Free, and staying free

Two tools to start with

You can't plan your way out of a situation you haven't measured. These two do the measuring — one for where you stand, one for what your life actually costs.

Free worksheet

Know Your Numbers

A guided workbook covering the numbers every plan rests on — net income, expenses, pensions, savings and assets, debts, and the net worth figure that falls out of them.

UK edition, updated for 2026–27. Built around the 50/30/20 split, with a 60/25/15 version for anyone catching up.

Get the worksheet

Free tool

Lifestyle Calculator

Most of us underestimate what we spend, because the big annual and irregular bills don't show up in a monthly view. This turns them into simple monthly costs.

The result is a real number for what your life costs — and a target you can actually plan toward.

Try the calculator

Which one first?

Know Your Numbers if you've never written it all down in one place. It's the foundation, and everything in the podcast assumes you've done it.

The Lifestyle Calculator if you already know roughly where you stand but not what your target should be — particularly if you've listened to episode four and want to work out your own version of "enough".

Both are free and there's no reason not to do both.

Want the third one?

The Retirement Simulator isn't free — it's the one tool in the paid toolkit. It runs your situation through hundreds of possible market futures and shows you the honest range, including what happens if you get unlucky.

See the toolkit — £20