Sustainability & your data
Free tools have a history of disappearing — and taking their users' plans with them. Before you invest hours in RetireGolden, you deserve honest answers to "what's the catch?" and "will this exist in ten years?"
Why is RetireGolden free?
Because it costs almost nothing to run and collects nothing to monetize. RetireGolden is a static web app: there is no server doing your math (your browser does it), no database holding your plan (your device holds it), no accounts, no ads, no affiliate links, no lead generation — and the free planner is the whole planner, with nothing held back behind a gate. It began as a personal decision aid and a learning project, and keeping it free keeps its incentives clean: the tool has no reason to nudge you toward any product, provider, or conclusion.
The catch is that there is no catch — but there are honest limits. It's a small independent project. There is no support team, no advisory service, and no guarantee of any particular feature schedule.
What happens to my data?
Your plan lives in your browser's local storage on your device. It is never transmitted anywhere. Export produces a plain, documented JSON file — that file is your plan, complete and portable:
- Backup — export any time; import restores your plan exactly.
- Portability — the format is versioned and documented in a public format contract, and older exports import forward through automatic migrations — a guarantee enforced by tests (a pinned old export must stay importable for the build to pass). Your data is never locked in.
- Deletion — clearing your data removes everything; there is no server copy to chase.
What if the project winds down?
The honest scenario planning a free tool owes you:
- The app is a static site with no backend — even with zero maintenance it keeps working as deployed, and because it's an installable web app it keeps working offline on your device.
- Your plan is already in your hands as a portable file; nothing about the project ending can take it away.
- Annual tax parameters would gradually go stale; the app labels every parameter vintage, so you'd know exactly how stale.
- The entire source code is already open under AGPL-3.0, so the math can outlive any single maintainer — anyone can run, fix, or fork it.
Compare that to the failure mode people have actually been burned by: cloud planners that shut down and take plans, history, and access with them. RetireGolden is architected so that shutting down isn't something that can happen to your data — there is nothing to shut down that holds it.
Check, don't trust
Every claim on this page is verifiable: the source code, the format contract, and your browser's own network tab while you use the planner — which will show your plan going nowhere.