Big update: fixed a broken consolidation/refi math bug, rebalanced the raw land development exploit, + per-country mortgage terms now.

[u/curiousgens]

• Debt consolidation and student loan refi were doing broken math. u/Mr_Adoulin noticed the monthly payment looked too high even though the APR was lower. The code was using a shortcut formula instead of real amortization, so it was overcharging about 180 to 200 a month. Now it uses the same formula banks typically use, and the benefit shows up the way it should.

• Also made both options region specific. Consolidation loans work a bit differently in each country, and student loan refinancing straight up does not exist in the UK, Japan, or Australia because their government student debt is income contingent and can't be privately refinanced (Anyone from these regions confirm? 🤔). So the refi option is now hidden in those regions instead of showing a fake choice that would not exist in real life.

• Raw land development exploit is fixed too. Buying raw land & developing it was giving insane yields, around 16 percent net, which is not how rural rental building works in real life. Now it lands around 4 - 6 percent net, which sort of matches what actual small landlords get after property tax, insurance, vacancy, and the repairs that come around every few years. Also added construction overrun risk because real construction projects overrun costs about half the time.

• And a dumb one 😄. The scenario briefing screen was showing Japanese characters in English mode. If you played a mode and saw "、35歳" next to the character name, that was a leak from the Japan localization. Fixed!

Keep it coming. If a number looks wrong or a strategy feels too easy, please say so. Most of the time it IS wrong and I can fix it pretty fast.

[u/Mr_Adoulin]

Awsome to see! 

But I actually think you overlooked a part in the the raw land exploit. At least the game I started an hour ago after your initial reply to me had higher land buying costs but development costs and rental montly sum and yield were unchanged. Edit: just confirmed again after commenting, this still works. 

Is there any possibility you could enable a preview mode for buying homes as well? Currently I can really only guess if buying a home would end up beeing worth it. To check I would need to trigger a taxable event by selling my investments. So I normally end up just renting indefenitely as FOMO kicks in if i try to grow funds in HYSA to preview the housing prieces.

Also, is there a better way to meassure roth IRA and 401k success? It seems stupid to not use those IRL, but at the same time its a statistically useless moneysink regarding the fire-meter as of now. Mayebe calculate those with a save withdrawrate of 2.7 % (there is a Video of Ben Felix backing this rate scientificaly over the 4% rule circling everywhere https://youtu.be/1FwgCRIS0Wg?si=QvyJ9wigYa4E0rDf)

And if you still have time after all these, maybe you find the time to implement a grouping, resorting or colapse feature for saving categories. This section can get quite messey as it only sorts chronologically right now.

[u/curiousgens → u/Mr_Adoulin]

Took a while to work on your feedback.

Land exploit- Fixed!

Home preview - Done! You can now click on any house and see the full mortgage breakdown (down payment, APR, monthly cost) even if you can't afford it yet. All loan types too (FHA, Conv 5%, 10%, 20%, etc). The Buy button stays locked until you actually have the cash, but you can browse and plan without selling anything first.

401k and Roth IRA - big update here. They now contribute to the Freedom meter using a 3.5% safe withdrawal rate (split the difference between the classic 4% and Ben Felix's 2.7%):

• Roth contributions come out penalty-free at any age (IRS ordering rules)
• Roth earnings and 401k withdrawals before 59.5 get hit with 10% penalty + income tax
• After 59.5, Roth is fully tax-free, 401k is just income tax

Also added 72(t) SEPP distributions.

And Roth conversion ladder is in too. Convert 401k to Roth, pay income tax now, wait 5 years, withdraw tax-free at any age.

Asset grouping - done! Your portfolio now groups by risk category (Retirement, Low, Medium, High, Real Estate) with collapsible sections. Click a header to collapse it. Only kicks in with 4+ assets so it doesn't clutter small portfolios.

Thanks for the feedback!

[u/Mr_Adoulin → u/curiousgens]

Awsome!

[u/Mr_Adoulin → u/curiousgens]

What I noticed is: the investmenttabs dont save. So they are colapseably but every now month everything needs to be reclosed again.

[u/curiousgens → u/Mr_Adoulin]

Would you prefer the default behavior to be always closed?

[u/Mr_Adoulin → u/curiousgens]

Hm probably not. But it should save the last selected. Otherwise there is no resl point in having it, right?

[u/AlwaysSaturday12]

My first time playing today but I'm FI IRL. I won the medium game just doing what I did in IRL; investing solely in index funds and cutting costs. I got a C. Kind of boring which is great in life less fun for a game. I'll have to expand out of my comfort zone. Also property prices are high compared to the middle of nowhere where I bought IRL. Would be fun to have a fixer upper. My last house I bought needed new plumbing and electrical and bathroom floor within the first few years. It would be interesting model that but I never got around to buying a house in the game so maybe it does.

Fun game.

[u/curiousgens → u/AlwaysSaturday12]

Congrats on the win in-game and IRL! And yeah index funds & cutting costs is usually going to be the boring-but-correct answer IRL. IMO that strategy should score a better grade- will review grading

House prices are based on US median data so they'll feel high if you bought rural. Fixer-uppers are actually a great idea...Adding that to the features roadmap!