Bellavia

Bellavia: A Different Kind of Retirement Calculator

After years analyzing financial models, I searched for retirement planning tools. What I found was disappointing: oversimplified calculators or black boxes that said "trust us." So we built something different.

By admin Published: November 01, 2025 • Updated: May 04, 2026
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Bellavia: A Different Kind of Retirement Calculator

I could get no satisfaction. When I tried to plan my own retirement. I expected it to be straightforward. It wasn't.

I like analyzing problems with data. So I looked for independent tools to help me understand a smart, informed way to manage my retirement portfolio.

What I found fell into three categories:

  1. Overly academic (interesting but not applicable to my situation)
  2. Overly simple (generic advice, no real analysis)
  3. Black boxes ("Trust us, we've got this")

The retirement calculators I tested were unsatisfactory, limited, and clunky at best.

I kept wondering: Is this really all there is?

Is there actually a way to get clarity on retirement investing?

And if someone built it properly—what would it look like?

Those questions and subsequent discussions led me and some friends to build Bellavia—an analytics platform for analytically-minded future retirees.

The Key Design Choices

During development, we faced many design choices. Here are the key ones:

→ Historical data over simulations

We wanted objectivity (despite its limitations). Real market history, not hypothetical scenarios.
→ Visual and narrative over tabular

We believe in the power of visualization. Nobody can stand reading endless tables.
→ Data-agnostic (BYOD - Bring Your Own Data)

You should be able to test strategies against any market where suitable data exists—not just US stocks.

This has been a long journey. One that continues.

What We'll Be Sharing

We'll be sharing what we've learned about:

  • What financial history reveals about retirement strategies
  • Why most retirement tools oversimplify risk
  • How to test your plan against real historical scenarios
  • The gap between academic theory and practical retirement planning

We believe there's a need for something different in how we think about the retirement journey.

We believe Bellavia addresses that need.

But we're here to learn as much as to share.

Try Bellavia Free →

Want to See What We Built?

Test your retirement strategy against real market history—not hypothetical simulations.

Bellavia lets you:

  • Run simulations across a long history of real market data
  • Test your plan against actual crashes: 1929, 1973, 2000, 2008
  • Compare different withdrawal strategies 
  • Understand sequence of returns risk for your specific situation
  • Explore advanced analytics including market regimes and drawdown scenarios
Start Your Free Trial →

 14-day free trial

George and the Bellavia team

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