Common questions

Short answers. Each one links to the page that explains itself properly.

Why can’t I add my house?

Because this forecasts cash flow, not net worth. A paid-off house does not fund anything unless you sell it and move, so counting it as an asset makes a plan look funded when it is not. Put the mortgage in as a debt, a planned downsize in as one-time income in the year you would sell, and rental property in as net income. The longer argument.

Can I enter my own rate of return?

No, and that is deliberate. Typing “7%” is how you get a forecast that has quietly assumed the market never has a bad decade at the worst possible moment. Returns come from simulating real market history instead. Where the market numbers come from.

Why only stocks, bonds, and cash?

Three buckets are enough to describe how exposed you are, which is what changes the answer. Each account carries its own mix, so a conservative IRA behind an aggressive brokerage is expressible. Individual holdings are not, and are not planned.

What do I put for cost basis?

Roughly what you paid for what is in the account, added up. It decides how much of a sale is taxable gain, so it changes your tax in every year the plan sells something. Only taxable and brokerage accounts have one.

If you do not know it, estimate rather than skip it. The field starts equal to the balance, which claims you have no gain at all and understates your tax. Zero claims the whole balance is gain and overstates it. Your brokerage almost certainly reports it, and a rough figure between those two extremes beats either of them.

How do I enter Social Security?

As an income event with the Social Security type. Enter the yearly benefit you will receive at the age you plan to claim (62 to 70), which you can get from your statement at ssa.gov. The statement lists a monthly figure: multiply by 12. Enter one total gross benefit for each person, including any spousal supplement and before Medicare deductions. A reminder to check possible spousal benefits is optional; you can keep your amounts. It appears only after Social Security values change during the session, not just because you reopen or reload the plan. Switching from survivor benefits to your own retirement benefit over time is not modeled. Widow and survivor claiming from 60 is not modeled yet. The tax treatment is handled from there, including the part where more of the benefit becomes taxable as your other income rises.

Where is my data, and can I get it out?

In your browser, on this device, and nowhere else. Settings › Your plans downloads a file of every plan of yours, names included, and uploads one back. A share link is different: it leaves names out. Plans and what is saved covers what that means if you clear the browser or move to another device.

Why does the projection line look so jagged?

Because it is one real simulated future rather than a smooth average, and real markets lurch. The Details table and the Cash Flow diagram have to describe a year that actually happened, which a line through the middle of a thousand futures could not do. Reading your forecast.

Why doesn’t my ending balance match the next year’s starting balance?

You are in today’s dollars, so each year is adjusted for that year’s inflation and the same money is written slightly smaller the next year. Turn the switch off and they match.

Why is the first year’s tax so low?

The plan starts today, not in January, so the first year is a partial one. Only the remaining months of the year are counted, on the reasoning that what you already earned and already spent this year is behind you. How taxes are estimated.

Why isn’t my employer’s 401(k) match in there?

It is not modeled yet. Your own contributions are. If you get a match, the projection is missing real money, which is one of several places it errs on the pessimistic side. Simplifications sorts all of them by which way they bend your number.

Can I use this outside the US?

Not usefully. Federal brackets, all 50 states and DC, Social Security, RMDs and the retirement account rules are baked into the engine, and none of them travel.

Can I show someone my plan?

Yes, with a share link. It carries the numbers and leaves out every name you typed, and it does not put a copy of your plan on a server. What is in a share link.

Is it really free?

Yes, and what is here stays free. If it is ever monetized it would be through extras or referrals, not by putting a wall around what already exists.

Is this financial advice?

No. It is a model that shows you what your own numbers imply under a lot of different market futures. Nothing in it is a recommendation, and nobody here is a licensed advisor. Disclaimer.