How is the financial freedom index worked out?
A score out of 100: half Progress (savings against your FI number), 30% Trajectory (projected independence age against your target) and 20% Resilience (emergency cover and debt).
The Financial freedom index on the Retirement Tracker is a score out of 100 built from three parts, each shown with its weight and its own score so you can see which one is holding you back:
| Part | Weight | How it is scored |
|---|---|---|
| Progress | 50% | What counts toward your independence corpus, as a share of your FI number. Capped at 100. |
| Trajectory | 30% | 100, minus 10 points for each year your projected independence age is later than your target. Zero if the plan does not reach independence. |
| Resilience | 20% | 60% emergency cover and 40% debt load (below). |
The pieces inside
- Projected independence age — found by re-running your real projection at different stopping ages and taking the earliest whole age at which the money lasts to the end of the plan. So it cannot disagree with the chart beneath it.
- Emergency cover — your emergency savings against six months of spending. Six months scores 100. If you marked an emergency fund, that is what counts; if you said none of your cash is a buffer, it is zero; otherwise your cash and deposits; and with no cash balance at all, a conservative tenth of your savings.
- Debt load — loans other than a home loan, against a year’s income. Owing half a year’s income scores zero; owing nothing scores 100. With no income, debt is judged against what your savings could sustainably produce.
Financial freedom index
- Progress 50% of the score 21What you have, against the number this plan says you need.
- Trajectory 30% of the score 100The age the projection actually reaches independence at.
- Resilience 20% of the score 50Emergency cover and how much debt you are carrying.
An illustrative household. Your own score is computed from your plan and stored, not estimated.
The site’s drawing of the index for the illustrative household: a gauge with five bands and the needle in the Building momentum band, and the three weighted parts with their scores.
- The score out of 100 and its zone — here 51, Building momentum.
- Progress, 50% of the score — 21.
- Trajectory, 30% — 100.
- Resilience, 20% — 50.
Illustrative figures — not anybody’s real plan.
The rest of the card
Under the score is one sentence about your plan — for example how many years later than planned you are projected to get there, or roughly what share more of your income would bring your target age back within reach. Beneath the parts: The number you are aiming at, Of which your life goals, Independent by and Withdrawal rate assumed.
See this in your own plan.
Open Retirement TrackerLast reviewed 1 October 2026.