Plain language, on purpose.

What this site is

This site and its free calculator are educational tools. The freedom-date math is arithmetic on the numbers you enter, using stated assumptions (a 4 percent withdrawal guideline and a default 7 percent return assumption). The typical-pay range is an estimate from public occupational data.

What it is not

Nothing on this site is financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, and Ascenza is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, or tax preparer. The calculator's outputs are illustrations, not guarantees; markets vary, careers vary, and a historically validated guideline is not a promise about your future.

Decisions about your money are yours. For questions specific to your situation, consult a qualified professional. The coach in the app will tell you the same thing when a question crosses that line.

The app

Use of the Ascenza app at app.ascenza.app is governed by these terms, together with the trial and billing terms disclosed before any charge.

Ascenza is for adults. You must be at least 18 to create an account.

Data, research, and business changes

To improve Ascenza and to understand how people build financial freedom, we may create and use de-identified data derived from what you enter. De-identified means the details that directly identify you are removed, so what remains describes patterns rather than a person. Research and product improvement is one of the ways the product gets better over time. We commit to maintaining de-identified data in de-identified form and to never attempting to re-identify it, and we require the same commitment by contract from anyone we share it with.

If Ascenza is ever part of a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or a sale of all or part of its business, your account, your relationship with us, and the data associated with it may transfer to the successor as part of that transaction. A successor would be bound by data commitments no less protective than the ones in effect when you accepted these terms. We would notify you of a transfer and of any material change in how your data is handled before the change takes effect.

Deleting your account removes your identified record from the live system. De-identified or aggregate data created for research before you deleted your account is no longer tied to your identity, and may be retained. These terms apply from the day you accept them, equally to everyone. If we ever broaden how data may be used, that change applies going forward and not to the past, and we keep a dated record of the version each person accepted. If we materially change these terms, we will notify you by email before the change takes effect.

Fair use of this site

Do not scrape the calculator to resell its outputs, misrepresent its results as personalized advice, or use the site to harvest data about others. Chapter one is free to read and share by link; the book itself remains the author's copyrighted work.

Liability, plainly

The site is provided as is. To the maximum extent the law allows, Ascenza is not liable for decisions made in reliance on free educational tools. We keep this promise in exchange: we will never knowingly show you a number we cannot stand behind.