[Personal Development] I retired early and am releasing an AI-powered FIRE simulator for free. I thought about it starting from 'how I want to live' rather than 'how much money I need'

Hello, I am Memeto Mamoru.

Opening Collection Hall, Masterpiece Collection Hall, I am releasing a new web service today.

FIRE COMPASS — I named it the compass to financial freedom.

※You can use it for free.

Please let me tell you a little about my story.

This March, I took early retirement from the company I had worked at for over 15 years.

The trigger was falling ill when I was 40.

I worked recklessly through my 20s and 30s, but this illness made me realize that I could no longer work the way I had been.

Of course, I could have continued working as I was.
If I clung to my current position, I might have been able to maintain the brand of "Memeto-san who works at XX Company" until I was 65.

But the day to step down will come eventually.

When that happens, will I be able to live as just "Memeto-san"?

If I want to live that way someday, it is better to start sooner.

Thanks to the asset building I diligently continued during my time as a salaryman, I had created a foundation that would not cause my family's life to collapse immediately even if I quit my job.

It is not enough to retire completely, but it is enough to turn down work I dislike.

Because I had that foundation, I am now able to slowly prepare for starting my own business.

I aspired to financial freedom over 15 years ago.

I was still single back then.
I wanted to wake up whenever I liked, play games as much as I wanted, and watch movies as much as I wanted.
It started from such "impure thoughts."

After I got married and had children, the content changed.
It became, "I want to spend as much time as I like with my family."

Only the purpose changed, but the means did not.
The feeling of "I want to FIRE someday" remained consistent throughout.
That is the origin of my asset building.

That is why I have read countless articles written about FIRE, exhausted every simulator on the internet, and repeated simulations many times using the Monte Carlo method.

So I could explain it with numbers if my wife asked, 'Are you really going to be okay?'
In the end, she never asked me once (laughs).

I didn't choose to fully FIRE, but rather chose the path of 'Side FIRE,' where I create my own work. But even that decision was ultimately pushed over the line by the calculations I had built up.

Having researched it that much, I reached my retirement date still unable to shake the feeling that 'something was missing' from existing simulators.

I built this web service because I wanted to put that feeling into words.

The answer that 'you can FIRE if you have X million yen'

When you look up FIRE online, this kind of talk comes up.

It is correct as a number.
But I always felt it wasn't quite essential.

Some people hear the number 50 million yen and feel it's 'too little.'
They have children. They have a mortgage. They have to take care of their parents soon.
They want to travel with their family and there are cars they want. They say it's nowhere near enough.

On the other hand, some people hear the same 50 million yen and feel 'that's plenty.' They live with their parents and are single. They have no intention of getting married. A bicycle is enough for transportation. They say they can live happily on 100,000 yen a month.

Both are correct.

It's just that the two people have different ideas about 'what kind of lifestyle they want to live' in the first place.
Whether 50 million yen is a lot or a little isn't determined by numbers alone.

I believe it is determined by what that person values, where they want to be, who they want to be with, and what kind of day they want to spend.

Before the numbers, there is the 'why'

There is a concept called the 'Golden Circle' proposed by author and leadership researcher Simon Sinek in his 2009 TED Talk.

' Messages that reach people's hearts start with why '

This is the core.

Many people start talking from what. But what drives action is belief and purpose—in other words, the why part.

The same thing is happening with information shared about FIRE.
What you see on the internet basically starts with 'what'.

The phrase 'You can FIRE if you save 50 million yen' is typical,
and the 'why' (what kind of life you want to live) is completely left out.

Existing simulators are the same.
Everyone starts with the question of 'how much is needed'.

I have always thought that it should actually be the other way around.

“I want to live this kind of life (why). Therefore, I need X million yen (what)” should be the order.

That is the reason why I built this web service.

A simulator that works backward from 'how you want to live'

What I wanted to create was not an addition-based simulator, but a subtraction-based one.

FIRE COMPASS starts by asking 'what kind of life you want to lead.' You answer four questions at the beginning.

What do you value?
Time with family, contributing to society, creating things, or a stable life?

What is your ideal way of living?
Living in the city, moving to the countryside, or being a location-independent nomad?

What do you want to include in your ideal day?
A slow morning, daily exercise, or having a day where you do absolutely nothing?

What do you want to do once you FIRE?
Writing a novel, long-term travel, learning a language, or starting a small business?

Based on these answers, you can find an estimate of your annual living expenses.
You can determine the assets you need from your living expenses.
From the assets you need, you can decide when you can FIRE.

