This calculator tells you exactly how many sats you need to cover living expenses based on your own assumptions about inflation, lifestyle growth, and Bitcoin’s trajectory. If you’ve been hodling 4–8 years, you might be surprised how little Bitcoin it actually takes.
How it Works
The calculator compounds your annual expenses and Bitcoin’s projected growth over your chosen time horizon. The result it provides is the total BTC you need to hold today to cover future living costs. Please read the assumptions below before using the tool:
- Bitcoin growth: Fixed CAGR from today’s price. Long projections (30+ years) can compound small input errors into unrealistic results.
- Taxes: Assumes a flat rate; actual taxes vary by jurisdiction and may be progressive.
- Expenses: Projected by compounding your inputs based on inflation and lifestyle growth.
- BTC income: Assumes constant, liquid income; doesn’t account for changes.
- Extreme scenarios: Hyperinflation, unexpected expenses, or very long horizons can produce unrealistic results.
- Rounding: Amounts under 1 sat are approximated or rounded to zero.
Important Notices: This tool is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not financial advice or investment advice. The calculator makes simplified assumptions about inflation, Bitcoin growth, taxes, and expenses based on your own inputs. Real-world outcomes will differ significantly. We make no guarantees about accuracy or correctness of calculations. Please read full disclaimers here.
Privacy Notice: This tool runs locally with no data collection. Nothing you enter is stored or transmitted. Current Bitcoin–USD value is fetched from CoinGecko (with fallbacks to Coinbase and Kraken) and cached on my server for 30 minutes. If the cache is available on this page, prices are pulled from there; otherwise, they’re fetched live from Coinbase.
Your Financial Situation
Include all annual spending and debt. Convert to USD if needed.
Estimate your local inflation. In the US, real inflation has historically averaged ~11% YoY.
How your expenses may grow due to lifestyle changes. Recommended 0–10%.
Number of years to plan for. Longer horizons reduce BTC needed today due to compounding.
Market Assumptions
Historically Bitcoin has had a ~45% CAGR since 2011.
Optional. Taxes reduce net BTC available. Enter your expected rate.
Income (Optional)
Optional. Any Bitcoin income reduces how much BTC you need to spend from holdings.
Learn more about what it means to live on a Bitcoin standard in Beyond Money, a book exploring the shift away from fiat currency.