How Fatboy Financial Planner Compares

We built Fatboy Financial Planner for people who want serious planning tools without paying every year for the privilege. Here’s how we stack up.

Pricing Comparison

Why This Pricing Model Matters

• Actually free to start - Not a 30-day trial. Use the free version forever if it meets your needs.
• One-time upgrade - Need more? $149 once for the Pro version (founding subscriber price). No recurring fees.
• No pressure - Free version isn’t crippled. It’s legitimately useful.
• Your plan, your data - Whether you’re free or pro, your data stays yours.

Feature Comparison

Legend: Yes | Basic | No | Subscription update

Fatboy Pro note: Advanced pension / bridge-income modeling includes pension COLA, FERS supplement modeling, temporary bridge income, governmental 457(b) support, and later pension offsets / step-downs.

Federal retirement note: Several planners can incorporate federal retirement income. Fatboy’s differentiator is modeling federal-style income timing inside year-by-year cash flow, including supplement periods, bridge-income gaps, pension COLA, and later pension changes.

If you are specifically comparing tools for a federal household, start with the FERS retirement calculator page.

For packaging clarity: the free web app is the place to start with a federal sample plan and light federal inputs, while Fatboy Pro is where the full federal editing and advanced controls live.

Tax Assumptions: Planning Direction vs Tax-Filing Precision

Our Approach: You Control the Tax Assumptions

Fatboy Financial Planner lets you edit every tax parameter - both federal and state. Not just accept whatever we give you. You can customize:

• Federal tax brackets and rates (including future law changes)
• Standard deductions (by filing status)
• Social Security taxation thresholds
• Capital gains brackets
• IRMAA (Medicare surcharge) thresholds
• RMD age and factors
• State tax rates and brackets

Want to see what your plan looks like when TCJA expires in 2026? Change the brackets. Want to model a state income tax increase? Edit it. Want to see what happens if Congress changes capital gains rates? You’re in control.

Why This Matters for Planning

This is planning software, not TurboTax. We’re not trying to file your taxes - we’re helping you make smart decisions:

• Should I retire at 62 or wait until 65?
• When should I do Roth conversions?
• What withdrawal order costs me less in taxes?
• How will a $50k income change affect my Medicare premiums?

For these questions, close enough is good enough. Whether your effective tax rate is 18.3% or 18.7% doesn’t change whether retiring at 62 vs 65 makes sense.

Subscriptions vs Control: The Real Trade-off

When Do Tax Rates Actually Change?

Less often than subscription services want you to think:

• COLA adjustments: Annual inflation bumps to brackets (~3-5%)
• Major tax law changes: Every 5-10 years (like TCJA in 2017, expiring 2026)
• Impact on your decisions: Usually minimal

What We’ll Do

• Free updates for major tax law changes (like when TCJA expires in 2026)
• Simple self-service updates for annual COLA adjustments (seriously, 2 minutes)
• Clear documentation on updating assumptions from IRS publications
• Transparent defaults - we’ll tell you what year and source we’re using

The Bottom Line

Subscription services offer automatic updates. We offer control.

For retirement planning, being able to model different tax scenarios is more valuable than having auto-updated rates. Want to see your plan under current law vs. post-TCJA? Different state tax scenarios? Proposed tax changes? You can model all of it. And you’re not paying annually for updates you control yourself.

Important: Fatboy Financial Planner is a planning tool, not a source of tax, legal, or financial advice. Always consult qualified professionals before making major financial decisions.

Who Is This For?

This is for you if:

• You’d rather pay once than pay every year
• You’re comfortable managing your own money
• You want real planning tools without paying advisor fees
• You like playing with scenarios to see what happens
• You prefer your financial data on your computer, not ours

Probably not for you if:

• You want automatic account syncing (we’re manual/CSV import only)
• You need comprehensive estate planning (that’s not us)
• You want financial advice (we’re software, not advisors)

Try It

We think you’ll like Fatboy Financial Planner. It’ll save you money and give you the tools you actually need.