The numbers don't come first; how you want to live comes first.

I believe that is the utility of this simulator that makes it different from others.

The FP exam became the foundation for the web service

Around the time I decided to retire early, I started studying to become a Financial Planner (FP) as a way to review my household finances, and I am currently studying to obtain the FP Level 2 certification.

While studying, there was one thing that made sense to me.

In the world of FP, there is a saying: “FP begins with a life plan and ends with a life plan”.

Even in financial planning counseling, the first thing they ask is not about money.
It starts with "what kind of life do you want to live?".

While studying for my financial planner certification, I realized that the core idea is that 'how you want to live comes before money.' That led to the inspiration for creating this web service.

As I learned more, I saw a lot of knowledge that wasn't included in existing simulators.

• The fact that the pension amount increases by delaying receipt
  (e.g., 42% increase if delayed by 5 years until age 70, up to 84% increase if delayed by 10 years until age 75)

• The scale of the pension amount you can receive after retirement

• The mechanisms of lifetime gifting and inheritance tax

Every time, I thought, "This is not included in FIRE simulators at all."

Financial anxiety often comes from 'not knowing.' Just understanding how things work makes the anxiety much smaller. The financial planner exam made me realize that.

Viewing 500 possible futures through probability

Unlike simple tools that just have you input an interest rate for compound interest calculations, FIRE COMPASS uses the Monte Carlo method.

The Monte Carlo method is a technique that simulates hundreds of 'possible futures' while randomly varying annual investment returns.

Here, we are running simulations with 500 different patterns.

It doesn't show 'what happens if you're lucky,' but rather shows the probability of 'how robust your plan is under various economic conditions.'

On the results screen, in addition to the asset growth graph, the 'retirement asset survival rate' is displayed as a numerical value. This is the probability that you can survive without running out of assets up to age 110. You can check the strength of your plan including not just optimistic scenarios, but pessimistic ones as well.

It is packed with many items that are rarely found in existing simulators.

• Freely build a portfolio from 12 existing index funds (All Country, S&P 500, NASDAQ, Nikkei 225, etc.).

• Pension estimates for Employees' Pension, National Pension, and iDeCo (supports early and delayed receipt).

• Children's education expenses (from kindergarten to private medical school).

• Estimates for lifetime gifts and inheritance tax

• Incorporating life events such as home purchases, travel, and nursing care costs

• Setting inflation rates

• Household calculations including a partner's pension and income

You can check the results across 9 tabs.
Summary, simulation graphs, fund composition, life plan tables, FIRE achievement diagnosis, comparison with your generation, details on pensions and taxes, inheritance estimates, and more.

It might look like a lot of work to input everything.

But just by answering the first four questions, numbers tailored to your outlook on life will be set automatically.
You don't need to think about difficult things. First, just try answering the four questions.

Reason for offering it for free

I'll be honest. At first, I didn't intend to release it for free (laughs).

Actually, this simulator was made before the Collection series.

I kept it on the shelf, thinking I could monetize it after starting my business.

Creating a paid plan or adding affiliate links.
There were plenty of ways to do it if I thought about it.

But in writing this note, my way of thinking changed.

"The value of premium-level content is not in delivering success stories or profitable know-how. It is in creating a moment where the reader's actions or perspectives change just a little."

When I defined that as my own version of premium value, and considering I want to deliver premium value to you all through my notes, I realized that releasing this web service for free at this stage is not contradictory.

Just like the Collection series, this service will also be released completely free of charge until I establish my limited liability company next January.

FIRE is a state where you don't have to do things you dislike

I do not think of FIRE as a state where you don't have to work.

Because by not working, you might unknowingly narrow your possibilities.

I believe that, essentially, FIRE is a state where you don't have to do things you dislike.

What many people truly want is not a massive fortune, but

the feeling ofbeing able to live today doing what you love.

If this simulator can be a first step toward that feeling for you, then it was worth building.

Please give it a try. I would be happy to hear your thoughts.

If you think you'll give it a try, it would encourage me if you could press the 'Like' button.

Access FIRE COMPASS here

[Operating Environment]

• iPhone / iPad: Safari (Recommended)

• Android: Chrome (Recommended)

• PC: Chrome / Safari / Edge (Latest version)

* Internet Explorer is not supported.
* On PWA-compatible browsers, you can add it to your home screen and use it as an app.
* This simulator runs entirely within your device, and no input data is sent externally.

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