This End User License Agreement and Terms of Service ("Terms") constitutes a legally binding contract between you ("User", "you", or "your") and ExitYear and its operator ("Operator", "we", "us", or "our"), governing your access to and use of the ExitYear website (exityear.com), underlying software, simulation engines, and related services ("ExitYear").

By accessing, browsing, loading, caching, running financial simulations, creating shareable scenario links, or exporting scenario data from ExitYear, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms in their entirety, you are not authorized to use ExitYear and must immediately cease all access and use.

ExitYear operates as a bona fide educational, informational, and analytical publication under the safe harbor principles articulated in Lowe v. SEC, 472 U.S. 181 (1985). All calculations, projections, simulation outputs, Exit Readiness Scores (ERS), visual charts, and accompanying documentation or media content (including any linked YouTube videos, guides, or commentary) are provided strictly for educational, informational, and illustrative entertainment purposes.

ExitYear does not provide financial, investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice. The Operator is not a registered investment advisor (RIA), broker-dealer, financial planner, certified public accountant (CPA), or fiduciary under federal or state securities laws. Projections are deterministic mathematical simulations driven exclusively by user-supplied inputs and simplified heuristics (such as flat nominal annual return rates and simplified tax bracket estimations). They do not account for individual risk tolerances, sequence of returns risk, sudden market crashes, hyperinflation, statutory tax changes, or individualized personal circumstances.

You acknowledge and agree that you must not rely upon any projection, score, or output from ExitYear to make any financial, investment, retirement, tax, or lifestyle decisions. Always seek the advice of a qualified, licensed financial planner, CPA, or attorney regarding your specific situation.

Subject to your strict and ongoing compliance with these Terms, the Operator grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable, and limited license to access and use ExitYear solely for your private, personal, non-commercial financial exploration.

Automatic YouTube & Independent Creator Safe Harbor: We believe in supporting independent creators and community educators. Independent content creators, educators, journalists, and media commentators ("Creators") are granted an automatic, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to feature ExitYear in publicly available video reviews, tutorials, commentary, teardowns, and blog posts (including on YouTube, TikTok, Substack, podcasts, and personal blogs) and may retain advertising and sponsorship revenues derived therefrom (such as YouTube AdSense), without requiring prior written authorization, provided that the Creator:

• Includes a clear and conspicuous link to https://exityear.com in the video description or article text;
• Includes our standard educational disclaimer stating that ExitYear is an educational math simulator and not financial advice;
• Preserves all on-screen watermarks, branding, and Ledgerface copyright identifiers; and
• Does not place ExitYear outputs or tools behind a paid course, paywalled tier, or fee-based membership community.

Except for the Creator Safe Harbor above, you expressly agree not to, directly or indirectly: (a) sell, resell, rent, lease, sublicense, redistribute, or commercially exploit ExitYear or its outputs; (b) package ExitYear as part of a paid course, subscription service, monetized newsletter, or paid advisory funnel; (c) scrape, crawl, reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract the underlying source code or projection algorithms for commercial purposes; or (d) frame, mirror, or white-label ExitYear on any external website or platform.

ExitYear is designed and licensed exclusively for consumer self-directed modeling and is not licensed for professional wealth management or client advisory practice. Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), investment advisor representatives (IARs), Certified Financial Planners (CFPs), wealth managers, broker-dealers, accountants, insurance agents, or other financial services intermediaries ("Advisors") are strictly prohibited from:

• Using ExitYear to evaluate, prepare, model, or present financial scenarios for current, prospective, or paying clients;
• Incorporating ExitYear outputs, charts, ERS scores, or reports into client deliverables, financial plans, pitch decks, or marketing collateral; or
• Utilizing ExitYear as part of any fee-based consulting, planning, or wealth management service.

Liquidated Damages for Unauthorized Advisory Use: You acknowledge and agree that unauthorized commercial use by Advisors causes substantial, immediate, and irreparable harm to the Operator, including brand dilution, potential regulatory scrutiny, and software misappropriation, the exact monetary value of which would be extremely difficult and impractical to ascertain. Consequently, you agree that for each unauthorized commercial instance, client presentation, report delivery, or consultation utilizing ExitYear, the infringing party shall pay to the Operator liquidated damages in the amount of Five Thousand United States Dollars ($5,000 USD) (or Five Thousand Euros (€5,000 EUR) for European entities), as a reasonable pre-estimate of damages and not as a penalty, together with all reasonable attorneys' fees and costs incurred in enforcement.

The Operator expressly reserves the right to report unauthorized advisory conduct to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), FINRA, the CFP Board, and relevant state securities regulators. Advisors interested in commercial or institutional licensing must execute a separate written enterprise agreement by contacting licensing@exityear.com.

All rights, title, and interest in and to ExitYear, including without limitation the Exit Readiness Score (ERS) methodology, the deterministic cash-flow engine, the "Ledgerface" user interface design system, typography, icons, branding, software code, and documentation, are the exclusive intellectual property of ExitYear and its operator, and are protected under United States and international copyright, trademark, trade dress, and unfair competition laws.

Integrity of Copyright Management Information (CMI): In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 1202), all visual output charts, SVG exports, screenshots, and JSON plan files generated by ExitYear contain statutory Copyright Management Information, including copyright notices, source URLs, and license metadata. You shall not remove, alter, crop, conceal, or obscure any copyright notices, watermarks, terms of service links, or license identifiers embedded in or displayed alongside ExitYear outputs. Any intentional removal or alteration of CMI constitutes a willful violation of federal law.

