Overview
I design and built a personal finance app that helps users achieve Financial Independence (FIRE) by turning abstract goals into clear, actionable monthly plans, collaborating with an engineer.
- Contributed production-level UI code using AI-assisted development tools (Cursor, Claude Code) to accelerate iteration
- Co-designed system architecture, including data models, frontend structure, UI components and financial calculation logic
- Led end-to-end product design, iterating through testing while building, and launched an MVP to the App Store within 3 weeks
Tools: Figma Make, Claude Code, Cursor, Github
Problem
Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) is a concept that focuses on achieving financial freedom by accumulating investment assets that generate enough returns (4% typically) to sustain one’s lifestyle without relying on active income.
When I started doing my own financial planning, I realized that retirement is an overwhelming and abstract goal. It feels distant, involves many variables, and is difficult to clearly visualize or break down into actionable steps. There is no intuitive way to translate this long-term goal into a concrete monthly plan.
After interviewing 15+ users who are deeply interested in FIRE, I identified the following key pain points:
1. Financial planning tools feel fragmented and static
People typically rely on bank apps or complex spreadsheets for financial planning. Bank apps are not agnostic enough to aggregate all accounts across different institutions, while spreadsheets are often static and require manual updates, making it hard to reflect real-time changes in assets and growth.
2. No tools specifically designed for FIRE planning
Most financial tools focus on asset growth and return visualization. They lack features tailored to FIRE, such as calculating a FIRE asset goal, estimating retirement age, tracking progress to the goal, or modeling different FIRE paths.
3. FIRE feels too abstract and overwhelming
Even for advanced users, the goal feels far away and difficult to act on. There is no clear guidance on questions like “How much should I save each month?” or “Am I on track?” Progress is hard to visualize, and saving targets feel vague.
Target Users
This is a free, consumer-facing tool designed for mid–high income professionals seeking a simple, actionable, and visual approach to retirement planning and achieving FIRE.
Solution
A guided and educational mobile app that helps users turn abstract FIRE goals into clear, actionable monthly plans through personalized insights and visual progress tracking.
Key Feature
📊 FIRE goal calculator
Calculate a personalized FIRE target based on user inputs such as income, spending, and desired lifestyle
🧭 End-to-end FIRE path visualization
Visualize different FIRE scenarios (Lean, Coast, Full, Fat) with projected timelines and retirement age, allowing users to select a goal and track progress, with clear explanations for each path
💰 Dynamic wealth tracking
Track assets and liabilities with expected return rates, automatically updating as financial data changes
📈 Progress tracking dashboard
Monitor distance to FIRE goal with real-time updates as assets grow, providing a clear view of progress over time
🤖 Actionable monthly saving targets
Translate long-term FIRE goals into personalized monthly saving targets, making financial planning concrete and actionable
Key Learnings
1. Break complex systems into small, testable units
FIRE planning is inherently complex, so I structured the product into modular components (goal calculation, tracking, visualization) that could be built and validated independently. This made it easier to iterate quickly and de-risk the product especially with assisted tools.
2. For 0→1 products, iteration beats perfection
Instead of over-engineering financial models upfront, I focused on shipping a simple, functional MVP and refining based on real user feedback. Early feedback was significantly more valuable than perfect planning.
3. Simplifying the mental model is the core product challenge
The hardest part wasn’t building calculations, but turning an abstract concept (retirement) into something users can understand, visualize, and act on.
Available Now
View on the App Store here.
