Your financial independence, clearly mapped.
Six tools. Real SA data. Your complete path from first contribution to retirement income.
Six integrated tools
Each tool is useful on its own. Together they give you a complete, honest view of your financial independence journey — from building wealth to living off it.
Build a real portfolio from 100+ South African ETFs with actual Total Expense Ratio (TER) data. The Smart Dynamic Regression System adjusts projected returns to be honest over your time horizon — not the inflated numbers other calculators use. See a year-by-year breakdown of contributions, growth, withdrawals, and penalties.
Enter your income, RA contributions, and pension contributions and see your exact SARS tax saving — based on current brackets, rebates, and the 27.5% RA deduction limit. The tool correctly distinguishes between pension (via payroll) and RA (generates a real cash refund you can redirect).
Financial independence has a number. The FI Tracker calculates it from your target monthly income, then shows how your TFSA, RA, pension, preservation fund, and liquid savings are progressing toward that target — individually and combined. Add custom goals for anything else.
Every March, recalibrate. Enter your actual current balances and the tool self-corrects — regardless of what the market did, what you withdrew, or how your contributions changed. Responsibility sits with you to confirm real numbers; the tool updates everything from there.
Most retirement calculators assume a fixed monthly income. That's not how a living annuity works. The Drawdown Planner uses the FSCA-regulated model: your income is a percentage of your current fund balance applied annually. When your fund grows, your income grows. Both a living annuity and flexible drawdown portfolio are modelled side-by-side.
Every number from every tool consolidated in one view. Export a professional PDF showing your full financial position — TFSA projections, tax savings, FI progress, and drawdown scenario — formatted for a conversation with your financial adviser or to share with a spouse.
How it fits together
Each tool maps to a phase. Start where you are — you don't need to use all six on day one.
TFSA Calculator — invest up to R46k/year, zero tax on growth, honest compounding projections.
Tax & RA — claim your RA deduction, see your exact SARS refund, redirect it back into your TFSA.
FI Tracker — know your target corpus, see all assets contributing, watch your FI date move closer.
Annual Review — enter real balances, recalibrate everything. Honest regardless of what markets did.
Drawdown Planner — model living annuity income at FSCA-regulated rates, see fund longevity at every rate.
Real projections from real SA data
Calculated using the app's annual compounding formula at 9.5% p.a. — the same numbers you'll see inside the tool.
The early starter
Fresh graduate. R500/month. Wonders if it's even worth starting so small.
The lesson: R500/month becomes R93k. R33k of that is pure tax-free growth that SARS can't touch.
The withdrawer
R4,000/month. Withdrew R20,000 in year 5 for a car deposit.
The lesson: That R20,000 cost R78,026 in lost growth. The calculator shows you this before you decide.
The number-knower
Earns well. Saves across TFSA, RA, and a unit trust. Always wondered if he was on track — until he ran the numbers.
The lesson: 72% of the way there at 38. The FI Tracker gives Riyaad a single number to aim at — and shows every asset contributing toward it.
The refund redirector
Contributes R80,000/year to an RA. Her SARS refund lands in her bank account every February — and sits there.
The lesson: The refund is free money from SARS. Redirected into a TFSA every year, it compounds to R1.5M tax-free. The optimiser calculates this with her exact income and bracket.
The retiree
Just retired. R2.8M corpus. Needs to know how much she can draw — and whether the money will outlast her.
The lesson: At 5% draw and 9.5% growth, Nandi's income more than doubles by 83 and her fund keeps growing. The Drawdown Planner shows fund longevity at every FSCA-regulated rate.
The recalibrator
His plan said FI at 58. Then markets dropped in March and his RA was R80k below projection. Most tools still showed 58.
The lesson: The Annual Review locks to Kagiso's actual March balances and recalculates from reality — not last year's projection. One extra year, one small adjustment. No surprises at 58.
These are six scenarios. What's yours?
See your own numbersSimple pricing
No tiers, no hidden fees, no annual contracts. Deliberately kept accessible — financial planning tools shouldn't only be for people who can already afford an adviser.
Open to the public. Capped at 10,000 active subscribers.
R99/month flat. No tiers, no increases, no hidden fees.
Just starting out (20s–early 30s): See how small contributions today compound into life-changing numbers. Understand your TFSA and RA before you have much to put in them.
Building momentum (30s–40s): Track whether you're on course. Optimise your tax position. See exactly what your FI number is and how far you are from it.
Final stretch (50s–60s): Model your drawdown. Understand living annuity rules. Know what you can safely spend without outliving your money.
Already FI: Use the Drawdown Planner to manage your decumulation and the Annual Review to stay calibrated year on year.
A Tax-Free Savings Account lets you invest up to R46,000/year (R500,000 lifetime) with zero tax on growth — no income tax, no capital gains tax, no dividends tax. The key trap: withdrawals permanently reduce your lifetime contribution room. Withdraw R50,000 and your cap drops from R500,000 to R450,000 forever.
Pension contributions are deducted via payroll — they reduce your monthly income tax automatically, but you never see the cash. RA contributions are made directly by you and generate an actual SARS refund at tax year-end. That refund is real cash — and the Tax & RA tool calculates exactly what it is and models redirecting it into your TFSA.
Your FI number is the total corpus you need to sustain your chosen monthly income indefinitely. The FI Tracker calculates this from your inputs and tracks how all your assets — TFSA, RA, pension, liquid savings — are progressing toward it, with a projected FI date.
A living annuity pays you a percentage of your fund balance each year — FSCA regulations allow between 2.5% and 17.5%. Unlike a fixed monthly income, your draw changes as the fund grows or shrinks. The Drawdown Planner models this correctly: income grows when the fund grows, and you can see fund longevity at every rate.
Most tools show one optimistic number using a generic 10–12% return. Plainview uses actual historical data from 100+ SA ETFs, applies mean reversion through its Smart Dynamic Regression System, deducts real TER fees, correctly models FSCA drawdown rules, uses live SARS tax brackets, and covers your entire FI journey in one place.
You can withdraw anytime, tax-free. But withdrawals do NOT restore contribution room. Contributed R100k and withdrawn R50k? You still only have R400k lifetime capacity — not R450k. The calculator models this correctly and shows the long-term opportunity cost of every withdrawal.
New signups go onto a waitlist. This reflects a genuine commitment to keeping the tool maintainable — annual limit updates (tax brackets, TFSA/RA limits post-budget speech) require careful maintenance. The cap ensures quality isn't compromised.
Your FI number is the total portfolio you need to sustain your chosen monthly income indefinitely. The formula is: monthly income × 12 × multiplier. A 25× multiplier assumes a 4% annual drawdown (the classic FIRE rule). Plainview defaults to 33× — equivalent to a 3% drawdown rate — a more conservative assumption suited to South African market conditions and longer retirement horizons. You can adjust the multiplier inside the FI Tracker.
Subscriptions are managed through your Plainview profile. Navigate to your Profile, select Subscriptions, and cancel. Your access remains active until the end of the current billing period. No refunds are issued for partial months.
Questions, feedback, or data deletion requests — we respond within 5 business days.