In compliance with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 CFR Part 255), we disclose that ExitYear participates in select affiliate referral partnerships. If you click on an external link to a third-party financial service, broker, or tool and open an account, the Operator may receive financial compensation at no additional cost to you.

• Some external links on ExitYear are affiliate referral links.
• Affiliate compensation does not influence the deterministic mathematical formulas of the projection engine.
• Partner relationships are clearly labeled with attribution badges and sponsored rel attributes.

ExitYear is engineered with a strict client-side-only default architecture. All financial numbers, asset allocations, salary figures, and personal scenario inputs entered into ExitYear are processed directly inside your device's web browser using JavaScript and stored exclusively in your browser's local storage (LocalStorage / IndexedDB). The Operator does not operate a general database of user financial data, does not monetize user figures, and cannot recover your data if you clear your browser cache, use incognito mode, or switch devices. You are solely responsible for exporting and backing up your scenario data using the provided JSON export mechanism.

Voluntary Scenario Sharing & Short Link Service: If you voluntarily choose to generate a shareable link to your financial scenario via the ExitYear Share dialog, your scenario data is compressed into a base64 payload and transmitted to our dedicated URL-shortening server (links.exityear.com) to generate an abbreviated redirect link. By generating a short link, you acknowledge and agree that: (a) the compressed scenario payload is stored on our server to enable redirect functionality; (b) standard technical server access logs (including IP address, browser user agent, and timestamp) are processed for security, routing, and abuse prevention; and (c) any individual who possesses or accesses your shareable short link will be able to load and inspect the underlying financial assumptions and figures contained in that scenario. If you desire total privacy, do not generate public share links; use offline JSON exports instead.

EXITYEAR AND ALL ASSOCIATED CALCULATIONS, CONTENT, SCRIPTS, AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED STRICTLY ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE OPERATOR EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER STATUTORY, EXPRESS, OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND FREEDOM FROM PROGRAMMING ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR BUGS.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL EXITYEAR, ITS OPERATOR, OR ANY AFFILIATES, AGENTS, OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, SAVINGS, ASSETS, INVESTMENT PRINCIPAL, OR RETIREMENT FUNDS, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, EXITYEAR, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE OPERATOR'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF EXITYEAR EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($100.00 USD) OR THE AMOUNT YOU ACTUALLY PAID TO THE OPERATOR (IF ANY) IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM.

You expressly waive the provisions of California Civil Code Section 1542 (and any analogous statute of any other jurisdiction), which provides: "A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party."

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless ExitYear, its operator, and their respective heirs, successors, and assigns from and against any and all claims, actions, suits, demands, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and court costs) arising out of or related to: (a) your access to or use of ExitYear; (b) any breach or alleged breach by you of these Terms, including any unauthorized commercial or advisory use; (c) any financial, investment, or lifestyle decision made by you or any third party based upon calculations or projections generated by ExitYear; or (d) your infringement of any intellectual property, copyright, trade dress, or privacy right of the Operator or any third party.

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or ExitYear shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, United States of America, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law.

Except where prohibited by applicable consumer protection laws (and as modified by Section 12 for European users), any legal action, suit, or proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms shall be instituted exclusively in the state courts located in the County of Contra Costa, California (such as the Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa in Martinez, CA) or the federal courts for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco or Oakland Division). You hereby irrevocably consent and submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction and venue of such courts.

Class Action Waiver: YOU AND THE OPERATOR MUTUALLY AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, REPRESENTATIVE, OR COLLECTIVE PROCEEDING.

This Section 12 applies specifically to users who are habitually resident in a Member State of the European Union, the European Economic Area (EEA), or the United Kingdom:

• Rome I Regulation & Mandatory Consumer Protections: Pursuant to Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 ("Rome I"), the choice of California law in Section 11 shall not deprive any consumer of the protection afforded to them by statutory provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement under the law of the country where the consumer has their habitual residence.
• Brussels I Recast & Consumer Venue: In accordance with Article 18 of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 ("Brussels I Recast"), nothing in Section 11 shall deprive an EU/UK consumer of the right to bring proceedings against the Operator in the courts of the Member State where the consumer is domiciled, or prevent proceedings being brought against the consumer only in the courts of the Member State where the consumer is domiciled.
• Consumer Liability Carve-Out: Sections 8 and 9 shall not exclude or restrict statutory liability for death, personal injury, gross negligence (culpa lata), willful misconduct (dolus), or breach of statutory consumer rights under EU Directive 93/13/EEC (Unfair Contract Terms) and the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015.
• Severability of B2B Advisor Liquidated Damages: The liquidated damages covenant set forth in Section 4 (€5,000 EUR per client violation) applies exclusively to commercial entities, wealth management firms, and professional advisors (B2B). It does not apply to consumer end users (B2C) exploring personal retirement scenarios.
• MiFID II & MAR Non-Advisory Safe Harbor: Calculations and outputs provided by ExitYear do not constitute personal investment advice within the meaning of Article 4(1)(4) of Directive 2014/65/EU ("MiFID II"), nor do they constitute investment recommendations or investment research under Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ("Market Abuse Regulation"). ExitYear provides non-personalized mathematical calculation tools for informational self-modeling.
• ePrivacy & Zero Tracking Notice: ExitYear does not deploy marketing, advertising, profiling, or tracking cookies. All user data remains local to your device, eliminating the need for intrusive cookie consent banners under Directive 2002/58/EC ("ePrivacy Directive").

For questions regarding these Terms, personal use verification, or commercial and enterprise licensing, contact: