the job.
Choosing a model changes the FIRE multiple across the app: the top bar, the progress line, the calculators and the What-If builder. The Standard, Lean and Fat calculator asks for age, yearly take-home, yearly spending, net worth, monthly contributions and return, and shows the FIRE number, years to FIRE, FIRE age and savings rate.
Save Scenario keeps a set of inputs to come back to.
- Open the Simulator tab.
- Choose a model: LeanFIRE, BaristaFIRE, Standard FIRE, FatFIRE or Coast FIRE.
- Move the sliders or type your numbers.
- Read the FIRE number, years to FIRE, FIRE age and savings rate.
- Choose Save Scenario to keep the set.
- The calculator starts pre-filled from your budget and retirement data.
Planning ToolsPro What a want is worth if you skip it, a jar for the skips, and the rest of the advanced tools.
“What could this be worth?” takes an amount and how often you would spend it, and shows what the same money comes to by the age you plan to retire — in tomorrow’s dollars and in today’s. It starts from your own numbers: your age, your target retirement age and your expected return, all of which you can change inside the card without changing your plan.
Skip the want and it goes in the jar, which keeps every skip, what each is worth, and what the lot comes to. Or send it to your plan: the want becomes a real line on the Retirement tab, a yearly contribution for something recurring or a balance for a one-off, so the chart moves with it.
Every subscription carries the same figure under its price, so the cost of keeping it is next to the cost of it.
The tab also holds the sequence-of-returns stress test, a Monte Carlo run, Roth conversion and withdrawal planners, Social Security timing and a geographic arbitrage comparison.
- Open the Tools tab.
- Pick a preset or type an amount and choose how often.
- Adjust the ages or the return if you want a different assumption.
- Choose “I skipped it” to add it to the jar, or “See it in my plan” to put it on the Retirement tab.
- The jar travels with your plan: it is part of your backups and your export.
- Sending the same want to your plan twice replaces its line instead of adding another.
What-If Scenario BuilderPro Change income, spending, net worth, return or rate and watch the years to FIRE move.
Open What-If Scenario from the Simulator tab. It starts with your monthly income, your monthly spending including debt minimums, your net worth, a seven percent return and the withdrawal rate of your active FIRE model, four percent for Standard FIRE.
Every change updates the FIRE number, the savings rate, yearly savings, years to FIRE and the year itself. The years figure adds your savings month by month with growth until the balance reaches the FIRE number; if it never does, it shows 100+ years.
- Open the Simulator tab and choose What-If Scenario.
- Change any of the five fields.
- Read the results as they update.
- Close it. Nothing here changes your real numbers.
- The rate field names the model it came from. Type another rate to test it.
HSA Receipt TrackerPro Log qualified medical expenses, attach the receipts, and keep a running reimbursable total.
Each expense records the date, the merchant or a description, the amount and a category. Attach the receipt as a photo or a PDF: JPEG, PNG, WebP and PDF are accepted, up to 5 MB each, stored privately.
Contributions are logged separately, so the tab shows the year’s deposits beside the expenses. Mark an expense reimbursed when you pay yourself back and the reimbursable total drops.
Search finds expenses by merchant, note or category, and Print Report produces a copy for your records.
- Open the HSA tab.
- Choose Add Receipt and enter the date, the merchant, the amount and a category.
- Attach the receipt file.
- Choose Add Contribution to log a deposit.
- Mark an expense reimbursed when you withdraw for it.
- Choose Print Report for a copy.
- An attachment can be removed from an expense without deleting the expense.
- Keeping the receipts is what lets you reimburse yourself years later.
- HSA records are your own. With your partner’s plan or the household on the page, the HSA tab offers a button back to your plan instead.
Kids’ AccountsPro What you set aside for your children, tracked beside your plan and kept out of your own number.
Each child gets a card: a name, a birth year, and the accounts you hold for them. The list covers 529 plans, prepaid tuition, Coverdell ESAs, custodial brokerages (UTMA and UGMA), plain savings, savings bonds, Trump Accounts, custodial Roth IRAs, ABLE accounts and trusts.
The accounts fall in two piles, because they are not the same promise. Money school can actually use is projected to the year the child turns 18 and measured against the cost of college, so it reads as a share of the bill rather than a bare balance. Money they cannot reach until they are grown — a Trump Account, a custodial Roth IRA — is shown apart, with what it becomes at 59½ if it is left alone. Any account can be moved between the two piles when your plan for it differs from the usual one.
None of it enters your net worth, your FIRE number or any retirement projection. It is their money, tracked next to your plan rather than inside it.
Each child has their own college target — a kind of school, its price and how many years, or none at all — set from the line under their percentage. How fast college costs rise and the return every figure uses are set once for every child; the return follows your Settings until you give this page one of its own.
- Open the Kids tab.
- Choose Add a child and enter their name and birth year.
- Add an account, pick its type, and enter the balance and what goes in each month.
- Name the account if you hold more than one of a kind.
- Choose Change on the “Measured against” line to set that child’s college target.
