Show HN: Retirology – Professional Retirement Planner, PWYW, No Subscription
retirology.app
retirology.app
Then, after several more months of utilizing it for my own modelling/analysis, I realized this thing might actually be good enough for others as well, so I turned it into a full-on desktop app.
The Retirology app was built with a few things in mind:
1. Be adaptable to as many retirement scenarios as possible.
2. Include all the pro-level tools competitors lock behind subscriptions.
3. No account or connections to external services.
4. No subscriptions ever.
Retirology is available via a one-time pay-what-you-want model, with a base price of $19. No matter what you pay, you will get indefinite in-year updates with the usual fixes and enhancements. The app is yours, forever, and will never stop working, ever.
Every year, a new standalone version of the app will be released as a separate purchase, which includes updated local and federal rules and regulations, such as the latest tax brackets. All current customers will automatically receive 100% off the 2027 version of the app.
I want to be clear, I am not releasing this app with plans to turn this into a business. Instead, my goal is to save people money by cancelling subscriptions for competing apps, with the added bonus of making a little cash on the side. So apologies if any of this sounds a bit unprofessional, but that's because it kind of is.
What Retirology is capable of:
- Multi-bucket accumulation modelling covering over two dozen account types, with custom growth rates, employer match, and bond tent capabilities.
- Drawdown engine that runs year-by-year analysis and includes features such as Roth conversion ladders, ACA premium subsidy optimization, SEPP 72(t), RMD modelling, and Social Security planning.
- Full state and select locality tax modelling (NYC, Detroit, Maryland counties).
- Robust Monte Carlo stress testing.
- Income and budget tracking.
- A Sankey diagram that models full accumulation and drawdown phases into an easily understood cash flow visual.
- Side-by-side comparison table to see how multiple planning scenarios stack up.
As for the technical details, if you’re so inclined:
- Available on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
- All data stays local, saved in a SQLite file on your machine.
- No account, logic, or cloud sync.
- A single network call the app makes at launch to a version.json to check for updates.
- Backend is Python, FastAPI, Pydantic v2, SQLite, reportlab, and PyInstaller.
- Frontend is React 19, TypeScript, Electron 33, electron-vite + Vite 6, Tailwind CSS 4, Radix UI, and Recharts 3.
Happy to answer questions about any of it, and thank you in advance for checking it out!