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Build Your FI Paycheck

Build Your FI Paycheck: Methodology

Understand the approach, what your result can tell you, and where judgment still matters.

Current tool · Version 1.1.5

From annual resources to a monthly payday

Build a cash-flow system for the next twelve months

The builder combines ordinary spending, irregular expenses, and the timing of income and spendable portfolio distributions. A reserve smooths uneven arrivals into a regular monthly household paycheck, with separate top-ups and tax set-asides where needed.

It schedules portfolio funding around your chosen reserve-review cadence rather than assuming that investments must be sold every month. It also checks whether confirmed funding is available in time and within any dollar limit you entered.

Reading your operating plan

Paycheck and setup
Your recurring monthly deposit, operating cushion, reserve target, and any additional setup funding establish the system. Setup funding is not an extra recurring living expense.
Monthly calendar
The plan shows income, reserve transfers, irregular top-ups, tax payments, and expected portfolio sales when cash is needed.
Funding status
Funded means entered availability covers this calendar. Incomplete means needed funding is not confirmed. Constrained means a known timing or dollar limit leaves an operating gap. None is a long-term sustainability rating.
Refill comparisons
Monthly, quarterly, twice-yearly, and annual reviews show the tradeoff between reserve needs and funding transactions. The household paycheck stays monthly, and no alternative is applied automatically.
Assumptions and information to check

The plan covers twelve full calendar months beginning this month or next month. If the current month is partly over, check whether beginning next month better represents the setup you can actually complete.

Income follows the frequency, first payment, and final payment you enter. Only portfolio distributions received as spendable cash count; reinvested amounts do not. Dependable income can reduce the suggested reserve baseline, while variable income and portfolio distributions are not treated as equally dependable protection.

The builder calculates the reserve target; this version does not offer a manual target override. You choose the refill cadence and, for less frequent reviews, the calendar-month group. Comparison alternatives retain their stated default timing.

Taxes are a separate reserve using your annual estimate or selected percentage of modeled gross cash flows. Choose payment months explicitly or use every plan month, every third plan month, or the final plan month. These are cash-planning dates, not calculated tax deadlines. Each payment uses the reserve accumulated so far; any later set-asides stay reserved. An unresolved tax estimate stays unresolved; the tool does not calculate tax liability. Confirm timing, withholding, and whether entered spending already includes the same tax payments.

Changelog

A brief public record of what changed. Calculation details and security-sensitive implementation information are intentionally excluded.

View version history
  1. Version 1.1.5 Combined result history and saved assessments with draft rows and direct history navigation.
  2. Version 1.1.4 Added a reserve-balance chart showing monthly cash levels and planned refill timing.
  3. Version 1.1.3 Standardized result actions and added community discussion cards beside relevant findings.
  4. Version 1.1.2 Centered the mobile menu control and kept the Toolkit name visible when space allows.
  5. Version 1.1.1 Added clearer navigation, version history, and more useful contextual guidance.
  6. Version 1.1.0 Improved tax scheduling, funding checks, operating guidance, and readiness safeguards.
  7. Version 1.0.5 Clarified and repositioned the public Methodology page.
  8. Version 1.0.4 Added a public explanation of the tool approach and limitations.
  9. Version 1.0.3 Added account preferences and notices when an updated plan is available.
  10. Version 1.0.2 Added accessible history actions and member-local time displays.
  11. Version 1.0.1 Improved result history, summaries, and duplicate-run grouping.
  12. Version 1.0.0 Established the first public Build Your FI Paycheck release.
  13. Version 0.7.1 Hardened accessibility, navigation recovery, submissions, and request reliability.
  14. Version 0.7.0 Added privacy-limited pilot measurement and failure isolation.
  15. Version 0.6.1 Showed only the tax-reserve inputs relevant to the selected method.
  16. Version 0.6.0 Added household-selected quarterly, twice-yearly, and annual funding months.
  17. Version 0.5.2 Improved report pagination for longer operating plans.
  18. Version 0.5.1 Refined conditional inputs and schedule presentation.
  19. Version 0.5.0 Added funding feasibility and a fuller operating plan.
  20. Version 0.4.1 Improved sign-in guidance and report headers.
  21. Version 0.4.0 Added reserve-refill cadence comparisons.
  22. Version 0.3.0 Added explicit income timing and date review.
  23. Version 0.2.0 Aligned money inputs with the shared Toolkit experience.
  24. Version 0.1.0 Introduced the first guided development version.

A result you can revisit

This page describes the current tool. An older saved result may use an earlier approach; its saved version and conclusions remain unchanged. Reviewing your answers and completing an updated run creates a new result without rewriting the earlier one.

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