About
Built by an expat, because no FIRE tool could model a retirement that crosses borders
As an expat in the UAE with UK-paid pensions and investments held outside the UK, I hit the same wall most people who cross borders do: every calculator I tried quietly assumed I’d retire in the country I earned in. None could model a pension drawn in one jurisdiction, investments taxed under another, and a retirement that might happen somewhere else entirely.
Most expats are in exactly this position — and so are plenty of people back home who plan to move, or who simply have money and interests in other countries. So I built the tool I needed: one that models your FIRE journey across tax-residency moves over time, in your own currencies, and shows the working behind every number rather than handing you a single figure to trust on faith.
How Ember’s maths works
Ember is an engine, not a spreadsheet with a nicer skin. A few principles it holds to:
- · Every figure shows its work. Open any number and a popover explains exactly how it was computed.
- · Money is exact. Amounts are held as integer minor units in their own currency — never floated, never silently converted at rest.
- · Real terms by default. Projections are in today’s money, so the numbers mean something.
- · Tax rules are versioned data, per jurisdiction — not hardcoded constants buried in the code.
- · Currency is converted only at the engine boundary, so your pounds stay pounds and your dirhams stay dirhams.
It won’t replace a cross-border adviser, and it isn’t financial advice. It gets you a directionally-right number — and the right questions to ask.
The company
Ember is built and operated by Planespoken Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 11084007), registered office 1 Craftsman Square, Temple Farm Industrial Estate, Southend-on-Sea, England, SS2 5RH. Questions? Email [email protected].