Refined FI Calculators
- Retirement Number Calculator
- Contribution Waterfall Calculator
- Portfolio Longevity Calculator
- Withdrawal Waterfall Calculator
- Portfolio Stress Test
- Step-by-step path, progress saved, your plan summarized
Retire sooner. Stay retired longer.
Gold+ is the whole system.
Your plan, my portfolios and the Risk Monitor™, running every day. Gold+ gets you there three years sooner and keeps you there five years longer.
Three years without the commute. Five more years without worrying you’ll have to go back.
Built by an MBA who manages more than $1 billion.
Do it yourself. Not by yourself.
Know how much you need to retire in three minutes. No card. No account. It’s the same calculation Gold+ uses to build your plan.
How Gold+ works
Three minutes, and you have your first action. The one that saves you years.
Risk Monitor protection Every day, for everyone.
Still working
1What is enough?The number, and the fastest path to it.
2On track, or short?A step by step way to close the gap and retire sooner.
3Fund your accounts smarter.The same money, in a better order, compounds faster.
Each update starts from better numbers.
Retired
1Will your money last?And the steps that make it last longer.
2Will your income outlast the next crash?A step by step way to keep it steady when markets are not.
3Take it out in the right order.The order sets your tax bill, and I keep up with the rules so you do not have to.
Each update starts from better numbers.
Stay the Course means no allocation change. When that changes, you get a text and an email telling you exactly how to protect your portfolio.
The Refined FI Risk Monitor
Green means stay the course. Red means protect your portfolio.
Market risk is checked daily and translated into one clear portfolio instruction. This is the view members see inside Gold+, and members get an email and text alert the day risk changes.
The red band is not a backtest. That signal was live when it mattered.
Backtested to 1960 Cadence tested across sixty-five years of market history.
Live since 2005 Twenty years of signals issued in advance, not reconstructed afterward.
Refined FI Risk Monitor
The chart is unavailable right now.
Stay the course Protection S&P 500, monthly.
Historical cadence
About once every two years
The Refined FI Risk Monitor is designed to act rarely. Tested back to 1960, it stayed quiet for entire periods when conditions were healthy and became more active when market risk clustered.
The goal is not to predict every market move. It is to reduce the chance that one bad market sets your retirement back a decade.
Signals before 2005 are backtested and illustrate cadence. Signals from 2005 onward were issued in real time. Past patterns do not guarantee future results.
A 10% drop on a $1 million portfolio is $100,000. At $1,000 a month, that is more than eight years of saving, gone. $379 a year is a fraction of that risk. Protection can seem expensive, until the storm comes. Then it is an asset.
What each one gets you
A number, an hour, or the years.
Software or a spreadsheet A number $144 a year, or nothing if you build it yourself. It answers one question and then stops.
A planner An hour About $300, up to $500 in the big cities. Ongoing help assumes you have $500,000 and they have time.
Refined FI Years $379 a year. Three years sooner to retirement, and five years longer once you are there.
The plan, my portfolios and the Risk Monitor, running every day. $379 a year, and you keep all three.
You are smart. You can build a spreadsheet and get a number. Whether that number means anything depends on the assumptions underneath it.
In my day job, I see what people get right and what they get wrong, including other advisers. Clients arrive from reputable firms with broken plans and broken portfolios. Unwinding the damage takes months. Sometimes years.
At my bank, management put in a minimum. Your portfolio balance should not exclude you from getting the right retirement answers. That is why I built Refined FI.
After I built it I tested it on myself. It told me I could retire 2 years and 8 months sooner, by making small changes.
I’ve been doing this for over two decades. I thought I had optimized everything.
Here is why. The IRS rewrites the rules every year. Hundreds of new funds launch every year. Keeping up is a full time job.
You already have a job. Gold+ does all of it for you.
What you need Software or a spreadsheet An hour a year with a planner Gold+
Gives you a number Yes Yes Yes
Assumptions you can trust Did you pick correctly? Yes Yes. Real returns after inflation. Updated annually when IRS rules change.
Tells you exactly what to do next Maybe Yes, once a year Yes. Every time you test.
The best order to put money in and take it out No Maybe Yes
The best age to claim Social Security Maybe Yes Yes. Optimized from your own statement.
What to actually own No Yes Yes. Optimized for your stage.
Watches the market every day and tells you when to move No No Yes. Text and email alerts.
What you need before they will take you on Nothing $500,000 + A desire to work less.
How often you can test it again Whenever you like Once a year, in the hour you paid for Whenever you like
The complete system matters. Cobbling together an online portfolio, software or one-time advice may get you started, but you will never know when you are off track.
