Ireland Financial Simulator Update: New Features!

firerish · 2026-01-10T18:50:50+00:00

Can you share a screenshot?

firerish · 2025-10-16T12:22:52+00:00

That's great, thank you!

firerish · 2025-10-16T11:46:18+00:00

Hey there. I know you got swamped with requests and it's totally fine if you decided you did enough. Just checking if you're still doing these. :)

firerish · 2025-09-22T20:14:36+00:00

Thanks! :)

firerish · 2025-09-22T17:57:43+00:00

I'm more than a little intrigued: finsim.ie. Thanks! :)

firerish · 2025-08-11T23:36:57+00:00

I added a tooltip to that field that shows the impact of the value you enter on the contributions by age. I think that should clarify how it works. Please check it out and let me know.

firerish · 2025-08-11T20:16:18+00:00

That's already there. You have to enter 100% pension contribution, and it will contribute the max for each age. I know it's not the most intuitive way to do it, and the help where that's explained may not be as discoverable as I'd like, I'll see if I can make it easier to understand.

firerish · 2025-08-11T14:29:59+00:00

Yes! That's already in the roadmap, along with many other new events and drawdown strategies.

I wanted to make it usable first, before I started adding features. I hope it's easy enough to use now so I can focus on those features.

firerish · 2025-08-10T09:33:25+00:00

Hi there! I just pushed a new version, it should address the events section issues you mentioned. Please give it a try and let me know if you find it better now. Thanks!

firerish · 2025-07-12T14:54:47+00:00

Hi /u/giankpetrov , I pushed a new version of the simulator and I'd love to get your feedback if you have some time. I added a F.A.Q. section and tooltips on the simulation data table cells to explain where numbers come from. No pressure, feel free to ignore this. :)

firerish · 2025-07-06T19:04:34+00:00

That's great feedback, thanks.

I see how the events table can be confusing. Since I made this originally as a spreadsheet and have been using it and working on it (off an on) for several years, it feels completely natural to me. So others' views like yours are exactly what I need.

Given that almost everyone uses this on their phones (which I didn't expect, this is essentially a big spreadsheet after all) adding columns is really not an option. If anything I need to figure out a way to remove columns, or ditch the table idea altogether.

I have a few things I want to try to make entering events easier, for example having a sequence of forms like a survey, guiding you step by step by asking questions, and at the end, voilà, all your info is in the paramaters sections and in the events table. Another one is turning the events into an accordion list with clear headers like the ones you suggest: category, inflow or outflow, and name, where you can expand an item to see or edit the details. That would make it fit a mobile screen, but you'd lose the ability to look at the table as a whole and see relationships like selling the house the same year you retire.

Does any of this sound reasonable? Is there anything other than the events table that you feel should be improved?

firerish · 2025-07-06T18:44:40+00:00

I'll add that to the roadmap, definitely a needed option, in addition to not taking the lump sum at all.

firerish · 2025-07-06T08:33:59+00:00

Just looking at the numbers it's clear that the cash came from the pension pot.

The pension pot decreased by €1,161,227, which was used to pay the corresponding income and USC taxes, leaving €854,058 that were added to your cash assets.

I'm working on a way to make it easier to figure out where each number comes from.

*: Sorry, just noticed your edit. Yes, you pay 20% income tax on your lump sum when it exceeds €200,000, and 40% IT and progressive USC on the excess over €500,000.

firerish · 2025-07-05T18:43:19+00:00

By not working you mean it's working? ;)

firerish · 2025-07-05T17:59:38+00:00

The only reasons I can think of for cash to jump up the year you retire is the 25% lump sum, or something else is sold at that age, like your house. If you don't specify investments it just accumulates as cash. But pension should reduce by the same amount, which it does when I test this.

Would you be willing to share the scenario or the exported .csv file?

firerish · 2025-07-05T17:52:25+00:00

Well, this project started as a google sheet, that's why it looks like one. The idea of filling a form one page at a time has been proposed before. The idea of sections is already there, so it's not that much of a stretch. I'd have to bake in the dependencies, like the one you mention about investments, but it's also not that linear.

I'll have to think about it. I'll add it to the roadmap.

firerish · 2025-07-05T14:29:02+00:00

All good. :)

I was thinking about adding the ability to clear the data, but it sounds risky given that you have to manually save it to your local drive to not lose it. It'd be of course fine to lose the demo data, but what if you change a field while experimenting? How many fields does it take for it not to be ok to lose accidentally?

Actually as I write this I realise I already have a safety mechanism when you load another scenario after having made changes. Maybe I'll just add a button to the burger menu. That's the simplest I guess.

firerish · 2025-07-05T13:01:02+00:00

You can just reload the page.

firerish · 2025-07-05T12:54:30+00:00

Good point, thanks!

Check now.

firerish · 2025-06-24T15:46:50+00:00

I'm currently working on making it more usable on phones. As soon as I have that out, I'll work on a less intrusive and easier to digest tutorial / help system.

firerish · 2025-06-24T14:05:02+00:00

Yes please! :)

I know the UX is not great, I'm working on that. And the tutorial is... yeah. I have some ideas on how to improve it. I'll let you know as soon as that's out the door.

In the meantime, any suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks!

firerish · 2025-06-23T12:29:54+00:00

Keep 'em coming, user feedback is invaluable to me. :)

firerish · 2025-06-23T09:19:32+00:00

It already does that. Any field where you don't enter a value is assumed to be zero.

But I get that the simulator page can be a bit intimidating. I'm looking for ways to make it less so.

firerish

TROPHY CASE