About Kenneth Bonnici and Enough to Quit
Enough to Quit exists because I could not find the answer I wanted, and I did not trust the answers I was offered. This page sets out who built the tool, what that does and does not qualify me to tell you, and how the site is paid for.
Why this exists
When I was forty I used to say I would retire at fifty. I probably could have. But I was on autopilot, and I never actually checked. It is a strange thing to admit for someone who spent a career telling other people to check their numbers, and it is the honest reason this tool exists.
What eventually made me sit down was not a plan. It was the realisation that I had no idea whether the thing I kept saying was true. So I built a model in Excel to find out. Not a rule of thumb, not a multiple of spending: a year-by-year projection of cash and net worth from the day I stopped working until the day I died.
I had assumed something like it already existed. It did not. Everything I could find either produced a single number and stopped, or asked for an email address and then produced a single number and stopped. Nothing showed me the whole shape of the rest of my financial life, which was the only thing I actually wanted to see.
I am not built to take someone else's word for it. Rules of thumb get repeated until they sound like facts, and most of the people repeating them have never had to live with the consequences.
I retired in 2024, at 53. The model I had built for myself is the engine behind this website. It has been rebuilt since, and is tested far more than a spreadsheet ever was, but it answers the same question it was built to answer.
I built it for myself, but I put it online because I believe most people could retire earlier than they think, and are simply never shown the numbers that would let them see it. Everyone deserves that chance. Early retirement is more possible, and more ordinary, than the usual rules of thumb make it sound, and this tool exists to help you find out whether it is already within reach.
Who built it
Thirty years in advisory, finance and operations, most of it at partner or executive committee level, and all of it built on financial modelling. That was in my job description as a senior manager in the 1990s, it was what the valuation work rested on, and it is a large part of what my career was built on. ETQ started life as one more spreadsheet.
I began in senior management accounting and financial control, spent many years building a business advisory practice, latterly as a partner, then served as a chief financial officer and board director in a regulated financial business, and finally held chief financial officer and executive committee roles at an international group. The work ran across corporate finance, business valuation, investment appraisal, funding rounds and performance measurement, with a long run of interim CFO mandates along the way. The common thread never changed: turning a messy real-world situation into a model you could actually interrogate.
I am a chartered management accountant by training, with postgraduate qualifications in business and management. None of that is really the point of this page, though. What matters is the section that follows.
What that does not make me
I am not a financial adviser, and ETQ is not advice. CIMA is a management accounting qualification. It is not a licence to advise anyone on their personal finances, and I do not hold one. ETQ is not authorised or regulated as a financial adviser, investment firm, pension adviser or insurer in any jurisdiction.
What I can reasonably claim is narrower and, I think, more useful: I know how to build a financial model, and I know what a model can and cannot tell you. ETQ shows you its working, so you can check it rather than take it on faith. That is not a promise that it is right. It does not know your circumstances, it does not account for tax, and it cannot tell you what to do. It comes with no warranty of any kind. Before acting on anything it shows you, speak to someone qualified to advise you.
Having retired early myself is experience, not authority. It means I have had to live with my own numbers, which I think is worth something. It does not mean my assumptions will suit you. That is why the methodology page sets out every default the model applies and every thing it does not do, so you can disagree with it precisely.
How ETQ is paid for
It is not. There is no charge, no subscription, no advertising, no affiliate links and no sponsored placements. The books and tools I recommend are listed without affiliate links, deliberately, so that a recommendation cannot be confused with a commission.
There is also no account and no data collection. The calculator runs entirely in your browser and the figures you enter are never sent anywhere. I do not have them and I could not sell them if I wanted to. See the privacy notice for the detail.
I built this for myself and put it online because it seemed useless not to. That is the whole business model.
Away from the spreadsheet
I live by the sea in Malta. Most of my time now goes on wind sports, mainly kitesurfing and wing foiling, on running and trekking, on mentoring business owners and younger professionals, and on volunteering at a local residential home, where I help out with cooking activities for residents. I have a rescue dog called Reggie, who has more emotional intelligence than a number of executives I have worked with, and who is unimpressed by all of this.
Get in touch
Corrections, disagreements about the model, and reports of things that look wrong are all genuinely welcome. The contact address is on the disclaimer page.
Educational information only, not financial advice. ETQ produces illustrative model output that is sensitive to your inputs and the tool's default assumptions. Speak to a qualified professional before acting on a projection.