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driftcurve
What it is
driftcurve is a free, open-source retirement planning engine for modeling household finances and comparing retirement outcomes. It can account for multiple household members, account types, debts, mortgages, pensions, Social Security, and property sales. Its default simulations resample annual market data from 1966–2024, covering equities, Treasuries, residential real estate, inflation, and Bitcoin. Users can adjust historical returns toward their own long-run targets or specify static annual assumptions. Risk-based spending guardrails calculate monthly spending and adjustments based on portfolio thresholds and probability of success. A Compare page displays two scenarios on one chart. The tool supports income and savings growth projections, withdrawal planning, basic tax modeling, and Social Security modeling, but does not synchronize accounts. In default local mode, saved scenarios and household data stay in browser localStorage while forecasts run through a Python backend. An optional multi-user mode adds accounts and server-stored profiles and scenarios. It is free under the Apache License 2.0. The maker describes it as a modeling and educational tool, not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.
For and against
For
- Models multiple household members and financial obligations
- Simulations include historical market data through 2024
- Guardrails adjust spending to portfolio thresholds
- Compares two scenarios on one chart
- Free and open source under Apache 2.0
Against
- No account synchronization
- Guardrails require a retirement year and positive liquid portfolio
- README estimates computations take about 20–45 seconds
- Not a licensed financial, tax, investment, or legal advisor
The verdict
driftcurve brings household retirement projections, scenario comparison, and spending guardrails together in a free, self-hosted tool. Its modeling scope is broad, but guardrails have specific input requirements and calculations take time.
Who it suits
It suits households exploring retirement or financial-independence scenarios who want to model multiple people, assets, debts, and spending choices. Users should be comfortable with a self-hosted tool and treat its forecasts as educational rather than professional advice.
Plans and prices
Free
self-hosted · no subscription · no account in local mode
Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
On the record
- Account coverage
- Inputs include traditional, Roth, taxable, cash, real-estate and cryptocurrency assets.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Apache permissions
- Apache 2.0 grants perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free rights to reproduce, modify, display, perform, sublicense and distribute the work subject to its conditions.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- API
- The documented API includes forecast and guardrails endpoints, plus authentication, profile, and scenario endpoints for multi-user mode.github.com · read 7 Oct 2026
- Authentication security
- The multi-user implementation hashes passwords with PBKDF2-SHA256 and uses server-side session cookies.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Calculation limit
- Guardrails require a retirement year and positive liquid portfolio, and the README says a computation takes about 20–45 seconds.github.com · read 7 Oct 2026
- Debt and income inputs
- The scenario model includes mortgages, HELOCs, student loans, pensions, Social Security and property sales.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Dependencies
- The project declares FastAPI, Uvicorn, aiofiles and SQLAlchemy as runtime dependencies.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Developer API
- The repository documents /config, /forecast, /guardrails, authentication, profile and scenario endpoints.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Forecast caveat
- The maker says forecasts are projections based on historical data and user assumptions, not predictions, guarantees or professional financial advice.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Guardrail API
- POST /guardrails accepts the same scenario body as /forecast and returns spending, thresholds, achieved probabilities and configuration.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Guardrail defaults
- The documented defaults target 0.80 probability of success, with upper and lower trigger probabilities of 0.99 and 0.25.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Guardrail limitation
- Guardrail calculations require a retirement year and a positive liquid portfolio.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Guardrail speed
- The README estimates a guardrail computation at roughly 20–45 seconds.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Hosted mode
- An optional multi-user mode supports email/password accounts, server-side sessions, and profiles and scenarios stored in driftcurve.db.github.com · read 7 Oct 2026
- Household modeling
- The model supports multiple people with separate retirement dates and savings rates.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Installation
- The quick start creates a Python virtual environment, installs requirements and runs Uvicorn on localhost:8000.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Intended use
- The README presents driftcurve for household retirement planning, including financial-independence planning scenarios.github.com · read 7 Oct 2026
- Licence
- The project is released under the Apache License 2.0.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
