Nomad Retirement Calculator

Financial independence isn't one date — it's a different date in every city. Set your numbers, then click a dot to see what living there actually involves.

Your numbers

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Everything you type and everything you see is in this currency. It never changes the ranking — only the figures.
How old you are today. Every retirement age below is measured forward from here.
USD
What you already have invested and able to fund you — index funds, brokerage accounts, pensions you'll be able to reach. Leave out the home you live in, and anything locked up until an age later than the one you're aiming for.
USD
What actually reaches your investments each month, on average — not your salary, and not what's left over in a good month. The figure you could keep up in a bad year is the useful one.
Annual growth after inflation. Historically ~5% for a global stock portfolio. Everything here is in today's money.

How long must it last?

Sex and your currency together pick a life-expectancy figure, which sets the age below. Currency stands in for country here, which is rough — the euro alone spans twenty countries and about nine years of male life expectancy. Whichever country is being assumed is named above. Average splits male and female, and is the default so nothing is assumed about you.
On, your money only has to last until the age below, so you can run the capital down — a far smaller target. Off, the portfolio must fund you forever on its returns alone and the age is ignored.
Share of the portfolio you live on each year. 4% is the common rule of thumb; lower is more conservative.
82
Set from your sex and currency, but drag it and it stays where you put it until either of those changes. Two things argue for pushing it higher than the figure given: it is life expectancy at birth, and you have already survived the years that drag that number down; and roughly half of people outlive it. Planning exactly to it is close to a coin flip.

Filters

Narrow the list to places you'd genuinely consider. Switching one off removes it from the chart and the table, but not from the head-to-head comparison above.
any
Hide anywhere hotter than this in its warmest month.
any
Hide anywhere colder than this in its coolest month.
any
Walkability, public transport and cycling averaged. Set it high and Bali, Dubai and Austin drop out fast.

Lifestyle

Two people don't cost twice one. A couple is priced at 1.55× the solo budget, since rent, utilities and most bills are shared while food and travel roughly double.
Comfortable = private 1-bed in a decent area, eating out regularly, health insurance, coworking, occasional travel.

Tax

Off by default, because many long-term nomads never become tax resident anywhere on this list. Turning it on raises each city's target by its local rate — and reshuffles the ranking, since Georgia, Malaysia, the UAE and Singapore charge nothing while Portugal and Germany charge a lot. It assumes the whole withdrawal is taxable, which overstates the hit.
Earliest exit
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Cheapest target
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Cost of choosing wrong
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Head to head

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Compare against

How to read this

Every dot is a city. Left to right is the age you could retire there — further left is sooner. Up and down is whatever you pick above (), so higher is better on that measure.

That makes the top-left corner the sweet spot: retire soonest, give up least. A dot sitting alone in the bottom-right is the worst of both — expensive and weak on the thing you said you cared about. Dot size is metro population, colour is continent.

Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, click a dot for the full picture. Cities you could never afford on these numbers aren't plotted at all.

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Destination
Per month
FI number
Time to go
Age

If returns disappoint

Real return Earliest Median city Lisbon

Wondering how any of this is worked out, or where the numbers come from? Read the FAQ →