What Would Graham Stephan Say?

The rules he lives by

Savings rate is everything, he saved and invested the majority of his income for years. Housing at or below 30% of income (ideally house-hacked to $0). A $6 daily latte is $2,190/year that could compound into six figures. Credit cards are fine, points are free money, but only paid in full. Index funds and real estate, held forever.

Scoring

Your savings rate is what you invest each month divided by your take-home pay plus any side hustle. Only investing your pay can cover counts: if rent, coffee, food and everything else leave $740 of your pay, investing $1,000 adds $740 of savings, and the other $260 comes out of money you already had or goes on a card.

The rate scores 15 at 0%, 45 at 10% (a start), 65 at 20% (solid), 80 at 30% (excellent) and the full 100 at 50% and up, on straight lines in between; below 10% he's making a concerned face at the camera. Housing over 30% of your pay costs 10 points, coffee and takeout drinks over $20 a month cost 5, and any side-hustle income earns 8 back. The total is held between 0 and 100, and only a 50% savings rate scores the full 100.

His verdict follows the savings rate: under 20% is red, 20% up to his 50% bar gold, the bar and above green. The gauge's bands sit at the scores a 20% rate and the 50% bar earn once your housing, coffee and side-hustle points are in, so its colour always matches the verdict: with rent over 30% and a coffee habit, the bands sit at 50 and 85. When your points leave the bar at 100 itself, the band above the 20% line takes the verdict's colour. Rates are shown to the whole percent, or to one decimal where rounding would carry them across one of these lines (49.6%, not 50%).

Where your money goes vs his plan

Your bars are your inputs plus what is left over: take-home pay and side hustle, less spending and investing. Money left over is Unaccounted; a negative amount is Overspent. His plan uses the same pay: housing at his 30% ceiling, 50% invested, a 20-cent iced coffee a day (about $6 a month), 8% on food and the rest of 12% on everything else. The food and everything-else split is an illustration, not one of his rules, and the score ignores both. His bars add up to your pay exactly, so his Unaccounted bar is always $0.

Years until work is optional

The curve shows how many years it takes, starting from $0, to build a portfolio of 25 times a year's spending, the 4% rule's work-optional number, at savings rates from 5% to 80%. Spending is the pay you don't save, so a higher rate adds to the portfolio and shrinks the number it has to reach at the same time: about 17 years at his 50% bar. Contributions land at each month end and grow 4.2% a year after inflation: FP Canada's 6.4% US equity return (the index funds he buys) less its 2.1% inflation, FP Canada figures as of July 2026. Fees and taxes are not modelled. Everything is in today's dollars, with pay, spending and contributions rising with inflation: years = ln(1 + 12 × 25 × i × (1 − s) ÷ s) ÷ ln(1 + i) ÷ 12, where s is the savings rate and i = (1 + real return)^(1/12) − 1.

The 4% rule comes from US market history over 30-year retirements, and many planners call it optimistic for longer ones (the Ben Felix page uses 2.7%, about 37 times spending, which adds years at every rate). Read the curve as a comparison between savings rates, not a retirement date.

The coffee math

The 30-year coffee figure invests the monthly drinks budget at each month end instead, growing at FP Canada's 6.4% US equity return. It is in nominal (future) dollars, before fees and taxes.

The fine print

This is an educational parody applying Graham Stephan's well-documented public philosophy to your numbers. All verdict lines are paraphrases in his style, not real quotes. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Graham Stephan. For actual advice, talk to a licensed professional.