Hi, I'm Ron Belisle. I'm not backed by a fintech company—just a (sort-of) retired university teacher who saw a need for straightforward, no-nonsense retirement tools and decided to build them myself.
My degrees are in History (BA) and Applied Linguistics (MA), both from Washington State University, not computer science. But I bring something more relevant to this project: four decades of explaining complex topics in plain English, real-world experience in financial planning, and a practical understanding of how AI can help people make better-informed decisions.
I spent most of my 40-year teaching career with Mukogawa Women’s University, a Japanese university near Kobe. Over the years, I taught in both Japan and the United States, spending most of that time at its U.S. branch campus in Washington state.
Before teaching, I spent several years as a life insurance agent with Northwestern Mutual Life, beginning as a college agent while attending Washington State University. In 1983, I ranked among the top 10 college agents nationwide, out of roughly 300 to 400. That experience gave me a lasting foundation in long-term financial planning and in helping people think clearly about their financial goals.
Throughout my career, from financial planning to university teaching to AI, I've built a reputation for making complicated things simple. That's exactly what I set out to do with these calculators: practical tools, plain English, no jargon, and free to use.
For those who want to go deeper, Premium adds features like saved scenarios, PDF and CSV exports, longer projections where supported, and AI-generated explanations tailored to your results. My goal isn't simply to show you numbers. It's to help you understand what they mean so you can make more confident retirement decisions. The core tools will always remain free, and I hope you find them valuable.