Release Notes

What’s new in Cinderfi — features, improvements, and fixes shipped to date.

April 2026

Historical Backtesting (Pro)

Test your retirement plan against every starting year from 1871 to 2024 using real Shiller market data — over 150 years of stocks, bonds, and inflation. Four spending strategies model different withdrawal approaches: Fixed (inflation-adjusted), Constant Dollar (nominal), Guyton-Klinger (dynamic guardrails that cut or raise spending based on portfolio performance), and Variable Percentage Withdrawal (age-based percentage of remaining portfolio). Results show success rates, worst-case and median outcomes, and per-cohort survival timelines. Validated against Trinity Study benchmarks.

Couple Windfall Optimization

The windfall simulator now works for couples, not just individuals. When you enter a lump sum, Cinderfi generates six candidate allocation strategies across both partners’ accounts — balancing TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, and employer-matched contributions for each person — then picks the one that produces the highest Cinder Score. Allocation rows now show which partner each account belongs to.

Rental Property Modeling (Pro)

Model up to 3 rental properties with gross rent, vacancy rate, operating expenses, appreciation, and optional mortgage amortization. Rental income flows into your projection as taxable income with expense deductions. Plan a sale at any age — net proceeds after transaction costs are reinvested into your portfolio. The engine handles mortgage interest deductions, principal paydown tracking, and property value growth. Rental properties appear on the Accounts page with a blurred preview for free-tier users.

Mortgage Amortization

Primary home and rental property mortgages now use true amortization — tracking principal, interest, and remaining balance year by year instead of a simple payoff-year cutoff. Mortgage interest on rental properties is deducted from rental income for tax purposes. Existing users with the old mortgage format are automatically migrated.

US Account Rules Enforcement

The projection engine now enforces real IRS rules for US accounts. Roth IRA contributions phase out based on income. Traditional IRA deductions follow AGI limits. Early withdrawals before age 59½ incur a 10% penalty, and the withdrawal strategy automatically defers registered accounts until the penalty window closes. Every rule is surfaced as a tooltip note in your projection so you can see exactly what’s being applied and why.

Per-Account Return Rates (Pro)

You can now set a different expected return rate for each individual account — for example, 8% on an aggressive RRSP and 4% on a conservative TFSA. Toggle it on from the Strategy Bar or manage rates on the Accounts page. Monte Carlo simulations use each account’s rate as its mean return. Previously, all registered accounts shared one rate and all non-registered shared another.

Spending Strategies

Four spending strategies are now available for advanced modeling: Fixed (constant inflation-adjusted withdrawals), Constant Dollar (nominal spending stays flat), Guyton-Klinger (dynamic guardrails that cut or raise spending based on portfolio performance), and Variable Percentage Withdrawal (age-based percentage of remaining portfolio). These lay the groundwork for the upcoming historical backtesting feature.

Copilot Money CSV Import

You can now import transactions from Copilot Money — just export your CSV from Copilot and drag it into Cinderfi’s import area. Categories are automatically mapped using keyword matching, and you can adjust any mapping before importing.

Inline Transaction Editing

Click any transaction’s category or description to edit it in place — no more opening a modal. Tap the emoji to quickly recategorize with the full category picker.

SEO Content Library

Launched 39 content pages across three sections: 7 calculator landing pages, 24 retirement planning guides, and 8 tool documentation pages. Every page includes structured data (JSON-LD), FAQ sections, breadcrumb navigation, hero screenshots, and cross-links to related content. Topics cover both Canadian and US retirement planning — from RRSP meltdown and CPP timing to Roth conversions and Social Security spousal benefits.

Bug Fixes

• CPP benefit calculation now correctly caps at the maximum pensionable amount
• RRIF minimum labels display the correct percentage for each age
• Home equity no longer double-counts when both home value and mortgage are entered
• Mortgage minimum payment calculation fixed for edge cases
• Retirement age off-by-one error resolved
• Scenario projections now use budget-resolved spending instead of raw manual amounts

Late March 2026

Strategy Optimizer & Presets (Pro)

The Optimize My Strategy button evaluates hundreds of combinations of withdrawal order, meltdown settings, benefit timing, TFSA toggles, and PLOC configurations. It produces three one-click presets — Minimize Tax, Maximize Estate, and Maximize Funded Years — each showing exactly how much you’d save or gain compared to your current settings.

True Cost & Future Value Simulators

Two new what-if tools on the Home tab. True Cost shows what a purchase really costs in retirement terms — not just the sticker price, but the lost investment growth and how many years sooner your money runs out. Future Value shows the opposite: how a bonus or windfall improves your retirement if invested optimally. Both show animated counters and retirement age shifts.

Windfall Allocation Advisor

When you enter a windfall in the Future Value simulator, Cinderfi now tells you exactly where to put the money. It checks your TFSA, FHSA, HSA, and RRSP contribution room and allocates in tax-optimal order with exact dollar amounts for each account.

GIS & Provincial Senior Supplements

The projection engine now calculates the Guaranteed Income Supplement for low-income Canadian retirees, with three different clawback rates depending on income type (employment, other income, and TFSA — which is exempt). Six provincial supplements are also modeled: Ontario GAINS, Alberta Seniors Benefit, BC Senior’s Supplement, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These benefits appear automatically in your projection when your income qualifies.

FHSA, HSA & RDSP

Three new account types are fully modeled. FHSA (Canada) tracks contributions against the $8,000/year and $40,000 lifetime limits, with automatic transfer to RRSP at age 71 or after 15 years. HSA (US) models the triple tax advantage and stops contributions at 65 when it begins acting like a traditional IRA. RDSP (Canada) models mandatory LDAP withdrawals starting at 60 with the taxable/non-taxable split.

