What do the financial freedom index zones mean?
Five words for ranges of the score: Just starting (0–29), Building momentum (30–59), Solid footing (60–79), Strong footing (80–94) and Freedom in reach (95–100).
The word beside your financial freedom index names the range your score falls in. The zone is decided from the rounded score you see, so the number and the word always agree.
| Zone | Score | Gauge colour |
|---|---|---|
| Just starting | 0–29 | Red |
| Building momentum | 30–59 | Amber |
| Solid footing | 60–79 | Green |
| Strong footing | 80–94 | Green |
| Freedom in reach | 95–100 | Green |
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 gauge: five arcs at the zone boundaries, with the 30–59 arc lit and the needle inside it.
- The needle points at the score.
- The band the score falls in is painted at full strength.
- The zone word beside the number.
Illustrative figures — not anybody’s real plan.
The words describe the score, not your timetable
The index blends how far along you are, how fast you are getting there and how sturdy your finances are. So a household can score well on progress and resilience and still be projected to reach independence later than it planned. The zone names deliberately say nothing about schedule — Solid footing, not “on track” — so they never contradict the sentence under the score that tells you how many years late or early you are projected to be.
Not the same as the verdict
The six verdict words on the Overview (Critical to Ample) say whether the money lasts to the end of the plan. The zones say how far along you are. They answer different questions and can disagree: a plan can be Strong footing today and still read Short, because the verdict looks at the whole projection and the index weights where you are now.
See this in your own plan.
Open Retirement TrackerLast reviewed 1 October 2026.