GBIC >> Retirement >> Online Retirement Planner

Online Retirement Planner
This online planning tool allows you to plan the financial details of your retirement. It allows you to enter income and expenses, including varying these over time, to determine the impact of financial decisions made during retirement. A download version of the Retirement Planner is available.

This is one of two online retirement planning tools offered by this site. The second tool, the Lifetime Planner, is similar in format to this one but covers both pre-retirement and post-retirement finances.

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 Security

Retirement Planner

Current Age:
Pre-retirement Inflation:
Net Worth @ Retirement:

Net Worth vs Age


50--------60--------70--------80--------90--------100

----------------- Life Event Information ----------------- -------------- Monthly Income --------------- Monthly
Description Age Inflation Interest SocSoc Work Other Total Expenses

Lump Sum Expenses
Description Age Amount (Then $)



Lump Sum Income
Description Age Amount (Then $)


Quick Settings:    Auto $1M $2M $10M

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Instructions

In general, select the pre-retirement and post-retirement values that apply to your financial situation. The information is used to plot the retirement years only, covering ages 50 to 100. The Net Worth graph begins at retirement age extends to age 100. The graph truncates in any year that net worth goes to zero.

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.

The radio buttons (Auto/$1M/$2M/$10M) are provided for cases where the retirement figures are within a known range. Selecting a setting other than Auto will allow the graph size to change when plotting new data. Selection of Auto is recommended.

The Quick Setting buttons are provided to make common changes to several entry fields at a time.

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

Pre-Retirement
Although this planner does not plot pre-retirement net worth, your current age and the expected inflation rate until retirement are important because all income and expenses in the planner are entered as today dollars. The age/inflation entries allow the planner to adjust the income/expenses for inflation to the age of retirement.

Current Age
This is your current age and must be earlier (or the same) than your planned retirement age. It is only used to determine the inflation to apply to income and expenses during the retirement period.
Pre-Retirement Inflation
Combined with Current Age, inflation will be used to determine the future value of income and expense projections during the retirement period.
Net Worth @ Retirement
This is the net worth you expect to have at retirement. It is in then$. No pre-retirement inflation will be applied to this value.

Life Events (during retirement)
In this part of the model, potential retirees can describe retirement financial picture. Because income and expenses change over time, the model allows entry of up to seven (7) Life Events - where significant changes to income and/or expenses can be expected. See the section of this site on Life Events for more details.

For each Life Event the following information may be entered. Note that the first Life Event (top line) must always be retirement. The Age entered for that line is considered to be the age of retirement. The description for the first line is pre-loaded as "Retirement" and cannot be changed.

The factors of each Life Event take effect on the age you enter and continue throughout retirement until the next Life Event. If no later Life Event is entered, the factors associated with the latest Life Event apply throughout the rest of retirement. Life Events must be entered in age order (lowest age on top). A Life Event is considered in effect is there is a non-zero income or expense entry on the line.

Description
A short description of the life event.
Age
The age at which the Life Event starts.
Interest
The interest to be applied to net worth during the Life Event.
Inflation
The inflation rate to be applied to net worth during the Life Event.
Social Security
First of three income amounts that may be entered. The federal government allows retirees to select the age at which they will begin receiving Social Security payments, which in turn affects the amount of the payment (the earlier the payments start, the lower the payments will be). Enter the amount in today's dollars. The amount will be adjusted for inflation.
Work
Second of three income amounts that may be entered. Income, such as from employment, will be entered here. This feature supports the common practice of retirees to work 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.
Other
Third of three income amounts that may be entered. Any income not covered by the other two categories is entered here. 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 the Life Event. 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, at a specific age. Twelve lump sum events are supported by the model, 6 expense and 6 income.

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 retirement age will be ignored (ignoring them, rather than requiring a change, is a simple way to set the input aside for later re-use).
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.

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Yearly Data

The information entered above was used to calculate the following Net Worth, Income, and Expenses information for each of the retirement years. This is also is the data used to plot the Net Worth graph above.

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Security

All information you enter into this planner remains on your PC. No information is sent to the server or otherwise transmitted over the Internet. All calculations are performed entirely by your PC and are used by your local browser to update the page you are viewing.

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.