- A Trump Account comes with a $1,000 federal deposit only for children born 2025 through 2028; the tab says which of yours qualify.
- A Trump Account cannot pay tuition — nothing comes out before the year they turn 18 — so it never counts toward the college figure.
- Rules at a glance lists what each account allows, and folds away once you have read it.
Household & Partner ModePro Link two accounts, choose what each shares, and view yours, your partner’s or the household.
Under Settings › Household › Members, create an invite code and give it to your partner; they enter it on the same page to join. A household holds two people.
Each of you chooses what to share, area by area. The switcher in the sidebar then moves between You, Partner and Household, and every tab shows the data for that view.
A code works for 24 hours, and only the person who created the household can make a new one. Either of you can leave, which dissolves the link.
- Open Settings › Household › Members.
- Choose Create Invite Code and pass the code to your partner.
- Your partner opens the same page, enters the code and chooses Join.
- Set what you share.
- Use the sidebar switcher to change views.
- Nothing is shared until you turn it on. Your partner sees only what you chose.
- The bell shows when your partner changes something you share, or joins; Settings › Notifications can switch that off.
- Settings are always your own. While your partner’s plan or the household is on the page they are shown and locked, with a button back to your plan.
- The app remembers the view you were in. It opens in your own plan and moves to that view once your partner’s plan has loaded; if you start working in your own plan first, it stays there.
- A plan you can only read cannot be changed, by mouse, touch or keyboard, and looking at it changes nothing in it. The bell, the bills due and the milestones are always your own, and HSA records are shown only in your own plan.
- The Getting started card, the example banners and the tips belong to your own plan. They are put away while your partner’s plan or the household is on the page, and the setup and “Show the tips again” are available when your own plan is.
- On a plan you can only read, what changes the view still works: the calendar’s months, sorts and filters, notes, the tiles that lead to a tab, and every slider and field of the Simulator and the planning tools. Nothing you do there is saved.
Backups, Import and ExportEveryday A daily cloud snapshot with a week of restore points, export as JSON or CSV, and import back in.
Your budget, savings, debts, subscriptions, checklist and retirement data are snapshotted to the cloud once a day. Settings › Backups lists the last seven, and Restore puts one back. Your current data is saved first as a pre-restore snapshot, so a restore can be undone.
Export Data, on every plan, downloads everything you have entered as one JSON file, or the same sections as CSV rows for a spreadsheet.
Import Data (Pro) brings an export back section by section after a preview, so you tick what to restore and nothing changes until you confirm. It also adds bills from a spreadsheet: it guesses which columns hold the name, amount, category and due day, shows the rows, and adds them when you confirm.
A copy of your data also lives in this browser, so the app opens and works offline and syncs when you are back.
- Open Settings › Backups to see the last seven snapshots.
- Choose Restore beside the one you want; your current data is kept as a snapshot first.
- Open Settings › Export Data and choose Download JSON or Download CSV.
- Open Settings › Import Data, choose a file, check the preview, and confirm.
- Take an export before deleting your account; it is free on every plan. Deletion cannot be undone.
- HSA receipts are stored separately from the data snapshots.
- Changes made one right after another are saved in the order you made them, each once the one before it has reached the server.
- If something you change was changed first on another device or by your partner, the app shows the newer version and sets your change aside at the bottom of the screen, so you can redo it.
- A change made offline is sent when you are back, even if the app was closed in between, and the app then shows it.
SecurityEveryday Passkeys, two-factor codes, recovery codes, the app lock, the sign-in history, and signing out everywhere.
Settings › Security holds Change Email and Reset Password, which each send a link to confirm. Enable 2FA shows a QR code for an authenticator app and a key to keep somewhere safe; the six-digit code from the app finishes the setup.
With 2FA on, sign-in asks for the code after the password. The six boxes verify on the last digit. A passkey you have registered can answer that step instead of the authenticator.
A passkey signs you in with your face, your fingerprint or a security key rather than a password. Add one under Settings › Security, name it for the device it lives on, and add as many as you use. The app lock on the same page asks for a passkey when you come back after a while away, whether the app was in another tab or closed: after five minutes, or one, fifteen or sixty if you choose. It is worth switching on for a shared or easily lost device. While the app is locked, whatever was open stays under the lock: it cannot be read, pressed or reached with the keyboard until you unlock.
Recovery codes are printed once when you turn on two-factor sign-in. Each one signs you in in place of the authenticator and then switches the factor off, so you can set it up again on a new phone. Keep them somewhere other than the phone. You will also get an email when your account signs in on a device it has not seen before.
View History lists recent sign-ins. Sign Out Others ends every session but this one. Deleting the account, under Settings › Privacy, asks for your password after two confirmations and removes everything, including receipts and history.
- Open Settings › Security.
- Choose Enable 2FA, scan the QR code, keep the key, and enter the code.
- Save the recovery codes it shows you. They are shown once.
- Choose Add a passkey and name it for the device you are on.
- Choose Reset Password or Change Email when you need to; each confirms by email.
- Choose View History to see recent sign-ins.
