Pick a career, a place to live, and a family size. See what life actually costs, what is left to invest each month, and what that leftover could grow into by age 65. Simple math, honest numbers.
Career pay is the U.S. average (median) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024–2025, from fry cook to brain surgeon. Pay starts at the low end of the range and climbs to the high end over your first 20 years.
The same job can feel rich in one place and tight in another. Pick the cost level that fits your life.
More people means more love and more groceries. Both count here.
Pick a home size, then rent or buy it. The price follows the cost tier you picked above, not your family size. A starter home in New York still costs more than a big home in the Midwest.
Tithing, charity, helping family, whatever giving looks like for you. Set a percent of your household income and it comes off the top, before investing.
Income on one side, real life on the other. Housing sits at the top of the expense list because it is usually the biggest bite. Slide the frugality level to scale your everyday spending up or down, and every expense line has a checkbox: uncheck one to zero it out and see what changes. Play with it.
Your pay climbs toward the top of your career range over 20 years. Life gets about 2% more expensive every year. Buy a home and the mortgage payment disappears at year 30, when the loan is paid off, and that money turns into investing room instead. Watch the gap between the two lines: that gap is your investing power.
Every month, the leftover above goes into investments. Slide the yearly return to see what that habit is worth by age 65. The slider snaps to 10.5%, about the long-run stock market average, and to 15%, the high-tier goal.
Returns are never guaranteed. 10.5% is close to the long-run average of the U.S. stock market before inflation; 15% every year for decades is a stretch goal that very few investors hit. Past performance does not promise future results.