Retirement factors, modeled

The planner models the federal rules that shape a U.S. retirement: taxes, Social Security, Medicare, healthcare — simplified and point-in-time. Then it stress-tests the result against decades of market history.

The details, modeled for comparison

Retirement factors modeled for comparison, year by year.

Income taxes

Estimates federal income tax under the modeled rules, including lower rates on long-term investment gains and surtaxes that apply at higher income levels. Point-in-time parameters, simplified; not a filing calculation.

Required withdrawals

Estimates required withdrawals from your retirement accounts using the birthdate and rule snapshot in your scenario, and builds them into the projection automatically.

Social Security

Your benefits, including spousal and survivor amounts and how they're taxed, plus a tool that compares modeled claim ages 62 to 70 under the objective you select.

Medicare surcharges

Higher incomes pay more for Medicare, through surcharges called IRMAA. The plan estimates potential surcharges using point-in-time thresholds.

Health-insurance subsidies

Retiring before Medicare? The plan estimates, under simplified rules, the health-insurance subsidies you might qualify for during the gap years.

Tax-aware withdrawals

Each withdrawal is adjusted for the taxes and surcharges it triggers, so your projection shows an estimated after-tax amount under simplified federal assumptions.

Roth conversions & income caps

Model moving money into Roth accounts in selected years, while holding your income under a cap you set, to manage taxes and keep health-insurance subsidies within reach, plus a break-even-rate tool that shows the modeled break-even result under the assumptions you select.

Charitable IRA gifts

From age 70½, send money directly from a traditional IRA to a qualified charity (a Qualified Charitable Distribution, or QCD). It counts toward your required withdrawal for the year but is left out of your taxable income, which can also help keep Medicare surcharges and health-insurance-subsidy cliffs out of the modeled result.

Compare Social Security claim ages

Claiming earlier or later can change lifetime income significantly. The built-in tool compares every claim age from 62 to 70, for both partners, and shows the combination with the highest modeled result under the objective you select.

Weighs both partners together
Compares against the goal you choose: largest modeled balance or highest modeled plan-success rate
Use a compared result in your scenario with a single click

Claim-age comparison

Social Security claim-age comparison; in this illustration age 70 has the highest modeled plan-success rate.
Claim age	Monthly	Plan success
62	$2,100	84%
67	$3,000	90%
70 Highest rate	$3,720	94%

Illustrative. The tool checks every age from 62 to 70.

Compare Roth conversions by break-even rate

Moving money from a traditional account to a Roth means paying tax now instead of later. The built-in tool calculates your break-even tax rate — the modeled point where converting no longer produces a better result — across four ways to cover the tax bill, with related effects on Social Security, Medicare, and health-insurance subsidies.

Weighs four ways to pay the conversion tax: from the IRA itself, from cash, or from a taxable account
Factors in related effects on Social Security taxes, Medicare surcharges, and health-insurance subsidies
One click adds a bracket-fill schedule to your scenario, either while you're working or in the years before required withdrawals begin

Break-even rate by tax-payment source

Roth conversion break-even tax rate by tax-payment source; paying from cash has the lowest break-even rate in this illustration.
Pay tax from	Break-even rate	Your bracket
The IRA itself	31%	24%
Tax-efficient account	19%	24%
Tax-inefficient account	23%	24%
Cash Lowest rate	16%	24%

Illustrative. Paying the tax from the IRA before 59½ also triggers the 10% early-withdrawal penalty, which the tool accounts for.

Three ways to project your plan

Compare planned returns, calculated historical returns, and a market-history stress test.

Planned

Each account grows at the return you set for it: your plan if your own estimates hold. The same inputs repeat the same result for a given version; accuracy depends on your assumptions.

Historical

Each account grows forward at the return calculated from its balance history. Accounts without a couple of years of history use your planned return.

Stress test

A 10,000-scenario simulation runs your plan through decades of historical market returns: a typical, a pessimistic, and a bad-luck outcome, with taxes accounted for, all in today's dollars.

Planned vs. account history

Your planned returns and calculated historical returns, side by side.

Planned return Your track record

The stress test

How often your plan succeeds across thousands of simulated market histories.

Range of outcomes Most likely Planned

Portfolio by account type 10-year view

Pre-tax Roth Taxable HSA Cash

Your whole portfolio, one model

Every account plays a different role and is taxed differently. The plan keeps your pre-tax, Roth, taxable, and cash buckets straight, because where your money sits changes how much you keep after tax.

Bring your plan together

From the accounts you hold to the report you print.

Scenarios

Start from one plan, then branch as many what-ifs as you like. Each tracks only what you changed, so comparisons focus on the differences between plans.

Ways to draw down

Five strategies for spending down your savings. Compare their modeled tax results side by side.

Projected withdrawals

Turns a projection into a year-by-year, account-by-account view: projected annual withdrawals by account, plus the resulting taxes and required withdrawals, and an estimated after-tax amount to spend. Not transaction, tax, RMD, Medicare, or ACA instructions. Included in your PDF report.

Supported account types

401(k)s, IRAs, Roth, brokerage, HSAs, pensions, and more, each with its own expected growth and investment mix.

Protected account floors

Set a minimum balance on an account, such as an emergency fund. The model applies the floor while recalculating projected flows around it; results remain estimates.

Historical account returns

Enter past balances and the plan calculates the historical rate of return for each account.

Spending & income

Map your must-have and nice-to-have spending, plus pensions, part-time work, and one-off windfalls.

Spending range check

Turn on an optional rule that reduces modeled spending after a poor market and eases up after a strong one; the stress test shows your plan with and without it. A companion live page compares your modeled funded ratio with thresholds you select — it does not direct spending.

Inflation by category

Set a separate inflation rate for each kind of spending, so fast-rising costs like healthcare are modeled on their own instead of buried in a single average. It carries through to the stress test.