This page explains how to use my personal financial independence spreadsheet.
If you havent already downloaded the spreadsheet, click here to download now!
The first tab in the spreadsheet is where you record your monthly account balances and calculate your net worth.
Luckily, this step is easy because Personal Capital* aggregates all of your accounts for you.
If you dont have a Personal Capital account, you can sign up for free here. Its the best tool Ive found for managing my portfolio so I definitely recommend it.
To fill out this page of the spreadsheet, copy the previous months column, change the column header to the current month, and then populate the fields that have a green background with the latest data from Personal Capital.
Note: You should only update the cells that have a light green background because all other fields have formulas and will update automatically.
In addition to computing your net worth, this tab also shows how much of your money is liquid (i.e. you could access immediately) vs. illiquid (i.e. harder to get at, like money in your 401(k)).
The Investments tab uses the values on the Net Worth tab to provide a picture of where your money is located and what youre invested in.
The Investments tab computes the totals of each type of investment account (e.g. taxable, tax-deferred, etc.) so you can get an idea of how your money will be taxed when you eventually withdraw it.
This sheet is where you can keep track of how much of your HSA you can withdraw early (see this post for how I use my HSA as an investment account) and how much money youve contributed to your Roth IRA (which can also be withdrawn at any time). These are the only two values that you need to update on this tab because everything else is calculated automatically from previously-entered data.
The Investments tab also automatically computes your asset allocation so you can use this sheet for portfolio rebalancing.
Finally, the Investments tab computes the total amount of money available before and after standard retirement age (remember thoughif you plan to retire early and want to access your tax-deferred money sooner, there are ways to do that).
The Averages tab is where you record your monthly spending.
This step is really important because you cant determine if youre financially independent without knowing how much you spend every year.
To make this step easier, I use Mint.com to categorize my monthly expenses.
Personal Capital can do the same thing but since I started using Mint before Personal Capital came out, Ive just continued using it for this purpose.
There are a few interesting calculations that occur on this tab that are worth explaining
The FI tab is the final tab in the spreadsheet and also the most important.
Here, your monthly expenses are annualized and your Time to FI number is calculated based on those expenses.
On this tab, you have to update the Withdrawal Rate and Growth Rate assumptions once but then youll never have to update anything again.
The FI tab is great for motivating you to lower your expenses because when you see that it will take an extra 1.2 years of work to permanently fund your expensive cable TV package, for example, youll probably be more likely to decrease that expense or eliminate it completely.
This tab also shows you how much youre spending on all the major spending categories (e.g. housing, car, etc.), which is really useful when making big lifestyle decisions.
For example, if you see that your car costs you over $500 per month but you dont use it that much, it may be worth calculating how much it would cost to take Ubers/Lyfts instead. Or, you could compare your total housing expenses to how much it could cost to travel and stay in Airbnbs full time and it may make more sense (and be more fun) to become a nomad instead.
Finally (and most importantly), this tab computes how long it will take you to reach FI!
Increase your income and/or lower your expenses to decrease your Years to FI number and walk away from your job even sooner!
For even more information about the spreadsheet, heres a short video I made about it:
I hope you get as much use out of this spreadsheet as I have.
If you run into any issues with formulas or if you dont have any software to open the .xls file, just upload the file to Google Sheets and use it there.
And if you want to easily chart out your progress to financial independence on a pretty graph, check out the FI Laboratory software I developed!
* If you sign up for a free Personal Capital account using the links provided in the post, this site may earn a commission. Thank you for your support!