- Choose Sign Out Others if a device you no longer use is still signed in.
- Keep the 2FA key and the recovery codes outside your phone. They are the way back in if the phone is lost.
- A passkey belongs to one device unless your password manager syncs it, so add one on each device you sign in from.
- The public security page at firetrajectory.com//security lists what protects your account and how to report a problem.
Notifications and EmailEveryday What the app shows you, what reaches your inbox, and a switch for each.
Settings › Notifications has two groups. In the app is what shows under the bell: bills coming due, FIRE milestones, and what your partner changes or shares. By email is what is sent to your sign-in address.
Email Reminders stands over three kinds, each with a switch of its own: Bills Due, the day before a bill is due; Trial and Plan, before your free trial ends and when it has; and Partner Joined. Turn Email Reminders off and all three stop, and each keeps its setting for when you turn it back on.
Product News is off until you turn it on. Security notices have no switch: a sign-in from a new device, a change to your passkeys and a password reset are always sent.
Every email you can choose ends with an Unsubscribe link that works without signing in. It stops all of them at once. Settings shows when you have used it, and turning a switch back on there starts that email again.
- Open Settings › Notifications.
- Under In the app, switch off any alert you do not want under the bell.
- Under By email, choose which reminders you get, or turn Email Reminders off to stop all three.
- Turn Product News on if you want to hear about new features.
- Reminders go out once a day in the morning, Eastern time.
- Unsubscribing from an email does not touch the alerts inside the app.
- What the bell has already told you is kept for your account, so two people who sign in on one browser each hear their own.
Search and Keyboard ShortcutsBeginner One search for everything, number keys for the tabs, and a key for the full list.
Press ⌘K or Ctrl+K, or ⌘S or Ctrl+S, to open search. Type a page, an account, a goal, a subscription or a bill; the arrow keys move through the results and Enter opens one.
The number keys 1 to 9 jump straight to the tabs, from Dashboard to Tools. Press ? for the full list, and Esc closes any dialog.
Light and dark themes are under Settings › Display & Appearance, and on desktop the sidebar collapses from the button at its foot.
- Press ⌘K or Ctrl+K.
- Type what you are looking for.
- Move with the arrow keys and press Enter.
- Press a number from 1 to 9 to jump to a tab.
- Press ? to see every shortcut.
- The collapsed sidebar is remembered next time.
- An open dialog keeps the keyboard: Tab stays inside Settings, a confirmation or a form until you close it, and closing puts you back on the button you pressed.
- On a phone or in a narrow window the menu takes the keyboard when it opens and hands it back to the menu button when it closes. Esc closes it.
- The open menu has a Close button at its top, and the first press of Tab lands on it.
- With one dialog over another, Esc closes the one on top first, and the number keys wait until every dialog is closed.
- In the calendar, Tab stops once on the month. The arrow keys move between days, Page Up and Page Down change the month, and Enter opens the day.
Is Fire Trajectory free?
The free plan covers the dashboard, budget, bill calendar, the monthly checklist, debt payoff with the Snowball method, net worth, savings goals and the subscription tracker, with no time limit. Pro adds retirement projections, the simulator and What-If builder, the Avalanche method, the HSA tracker, kids’ accounts, the planning tools, household mode, and import. Export is free on every plan. Every new account starts with a seven-day Pro trial, with no card needed.
How do I upgrade, and how do I end Pro?
Pro is $9 a month or $79 a year, arranged by email until online billing arrives. Write to support@firetrajectory.com from the address on your account. A plan renews only when you confirm it. To end Pro, email the same address; you keep Pro until the end of the term you paid for.
Where is my data stored, and who can see it?
Your numbers live in a database hosted by Supabase in the United States, sent over encrypted connections, and a copy stays in your browser so the app works offline. Nobody at Fire Trajectory reads your finances, nothing is sold or used for advertising, and a linked partner sees only what you choose to share. The Privacy Policy lists every service involved.
Does it connect to my bank?
Not yet. You enter numbers by hand, or bring bills in from a spreadsheet with Import Data (Pro). A bank connection is on the roadmap.
How is my FIRE number worked out?
Your yearly spending multiplied by your FIRE multiple, 25 by default, which matches a four percent withdrawal rate. Picking a FIRE model on the Simulator, or changing the multiple under Settings › Goals & Calculations, changes it everywhere at once. The Setting Your FIRE Number guide above walks through it.
Why does a loan’s interest differ from my statement?
Loans such as auto, student and home-equity accrue interest by the day between payments, so paying on the 3rd one month and the 13th the next changes the charge. Set the Paid on date when you tick the payment in the monthly checklist and the interest follows your lender to the cent. Cards, mortgages and buy-now-pay-later stay monthly.
How do I delete my account?
Settings › Security › Delete Account. You confirm twice, enter your password, and everything is removed: your data, uploaded receipts, sign-in history and consent records. There is no recovery afterwards, so take an export first if you want a copy.
How fast is support?
Email support@firetrajectory.com. Replies take one to two business days.
Something missing? Write to support and it will be added here.