This is one of two online retirement planning tools offered by this site. The second tool, the Retirement Planner, is similar in format to this one but focuses on the retirement period of your life and allows you to input a greater level of detail about finances during the retirement period. This site also offers a download version of the Retirement Planner.

To use this model simply select the settings that correspond to your pre-retirement and post-retirement plans. The graph and tabular data will update automatically. Additional instructions are provided below.

Instructions

Yearly Data

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Instructions

The value plotted is Net Worth at the start of the year. The calculated table of values has start and end of year data.

The Net Worth graph will update automatically when changes are made.

Because the graph is automatically scaled to a fixed height, changing an input parameter may not appear to change the graph. However the legend at the right of the graph will show plotted values at key points (start/retirement/end) which will confirm that the values are being correctly plotted.

There are three sections to the planner - Pre-Retirement, Retirement, and Lump Sum Events.

Pre-Retirement
This is typically the period in which a person is saving towards a Net Worth goal that will support retirement plans.

• Age (Current)
  This is the age at which graph starts, which would normally be your age today.

  Note: It is also the year at which inflation takes effect, so if you are going to use the Lifetime Planner for retirement events only, be sure to change the Age (Current) to the same value as Age (Retirement)

• Net Worth
  Simply the amount of investments to which interest will be applied during the pre-retirement period.
• Investment (monthly)
  The amount of money placed monthly into interest bearing accounts.
• Interest Rate
  This is the rate of return that will be applied to Net Worth and Investment during the pre-retirement period.
• Inflation Rate
  Combined with Age (Current), inflation will be used to determine the future value of income and expense projections during the retirement period.

Retirement
In this part of the model, a potential retiree can determine which combination of Net Worth, income, and expenses will support retirees for the rest of their lives.

• Age (Retirement)
  The age at which retirement starts.
• Interest/Inflation Rates
  New interest and inflation rates can be entered for the Retirement period. Interest rates are likely to go down as the retiree attempts to move funds to more secure investments (a personal decision).
• Social Security / Start Age
  There are multiple options available to retirees on when Social Security can begin. These affect the amount of Social Security payment that is received. Both the amount and start date are entered here. Enter the amount in today's dollars. The amount will be adjusted for inflation.
• Income (monthly)
  Income, such as from employment, can be entered here as well as the age at which the income will stop. This feature supports the common practice of retirees working for a limited time (usually at a reduced level) after retirement begins. Enter the amount in today's dollars. The amount will be adjusted for inflation.
• Expenses
  Enter the total expenses, including taxes, that are expected throughout retirement. Only a single value is supported. See the Online Retirement Planner at this site if you need more control over reporting expenses. Enter the amount in today's dollars. The amount will be adjusted for inflation.

Lump Sum Events
This model support lump sum events, which are income or expense items that happen only once. Six lump sum events are supported (3 expense and 3 income). The events can take place during pre-retirement or retirement.

• Desc
  Enter a short description of the event.
• Age
  Select the age at which the event will take place. Events with an Age selected that is earlier than the Age (Current) will be ignored.
• Amount
  Enter the amount of the event in today's dollars. The amount will be adjusted for inflation.
• Then$
  For reference only. This field cannot be manually changed. It is the amount adjusted for inflation to the selected Age.

Saving / Restoring a Session
The Save/Restore functions work using cookies on your PC. No information is transmitted outside your PC. Simply press the buttons to Save or Restore a session.

Yearly Data

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If you choose to save the information you've entered it will be stored as a cookie on your PC and you may reload it at any time. Cookies are not transmitted to the server or otherwise transmitted over the Internet.