More:
Financial Independence Spreadsheet - Mad Fientist
- Weaving Hope and Financial Independence: Fatima's Path to Empowerment - United Nations Development Programme - May 13th, 2024 [May 13th, 2024]
- Mother's Day 2024: Top 6 ideas to empower your mother with financial independence | Mint - Mint - May 13th, 2024 [May 13th, 2024]
- The Simple Path to Wealth - New Trader U - May 13th, 2024 [May 13th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Halving: A History of Economics Shift & Financial Independence - Crypto Times - April 20th, 2024 [April 20th, 2024]
- Your Excuses Will Never Help You Build Wealth - DataDrivenInvestor - April 14th, 2024 [April 14th, 2024]
- Financial expert comments on Brits methods of obtaining financial freedom - IFA Magazine - April 14th, 2024 [April 14th, 2024]
- Women reveal why they chose financial security over love - Yahoo News UK - April 14th, 2024 [April 14th, 2024]
- This 48-year-old dad retired early to move to Panama with his family: 'This has been the greatest thing' - Fortune - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- More than just housewives: Ministry encourages women to embrace leadership, financial independence - Sinar Daily - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- Gender equality through Financial Independence (CSW68 Side Event). - Welcome to the United Nations - March 16th, 2024 [March 16th, 2024]
- Journal Club 03-15-24 - Passive Income MD - March 16th, 2024 [March 16th, 2024]
- How much money Americans need to earn to be 'financially independent' - CNBC - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- What is Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE)? - Bankrate.com - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- HUYNH: The Student Council endowment could ensure financial independence - University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- Crypto Sundae The Dog $SUNDAE: Your Path to Financial Independence - Medium - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- Financial Independence through Crypto: Top 3 Coins That Could Transform Your Portfolio in 2024 - CryptoDaily - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- Salary Success: Is $94000 the Magic Number for Financial Freedom? - Study Finds - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- Early Retirement Is Just A Big Lie - Seeking Alpha - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- 4 Strategies to Achieve Financial Independence in 2024 - Business Insider - January 4th, 2024 [January 4th, 2024]
- 3 Legged Stool of Retirement | investing.com - Investing.com Canada - January 4th, 2024 [January 4th, 2024]
- What is Coast FIRE? Should you pursue this instead of vanilla financial independence? | Mint - Mint - December 25th, 2023 [December 25th, 2023]
- Book Recommendations on Money, Investing, and Financial Independence - Business Insider - December 25th, 2023 [December 25th, 2023]
- How 12 years of tracking investments has been a life-changer - freefincal on YouTube - December 25th, 2023 [December 25th, 2023]
- Understanding the Path to Financial Independence in Retirement - TickerTV News - December 25th, 2023 [December 25th, 2023]
- Females On FIRE: 3 Diverse Women Share Their Journey To ... - Bankrate.com - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- WA Parents Lead in Funding Adult Kids, Survey Shows - Source ONE News - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- Saving, Investing, and Running Marathons: My 25-year Journey to ... - freefincal on YouTube - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- The Clash Against The Magnificent Seven - Community Advocate - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- What is the perfect age to retire? Here are the 5 crucial questions you need to answer now - AOL - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- Italy Searches for Museum Leaders, With Nationalism in the Air - The New York Times - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- In Africa, Gender Equity in Construction Shapes Tomorrow's Workforce - Autodesk Redshift - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- How Lifestyle Inflation Is Keeping You In The Rat Race (Avoid To ... - New Trader U - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- Small business ideas to start at university - Arizona Big Media - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- Top 5 Investment Ideas for Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide - Goodreturns - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- How Huawei Is Helping China Build Up Its Semiconductor ... - Bloomberg - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- Patient experiences of being advised by a healthcare professional to ... - BioMed Central - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- When You Should Consider Buying Even More Stocks | White Coat ... - The White Coat Investor - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Sanaipei Tande's insights on marriage, polygamy and financial ... - Nairobi News - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Real jobs for eager young people: The Heckscher Foundation ... - New York Daily News - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- All about the Benjamins: Researchers decipher the secrets of ... - ND Newswire - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- How To Become Rich With The Power Of Compounding - New Trader U - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Women Deliver 2023 | Together We All Lead - Procter & Gamble - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Acclaimed Temple psychologist's new book explores parenting adult ... - Temple University News - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Where Is Kate Chastain From 'Below Deck' Now? - We Got This Covered - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Programs that help NYC migrants achieve financial independence ... - New York Daily News - June 26th, 2023 [June 26th, 2023]