Software prices are Boldin’s published plans. Planner rates are SmartAsset’s national figures, where the median is $300 an hour.
Everything included
What Gold+ members get
Refined FI portfolios
- Accumulation, Glidepath, Harbor, or Sustain, matched to your stage
- Employer-plan allocations: 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), TSP
- Detailed research on why each holding is used
Refined FI Risk Monitor
- Market risk checked daily
- Email and text alert the day risk changes
- Monthly status email when no action is needed
- Emergency cash recommendation, optimized monthly for your state
Also included
- Ongoing member research, roughly two new pieces a month
- Short walkthrough videos where a tool or portfolio needs one
- A bonus tool that may pay for your membership. A member-only lookup for money you may have left behind. If you find something, it was already yours.
What it costs
$379 per year
About $32 a month, paid once a year.
Everything in Gold+ is included in one flat annual price.
Not a
percentage of your portfolio.
Build your plan. Put it into action. Keep it current.
What happens after you join
Immediately
Choose your retirement stage and see your starting path on the dashboard.
At your pace
Complete one saved step at a time. Short walkthrough videos where a tool or portfolio needs one.
Ongoing
Your monthly status email keeps you current, and you get an email, and a text, whenever guidance calls for a portfolio change.
I continually test the portfolios, calculators, cash guidance, and underlying assumptions against new research and changing markets. When the evidence supports an improvement, Gold+ is updated.
Before, I was always worried about the markets. I love knowing I’m protected. It helps me sleep at night.
Your first year is guaranteed. Run your numbers in the calculators and follow your path. If Gold+ does not show you at least a year, tell me within 60 days and I will refund you in full.
Gold+ renews automatically each year until you cancel, and a reminder email arrives 30 days before renewal. Cancel future renewals from your account in two clicks; your access runs through the period you paid for.
What you have learned is yours to keep.
See it before you pay.
Know how much you need to retire in three minutes. No card. No account.
It’s the same calculation Gold+ uses to build your plan.
Frequently asked questions
How involved do I need to be?
Expect some work upfront. Gold+ breaks it into clear steps, saves your progress, and includes short walkthrough videos where a tool or portfolio needs one. Once your setup is complete, I keep the system current and email you when guidance calls for a portfolio action. You make any changes in your own accounts.
Does Gold+ manage my money?
No. Gold+ does not connect to brokerage accounts, place trades, rebalance, or manage money. It shows you the portfolio action and the reasoning behind it. You decide whether to act and make any changes yourself.
Does Refined FI collect my detailed financial data?
Only what you enter yourself. Refined FI never connects to your brokerage, never sees your account numbers, logins, or actual holdings, and never asks for them. What you type into the calculators, and the results they produce, are saved to your account so they are waiting when you return and your path can show what you have worked out. That data is never sold, never shared, and never used for advertising, and you can erase all of it yourself from your Account page at any time.
What if I already have an advisor?
You can use Gold+ alongside an advisor. It gives you calculators to retest your plan, a Refined FI portfolio matched to your retirement stage, and daily market-risk monitoring with an email, and a text when guidance calls for a change. You decide whether Gold+ provides more value than your advisor.
Do I need a big portfolio to benefit?
No. The calculators, Refined FI portfolios, and market-risk guidance work across portfolio sizes. The dollar amounts change; the process does not.
What if Gold+ does not work for me?
Your first year is guaranteed. Run your numbers in the calculators and follow your path. If Gold+ does not show you at least a year, tell me within 60 days and I will refund you in full.
Does Gold+ renew automatically?
Yes. Gold+ renews automatically each year until you cancel. A reminder email arrives 30 days before renewal, and you can cancel future renewals from your Account page at any time.
Will you push me to buy specific products?
No. No commissions. No affiliate links. No sponsored content. The only commercial relationship is with Gold+ members.
How often do you publish research?
Expect roughly two new research pieces each month, plus portfolio, calculator, and guidance updates when the evidence warrants. Your monthly status email links to anything new.
Is this financial advice?
No. Gold+ provides educational calculators, model portfolios, research, and market-risk guidance. It does not provide personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. See full disclosures.
Three years sooner.
Five years longer.
Build your plan. Follow one clear step at a time.
Retest whenever life changes.
Your three years start when you do.
Immediate access · Renews automatically · Cancel anytime · First year guaranteed
Guidance, not account management. Gold+ breaks the work into clear steps and saves your progress. You decide whether to act, and you make every change in your own accounts.
Educational only, not investment advice. Historical indicators and returns do not predict future results. Figures are modelled from Refined FI portfolios and the Risk Monitor, live since 2005; your own numbers will differ.