Retirement planning for careers with detours.
Two years traveling Southeast Asia. Six months to launch your side project. Traditional retirement calculators assume you'll work straight to 65. Detour doesn't.
No credit card. No signup. Your numbers stay in your browser.
Career Timeline
Sarah · Software Engineer · Age 28
FI target
Age 55
$2.4M
Net worth at 55
$214K
Cost of breaks
+3 yrs
vs. no breaks
Gap 1 · 1 yr
SE Asia travel
$3,200/mo burn
Gap 2 · 6 mo
Side project launch
$2,800/mo burn
Big Purchase · Age 36
House down payment
$380,000 one-time
FI impact
−1.5 yrs
Built for
The problem
Every calculator was built for your parents' career
The tools assume you'll work straight through, save consistently, and retire at 65. An entire generation planning around gaps and breaks has nowhere to run the math.
Straight-line assumptions
Open any retirement calculator. It assumes you work from 22 to 65 without pause. There's no field for "took a year off at 32." The model doesn't support your life.
No gap modeling
Two years off in your thirties pauses contributions, lets compound interest stall, and shifts your tax brackets on re-entry. Nobody's showing you the real number — until now.
Timing is everything
Taking a break during a bull market vs. a bear market can shift your retirement date by a decade. Sequence-of-returns risk is real, and ignoring it is expensive.
How it works
Three steps to model your real career
Set your baseline
Enter your current savings, annual income, expected investment returns, and target retirement age. Detour starts with a clean projection.
Add your breaks
Drop in planned gaps — a travel year, a sabbatical, a side project sprint. Set the duration and your monthly burn rate for each one.
See the real tradeoffs
Detour shows your net worth curve with and without breaks, the true cost of each gap, and how much later (or earlier) you hit financial independence.
What Detour models
The math nobody else runs
Getting sequence-of-returns risk right earns a level of trust that generic calculators can't touch.
Gap cost calculator
FreeSee the exact dollar cost of each break — paused contributions, stalled compound interest, and the compounded cost of both over your full timeline.
Unlimited scenarios
FreeCompare multiple timelines side by side. One year off vs. two. Taking the break at 32 vs. 38. The tool shows you the delta in real numbers.
Sequence-of-returns modeling
FreeTaking a break in a bull market versus a bear market changes the outcome by decades. Detour models how market timing interacts with your gaps.
Shareable scenario links
FreeShare your scenario like a personality quiz result. People send screenshots of their Detour timeline the way they share Myers-Briggs scores.
Save & load scenarios
Full accessWith full access, save your scenarios and return anytime. No re-entering numbers — your timelines stay in your account.
Export & share
Full accessExport your projections and share scenario links. Send your Detour timeline the way you'd share a personality quiz result.
“I've opened every retirement calculator I can find. All of them assume I'll work straight through to 65. The tools built for my parents' careers can't model mine.”
Sarah, 32 · Software Engineer · Planning a year off in Southeast Asia
Pricing
Try free. Pay once for full access.
Use the calculator free. One-time payment unlocks lifetime access — no subscription.
Free
Try the calculator with no signup.
- Unlimited career scenarios
- Gap cost modeling
- Sequence-of-returns analysis
- Shareable scenario links
- Side-by-side comparisons
- No signup required
Full access
One-time payment. Yours forever.
- Everything in Free
- Lifetime access to the calculator
- Save & load your scenarios
- Export and share
- No subscription, ever
- Pay once. Access forever.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is the calculator really free?
Yes. You can try the full calculator for free with no signup. We offer a one-time payment for lifetime access so you can save and load scenarios, export, and use it forever with no subscription.
What is sequence-of-returns risk?
Taking a two-year break during a bull market vs. a bear market can change your retirement date by a decade. Sequence-of-returns risk is the danger that the order of market returns — not just the average — wrecks your plan. Detour models this so you can see how timing a break around market conditions changes the outcome.
How is this different from a regular retirement calculator?
Every other calculator assumes you work straight from 22 to 65 with no gaps. Detour lets you add unlimited career breaks with custom durations and monthly burn rates. It models how each pause affects compound interest, contribution gaps, tax brackets, and re-entry — and shows you the real cost in dollars.
What does full access include?
Full access is a one-time payment that unlocks lifetime use of the calculator: save and load your scenarios, export and share, and access everything forever. No subscription — pay once and it's yours.
Is my financial data safe?
The calculator runs in your browser. We don't store your financial inputs unless you choose to save scenarios (then they're stored securely for you only). We never sell your data.
Run the numbers on your detour.
Free, instant, no signup. See what your breaks actually cost — and whether you can still hit your number.
Try the free calculator →Takes 2 minutes. No credit card.