- ChatGPT gives 10 reasons why you should buy Bitcoin - Finbold - Finance in Bold - June 26th, 2023 [June 26th, 2023]
- Scottish independence reset undermined by confusion over SNP ... - Financial Times - June 26th, 2023 [June 26th, 2023]
- It's Never Too Late to Become a Millionaire - New Trader U - June 26th, 2023 [June 26th, 2023]
- Milford Foundation Partners With MoneyTime To Improve Financial ... - Scoop - June 26th, 2023 [June 26th, 2023]
- Bitcoin ETFs: What Are the Potential Implications for Crypto? - Captain Altcoin - June 26th, 2023 [June 26th, 2023]
- De-dollarization will be a priority talk at BRICS meeting Cryptopolitan - Cryptopolitan - June 26th, 2023 [June 26th, 2023]
- Gen Z viewers are more inclined towards 'Financial Independence Retire Early' concept: Rachana Ranade - Times of India - February 7th, 2023 [February 7th, 2023]
- FIRE Movement: What It Is And How It Works - NerdWallet - January 31st, 2023 [January 31st, 2023]
- FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early Forbes Advisor - January 31st, 2023 [January 31st, 2023]
- Priyanka Chopra Jonas' idea of financial independence is inspirational and how! - Zoom TV - January 27th, 2023 [January 27th, 2023]
- Independence Realty Trust, Inc.'s (NYSE:IRT) Stock Has Seen Strong Momentum: Does That Call For Deeper Study Of Its Financial Prospects? - Simply Wall... - January 27th, 2023 [January 27th, 2023]
- What Is Financial Independence? Forbes Advisor UK - January 19th, 2023 [January 19th, 2023]
- The FIRE Movement: Financial Independence; Retire Early | Britannica Money - January 19th, 2023 [January 19th, 2023]
- Home | NextAdvisor with TIME - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- Why Financial Independence with Children is Challenging. - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- 8 Levels Of Financial Freedom - Forbes - December 23rd, 2022 [December 23rd, 2022]
- Independence Contract Drilling, Inc. Reports Unaudited Financial ... - November 25th, 2022 [November 25th, 2022]
- How Much Money You Need to Retire Early in All 50 States - NextAdvisor - November 25th, 2022 [November 25th, 2022]
- Funding | The Official Website of The Duke & Duchess of Sussex - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- What the Future Voices of Personal Finance All Have in Common - NextAdvisor - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- How this 41-year-old went from 'living on credit cards' to retiring early with $3 million in California - CNBC - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Insights on What Really Matters to Participants - PLANADVISER - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- On the road to financial independence - The News International - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Womens center announces expansion to address domestic violence throughout the region - Houston Public Media - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- PSLF Waiver Application Deadline - The White Coat Investor - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Fairfax Financial and Independence Pet Group Receive All Regulatory Approvals To Complete Sale of Global Pet Insurance Operations - GlobeNewswire - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Sustainable Bitcoin Miner CleanSpark Welcomes Investors and Analysts to its Mining Campuses in Atlanta - GuruFocus.com - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Deep Well Project to host open house for new financial stability initiative - WSAV-TV - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- IIM Grad Quits Job to Help Over 1000 Women in Bihar Scale Their Small Businesses - The Better India - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Harry's Memoir Will Be 'Quite Revealing' 'If We Ever See It'Jeffrey Archer - Newsweek - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Where Harold Weilbrenner and Janice Weiner stand on issues in the Senate District 45 race - Iowa City Press-Citizen - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Moliy Is Swimming Against the Tide of Mainstream Afropopand Succeeding - OkayAfrica - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- From Chaos to Success: The Mike Koshatko Story - Digital Journal - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- SEC Warns Auditors to Take Their Role and Independence Seriously - JD Supra - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Suze Orman Hates the FIRE Movement. Here's Why - The Motley Fool - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]