Spousal RRSP Attribution Warnings

If your target retirement date is within 5 years, Cinderfi now warns you about the 3-year attribution rule — contributions made in the 3 years before the annuitant spouse withdraws get attributed back to the contributing spouse for tax purposes.

Real Estate Planning

Model your home as part of your net worth. Enter your home value, appreciation rate, mortgage balance, and payoff year. Plan a downsizing at a specific age — sell, deduct transaction costs, reinvest the net proceeds. Or model a sell-and-rent scenario by setting the new home value to $0. A HELOC option lets you use home equity as a drawdown buffer during market downturns instead of selling investments at a loss.

Account Insights Panel

The Accounts tab now shows personalized insights: which accounts to contribute to first (based on your tax situation), unused RRSP/TFSA/HSA room alerts, GIS clawback warnings when RRIF withdrawals reduce your benefits, spousal RRSP attribution timing, and FHSA transfer deadlines.

Individual Account Tracking

You can now add multiple accounts per type — for example, two RRSPs at different brokerages. Each appears separately with its own balance. Cash accounts (checking, savings, credit cards) and debt accounts (personal loans, student loans, auto loans) are tracked as separate categories that contribute to your net worth calculation.

PDF Export (Pro)

Download a branded 2-page retirement plan summary as a PDF. Includes your Cinder Score, key metrics (estate value, lifetime tax, financial freedom age, depletion probability), a condensed projection table at 5-year intervals, and your assumptions. Designed to share with a spouse, advisor, or print for your files.

Income Tracking in Budget

You can now tag budget transactions as income using six categories (Employment, Investment, Government Benefits, Rental, Side Income, Other). Income is tracked separately from spending so your savings rate — one of the most important leading indicators of retirement readiness — is calculated automatically from real data.

Mid-March 2026

Onboarding Wizard Overhaul

The wizard was rebuilt from 10 steps to 12, with employment status detection (working, retired, semi-retired) and conditional step skipping — retired users skip income and savings questions that don’t apply to them. Account balances are now pre-populated based on your age and income as sensible starting estimates. The budget step seeds a reasonable spending plan from your income instead of requiring manual entry.

Landing Page & Home Tab

The Home tab launched with the Cinder Score front and center — your 0–100 retirement readiness number displayed with an animated flame. Below it: personalized insight cards, a purchase impact simulator, and quick-action scenario buttons. The landing page shows your projected retirement age as the hero headline, with country badge, trust signals, and a location-aware CTA.

Cinder Score

A composite retirement readiness score from 0 to 100, built from six weighted components: portfolio survival (25 pts), budget adherence (25 pts), income coverage (20 pts), tax efficiency (10 pts), buffer/estate (10 pts), and savings rate (10 pts). Seven tiers from Cold Ash to Roaring. Score history is tracked daily and displayed as a sparkline on the Home tab.

Score Insights

Up to three prioritized recommendations based on your Cinder Score breakdown — “Your tax efficiency is low — consider an RRSP meltdown to fill lower brackets before RRIF conversion” or “You have $23,000 of unused TFSA room.” Each insight links to the relevant guide for deeper context.

YNAB Live Sync

Connect your YNAB budget with a personal access token for automatic transaction sync, monthly category budget import, and account balance pull. Supports incremental sync (only new transactions each time) and smart account matching so you don’t get duplicates. Works without sign-in — your YNAB config persists across devices once you create an account.

Budget System

Set monthly spending targets across 16 categories, import transactions from CSV (auto-detects RBC, TD, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank, and generic formats), OFX/QFX files, or YNAB. Three spending modes let you progress from a rough estimate (manual) to a detailed budget (budget plan) to real data (actual spending from imported transactions). A deduplication engine catches duplicate transactions when importing from multiple sources.

Stripe Integration (Pro)

Pro tier launched at $12/month or $99/year. Unlocks Monte Carlo simulation, Strategy Optimizer, unlimited scenarios, PLOC modeling, spousal RRSP, per-account returns, and PDF export. Billing is managed through Stripe with a self-service portal for plan changes and cancellation.

Early March 2026

Cinderfi Launch

The initial release shipped with the full Canadian and US projection engines, 15 analysis chart tabs, Monte Carlo simulation, scenario comparison, four withdrawal strategies, RRSP meltdown and Roth conversion modeling, pension income splitting, PLOC strategy, and dark/light theming. Tax engines cover all 13 Canadian provinces and territories and all 50 US states. Three-language support (English, French, Spanish) from day one.

15-Tab Analysis Dashboard

The Planning view launched with 15 interactive chart tabs: Summary, Income, Spending vs Income, Withdrawal Sources, Tax, Effective Tax Rate, Balances, Monte Carlo, Contributions, Break-Even (CPP/OAS or Social Security claiming optimization), Annual Contribution Room, Contribution Room utilization, PLOC, Estate, and a full year-by-year Table. Scenario comparison overlays dashed lines on any chart for side-by-side analysis.

Couple Planning

Full dual-person modeling from day one — separate accounts, income, benefit timing, and tax returns for each partner. Pension income splitting automatically optimizes the allocation between spouses. The equalize-income withdrawal approach balances draws between partners to keep both in the lowest tax brackets.

Plan Sharing

Share your retirement plan via URL — no server storage needed. The link encodes your plan as a compact diff, and recipients see a read-only view with all free charts, a branded banner, and a CTA to create their own plan. Every shared link is effectively a product demo.