Why We Created Path

In 2015 I landed my first “real” job as a Product Designer working in Colorado Springs, CO. I relocated from Oklahoma City, OK and started a new life. At the time, I was single, debt-free, and my new job would allow me to finally live without roommates to help cover costs. It was a pivotal moment as I finally had enough to increase my lifestyle, but I was in an era in life where I could still live like a broke college student. Around this time a friend told me about Mr. Money Mustache — I was immediately intrigued. The idea that it’s possible to achieve Financial Independence long before you reach retirement age goes against everything that modern American society is about — it’s very punk rock. I started chasing FI at that point and haven’t looked back. Along the way I’ve learned how to avoid lifestyle creep, travel on a budget, invest, and apply most of the standard “Extreme Saver” tactics. I’m on my way to FI and considering what I will do if one day work becomes optional.

The problem I had

Tracking how much you’re putting away into savings or investing accounts each month is psychologically critical to reaching the long-term goal of financial independence. You have to break 10–20 years down into months and just focus on hitting a 4-week goal over and over and over. Seeing that goal be reached each month (even if the goal is just to invest any amount no matter how small) is an achievement you learn to enjoy — but how do you track it?

I’ve tried pen and paper, spreadsheets, and plenty of software solutions to tracking my journey to FI. Many of these solutions are too simple and fail to generate a clear picture of where I am and where I’m heading, or they’re very powerful but little effort has been put into the design or user experience so they’re frustrating to use. There are some that do a decent job or are powerful and usable, but they’re littered with upsell ads and features I don’t need. Another issue is with price — I’m trying not to spend money unnecessarily, one more expensive subscription?

I never found something that balances out all of these factors, nor have I found a product that looks like it was designed elegantly with the end-user in mind. As a professional product designer I want to change this and bring design quality into the forefront of retirement planning software, and protect simplicity in the tools.

The solution

In 2025 I started working with Claude to provide a custom solution to tracking my progress towards FI. Through the chat-based interface I was able to explain exactly what I wanted to know, and Claude was able to gather all of the information necessary to generate a monthly report. This was very empowering for me and provided a view into my financial future I had not seen before. I made it very clear that if I stay on this course, I’ll reach FI by a certain date, taking into account so much more information than a standard retirement calculator. I had a custom software solution that gave me meaningful information, without having to deal with bloated software or expensive annual subscriptions. But the problem was there was not a clear user interface that I could conveniently log into and see the information visually — this is where Path came along.

Allan and I got together to try and solve this problem. How could we take all of the information I verbally gave Claude and add some reusable structure around it? What would it look like if there was a dashboard and other pages? As a product designer, this is my wheelhouse. I love designing simple software products that are clean and easy to use. This is why I believe in Path and want to keep working on this product — design is the differentiator, and I think bad design is a real hurdle in the financial industry. Path is here to change that.

Why Path instead of Boldin or ProjectionLab

I’ve been following ProjectionLab for years and I think it’s a great tool. It’s powerful and does a great job of accounting for so many factors and it is still evolving. But the clear problem I face with ProjectionLab is that I find it extremely confusing and difficult to use. It’s obvious they have not invested in hiring a professional UI/UX designer to clean up the interface, and apparently that has not stopped them from gaining a massive (and dedicated) following. I think that’s great and I see it as an opportunity to offer something that solves the same problem but does it in a beautiful way.

Boldin (formerly NewRetirement) is a lovely product but it is covered in content I don’t want to see: “Book a session with an advisor,” or “Listen to this podcast,” and it’s $144 per year — feels a bit expensive and feels very corporate, and it’s clear there is pressure from investors affecting the decisions being made for the product. One thing I really respect about ProjectionLab is they are bootstrapped by a single developer.

The future of Path

Path is young, we are just getting started, but our goal is to keep building the critical features users need to plan and forecast for retirement. We are user-driven and constantly engaging with our customers to ensure the product evolves in a way that reduces friction and increases accessibility. Today, Path feels simple (and it objectively is compared to many other tools) and in the future, it will still feel simple — but with more customization and powerful modeling behind it. Stay tuned for how Path quickly evolves over the coming months.

Our mission

Path exists to be a force against the American billionaire oligarchy who does everything it can to brainwash us into buying things we don’t need so that we are not free. Path wants people to be in control of their life, and we contribute to this desire by building usable and affordable retirement planning tools. Path exists to bring world-class simplicity and usability to retirement planning tools. Path leverages the power of design to offer an experience that remains focused and elegant, never to become convoluted with ads or upsell elements. Path is bootstrapped — we do not accept investor money, so the market will determine our fate.