Coastline vs FICalc
FICalc.app is a clean, free tool for backtesting retirement withdrawal strategies against historical market data — think of it as a modern cFIREsim. Coastline covers a broader job: building wealth, spending it down, and the taxes on both, with the math shown. Here’s the difference.
Coastline vs FICalc, feature by feature
| Feature | Coastline | FICalc |
|---|---|---|
| Free, no signup | Yes | Yes |
| Historical / Monte Carlo withdrawal simulation | Yes | Yes |
| Accumulation (working years) modeling | Yes | No |
| Federal + state income tax math | Yes | No |
| Roth conversion / withdrawal-order strategy | Yes | No |
| Social Security claim-age modeling | Yes | Basic |
| All 50 states + DC, itemized deductions, IRMAA, ACA, 72(t) | Yes | No |
| Shows the exact math behind every number | Yes | No |
The same plan, run through Coastline
FICalc takes a portfolio, a withdrawal strategy and a length of retirement and backtests them against history. Its withdrawal is a pre-tax figure; the tax on a traditional-account draw is not modelled. One retiree, $1,000,000 at 65 split 60% taxable / 30% traditional / 10% Roth, single filer, no-income-tax state, no Social Security, spending $40,000 a year in today’s dollars to 95:
| Figure | Coastline |
|---|---|
| Spending the accounts delivered, 65 to 95 (today’s $): the $40,000 a year plus Medicare premiums from 65 | $1,287,081 |
| Gross withdrawn to deliver it | $1,295,071 |
| Tax on the way out, federal + state (today’s $) | $7,990 (0.6% of withdrawals) |
| Real net worth left at 95, straight-line 6% return | $382,148 funded to 95 |
| Most the plan can spend after tax and still last to 95, retiring at 65 | $47,000 (4.7%) |
| … retiring at 45 instead | $28,000 (2.8%) |
| $40,000/yr across 67 historical cycles (1928–2024), 70/30: runs that lasted to 95 · bad luck / median / good luck ending | 88% · $0 / $1,675,806 / $3,895,172 |
The tax row is what a pre-tax simulator leaves for the reader to guess, and for this particular retiree it is small: a single filer drawing about $12,000 a year from a traditional account and the rest from a taxable account whose gains fall in the 0% capital-gains bracket has little to tax. A larger traditional balance, a pension or Social Security stacking on top, or a state with an income tax moves it — which is the case for running your own plan rather than reading this one. The figures are identical on every comparison page on this site because they are one plan run once; only the tool being compared changes.
When to use FICalc
FICalc is great when you want a fast, focused answer to "how would this withdrawal rate have held up across history?" It’s clean, quick, and free, with helpful visualizations of the range of historical outcomes.
When to use Coastline
Use Coastline when your question spans more than withdrawals — how your portfolio gets built, the federal and state taxes you’ll pay accumulating and spending it, strategy comparisons, and Social Security timing — all with a transparent breakdown of the math.
Both tools are free. This comparison is written by Coastline, so weigh it accordingly — try both and use whichever answers your question. FICalc is a well-regarded tool; the differences here are about focus, not quality.
Common questions
Is FICalc or Coastline better?
They’re built for different questions. FICalc is a focused historical withdrawal-rate backtester. Coastline models the whole plan — accumulation, taxes, strategy, and drawdown — and shows its work. Use FICalc for a quick withdrawal stress-test; use Coastline for tax-aware whole-plan modeling.
Are both free?
Yes, both are free. Coastline additionally requires no signup.
Does Coastline simulate historical returns like FICalc?
Yes — Coastline’s Simulation Tools replay real historical market sequences and Monte Carlo draws to stress-test your plan, alongside the deterministic year-by-year projection.