View The Planner

 All images below are screen shots of The 2023 Complete Retirement Planner.
 Please contact us if you have any questions!

                              1. The Expenses Page 

• Interview style questions, with notes to guide you, make all entries quick and easy. 

• There are entries for two current or future mortgages, with the option to pay off early, or sell, either property.
• Real estate taxes can be entered for a property with no mortgage.
• Total expenses adjust automatically in the year that a mortgage ends.     
• Annual mortgage interest and real estate taxes are calculated automatically to provide accurate tax deductions.
  Principal and interest amounts are not inflation adjusted, but real estate taxes are.   

• Enter separate inflation rates for General Expenses and designated Health Care expenses for better accuracy.
• The General inflation rate applies to most expenses, but not to fixed expenses (e.g., auto loans, mortgage payments, etc.) so that
  total expenses aren't artificially inflated over time.
• The Health Care inflation rate applies to designated health care expenses that have historically higher inflation rates than other expenses.
• Stress-test your plan by trying fractionally different rates to see how significant the impact may be to your total outcome.
• Select your Federal tax filing status, and enter optional tax deduction amounts for State Income/Sales tax, Charity, and Medical expenses.
  For each year, TCRP automatically uses the greater of your Standard Deduction or your itemized deductions (shown on the Results page).
• Enter your effective State income tax rate to complete the picture of your tax liability.
  All taxes on income and taxable Social Security are calculated for each year.

• Your current tax-deferred retirement savings balance(s) for 401k's and IRA's.
• Your current Roth retirement savings balance(s) for Roth 401k's and IRA's.
• Your desired retirement age(s).
• The age(s) when you intend to claim Social Security benefits, or your current benefit(s) if already claiming.
• Your expected Social Security benefit(s) at Full Retirement Age (from www.ssa.gov).
• Optional - Enter a life expectancy age for either spouse and Social Security Survivor benefits will calculate automatically to model
  the financial effect of the loss of a spouse.
• Your Health Savings Account (HSA) balance(s), as well as an optional investment return rate and the age(s) at which HSA distributions should begin.

• Enter the % of excess income to save for any year when income exceeds expenses. Save it or spend it, it's up to you!
• Enter an optional savings % to see if saving more, or less, would make a significant difference in your overall plan.
• Enter non-retirement cash and investment balances, by spouse (if married), that you would like to use to pay expenses, and the expected
  interest/return rates for those savings. Use different return rates for before (take more risk?) and after (take less risk?) retirement.

•  Enter up to 10 significant one-time events, either positive or negative, that may affect retirement savings.
• Assign positive amounts to either spouse's non-retirement cash or investment savings.
  Negative amounts are added to expenses in the appropriate year.
  Great for "what if" scenarios!

The last section of this page asks you to itemize your current and future expenses.

• Enter your current expenses first, then adjust how, and when, those amounts may change, start, or end, in future time frames.
  Each expense can be adjusted for three different time frames.
• Over 45 expenses are listed, plus the ability to enter another 10 of your own. This offers clarity on how money is being spent (note the % To Total column),
  creates the ability to calculate expenses for each individual year, and allows for inflation protection for fixed expenses.
  Easily model different scenarios for various time frames.
• Health Savings Account (HSA) eligible expenses, as well as health care expenses subject to the Health Care inflation rate, are specifically noted.
  
  You're 90% Done!

   2. The Income Page

• For reference, there's an overview of the most common types of retirement savings accounts and their general rules.
• There's also a brief guide for entering the income and savings entries in the section below to help avoid any confusion (don't worry, it's easy!).

Enter the following, by spouse (if married), by year:

• The investment return % that you expect to earn on your retirement savings.
  The optional Conservative, Moderate, or Aggressive buttons will auto-fill the return % column for you, if desired, and you can still adjust by year!
• The amounts that you plan to contribute to Traditional and Roth 401k's and IRA's.
• Any Qualified Charitable Donations (QCD's) that you expect to use (after age 71) to lower an RMD and reduce your taxes.
• The amount that you expect your employer to contribute to your retirement savings (if they offer a matching funds policy).
• The amounts that you plan to contribute to a Health Savings Account (HSA) .
• Expected taxable income (e.g., wages, pensions, etc.). 

Entering this information by year allows you to easily model "what-if" scenarios using different income and contribution amounts for various time frames.
It's especially helpful to use varying return rates to test Sequence of Returns Risk at the very beginning of retirement.

• Optional - If needed, there are worksheets to help total multiple sources of income, including any non-taxable income.
• Transfer the total for each spouse to their main taxable income column (seen above) with the click of a button.

                              3. The Results Page

First, you will see the results for each spouse, by year, for:

• Taxable and interest income.
• Social Security income.
• Total Non-Retirement (cash/investment) savings balance.
• HSA savings balance.
• Traditional and Roth retirement savings balances (includes all contributions).
• Retirement savings distributions - based on total need, and proportional to both spouse's balances.
  Required Minimum Distributions (RMD's) are calculated automatically and will override needed distributions, if larger.
• Separate graphs illustrate each spouse's total savings balance over time. 

Finally, you will see the total results (combined for both spouses, if married), by year, for:

• Gross taxable income.
• Total non-retirement savings distributions.
• Total Traditional and Roth 401k/IRA savings distributions (includes RMD's).
• The Traditional and Roth 401k/IRA savings withdrawal rate (%).
• Total HSA distributions - used to pay HSA eligible expenses only.
• Total income (ordinary, Social, Security, non-taxable, and distributions) available for expenses.
• Total itemized expenses.
• Total Federal/State tax liability.
• Total expenses (itemized expenses plus taxes).
• Total non-retirement savings balances (cash/investments).
• Total Traditional and Roth 401k/IRA savings balances.
• Total HSA savings balances.
• Total Savings (non-retirement, retirement, HSA).
• An automatic alert to notify you if you will be affected by IRMAA!
• Federal tax deductions, and Child Tax Credit (if any).
• Separate graphs illustrate your total retirement savings over time, as well as the relationship of expenses to distributions.

Above the total results you will see the note that's most important to you - will your savings last as long as you need them to?
The planner uses a life expectancy of age 90 for this purpose, but still calculates all data (below the note) up to age 100 for reference.
If you have sufficient savings in the year when both spouses have reached age 90, it will tell you your savings balance for that year:

If you should come up short, it will tell you the year that your savings will run out, and how much more is needed. Don't despair! 
You'll be surprised at how just a few adjustments on the Expenses and/or Income pages (not just saving more) can make up
a large shortfall. After all, learning what adjustments are needed to reach your goals is the whole point of creating your plan!

That's how it all works! Easy to use, informative, and with clear instructions to help you every step of the way!

                        4. The Social Security Calculator (Optional)

                             5. Health Care