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Understand what the results mean.

The current engine is an annual illustration using fixed nominal returns after fees and an inflation assumption. It totals the accounts you mark available for retirement, then allocates the annual cash flows by your chosen withdrawal priorities. Every account uses the same annual return, including optional return-period overrides; changing the order changes individual balances, not the combined projection. Contributions are added before retirement; retirement spending and active recurring income follow the entered ages.

Optional market what-if periods replace the base nominal return after fees at the primary person’s entered ages, including both endpoints. They can run before or during retirement and cannot overlap. Outside those ages, the base return applies. All accounts use the same annual return. The comparison keeps all other inputs unchanged and removes only these overrides. This tests a user-defined path, not a probability, forecast or Monte Carlo simulation.

Spending phases adjust the full base budget, including your tax allowance and buffer. Additional cash-flow expenses and proceeds affect the portfolio at the ages entered, including before retirement. Unknown amounts should remain blank. Avoid entering the same expense in both the base budget and an additional cash flow.

In the original cash-flow mode, taxes are only the allowance you enter; federal tax and RMDs are not calculated. The optional federal mode described below adds its limited regular federal-tax and owner-IRA calculation. State tax and eligible Roth conversions require their supported optional modes. Withdrawal eligibility or penalties, contribution limits, Social Security eligibility or benefit adjustments, survivor changes, estate taxes and market probabilities are not calculated.

In the original member-plan mode, lower withdrawal priority numbers are used first, followed by blank priorities in the order shown, then Unassigned funds. Choose destinations for annual savings and any net surplus under Accounts & saving. A deleted or unavailable destination routes its deposits to Unassigned funds. Those funds are a planning bucket, not a real account. Surplus income and proceeds are deposited only after that year’s expenses are offset.

Original-mode account types do not enforce legal or tax rules. Federal mode requires the supported classifications and confirmations described below. Consult your plan documents and the IRS distribution guidance and RMD information when reviewing eligibility and obligations.

The funding timeline can display today’s or future dollars; today’s dollars remove the entered inflation assumption. Annual and account CSV downloads always contain future nominal USD, with the run date and model version. CSV reports are for review in spreadsheet software; use a full JSON backup to restore your plan.

Portfolio charts show future-dollar portfolio balances. Income-gap summaries use the base budget in today’s dollars. An ending portfolio balance is not an after-tax estate estimate.

Taxable brokerage accounts

Federal mode supports an explicit long-term, gain-only proportional-sale approximation. Enter opening market value and adjusted cost basis under Accounts → Tax details, then confirm the scope. Each sale removes a proportional share of basis and taxes only the gain through the federal capital-gain calculation. Basis carries forward annually. Returns represent price appreciation only; enter cash dividends/interest separately, using the qualified-dividend classification where appropriate. Do not duplicate income or assume distributions are reinvested.

Short-term gains, losses/carryovers, tax-lot selection, wash sales and special-rate assets are excluded. The model stops if basis exceeds market value, including after an adverse return. The strategy cash-out comparison includes remaining unrealized brokerage gains. This is a planning approximation, not tax-lot accounting.

Former-employer 401(k)/403(b) accounts

Federal mode supports confirmed fully pretax, fully vested original-participant accounts after employment ended before 2026. Set the owner and select the former-employer Uniform Lifetime rule under Tax details. Confirm the plan allows the modeled flexible withdrawals and has no special pre-1987 403(b) treatment, loan, annuity or employer-stock tax treatment. Each plan takes its minimum from that account; no aggregation, deferral, rollover or plan-to-Roth conversion is modeled. After-tax/mixed, inherited and still-working cases require separate rules. Roth workplace accounts remain unsupported.

Modeled spending capacity

In Results, select Calculate spending capacity. The solver searches whole annual dollars for the largest base budget the current annual projection can fund, with no modeled shortfall or unmet required distribution and with the optional ending investment target preserved. It changes only a temporary aggregate base budget, keeping your income, account order, contributions, returns, inflation, spending phases and extra cash flows fixed. Your working expense rows stay unchanged.

The amount includes your expense buffer, in today’s USD. Phase percentages adjust that base; extra expenses remain additional. In the original mode, taxes are only your budget allowance. Federal mode keeps its entered federal-only allowance fixed, removes it before testing the base budget, and funds calculated regular federal tax separately. The ending target is an investment balance in today’s dollars, not an after-tax estate.

A fixed-scenario boundary is not guaranteed or recommended spending and does not estimate a probability of success. The spending search holds the current account order and any applied conversion schedule fixed. It does not itself optimize lifetime tax or Social Security timing. A market return, inflation or longevity change can materially change capacity. Blank expense rows, zero-budget infeasibility and unsupported inputs prevent a quoted result. The search ceiling is $100 million per year; results at that ceiling are not called a maximum.

Withdrawal and eligible Roth conversion comparisons

The strategy tool keeps income and spending fixed and tests up to six fixed cash/pretax/Roth category orders. Within-category order is retained, supported IRA minimums occur first, and the reinvested cash bucket remains last. Optionally test no conversion and one-quarter, one-half or all of an entered annual conversion cap, from the current primary age through an entered final age. The engine caps each conversion at the available source balance after required distributions.

Conversions are internal transfers, not spending cash. Fully pretax converted amounts enter ordinary taxable income, and withdrawals needed to pay the resulting tax are solved together. Source: eligible fully pretax original-owner traditional IRA only. Target: same-owner existing qualified Roth IRA. The user must confirm no nondeductible IRA basis across that owner’s IRAs, including accounts outside the plan. SEP/SIMPLE sources, workplace/inherited plans and unqualified/new Roth cases are excluded.

Only strategies funding all modeled years are eligible to rank first. Ranking compares final-year money after a hypothetical cash-out of all remaining pretax IRAs on that year’s modeled tax return. This is a consistent what-if, not an after-tax estate estimate; spreading withdrawals over later years or inherited-account rules can change results. Projected taxes during retirement are shown separately in today’s USD. Ending portfolio, extra hypothetical tax and post-cash-out value are future USD.

The tool identifies the best strategy in its finite tested set. It does not search every possible annual path or prove a global optimum. Optional Medicare surcharges within the horizon use the two-year income lookback and frozen 2026 tables. Optional state income tax currently covers Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming and limited Pennsylvania retirement cases with residency held fixed. Unsupported state/local and additional federal taxes, tax-lot/loss basis and survivor cases remain outside the current engine. Apply changes only modeled priorities/conversion settings after confirmation; no transaction is made. An applied schedule can be removed under scenario assumptions.

Social Security comparisons

Compare two or three user-entered own-record retirement estimates for one selected person who has not claimed. The household must already be retired. Estimates must use the same future-earnings assumptions and today’s dollars; benefits are not inferred from claiming age. Each scenario replaces the selected income row’s amount and start age, preserving its end age, inflation setting and all other household inputs. The working plan changes only when Apply is selected.

Claiming ages are whole ages 62–70, at or after the person’s current age. Each starting-age year includes 12 months of benefits, so the results are annual illustrations rather than exact first-payment schedules. The chart totals gross benefits in today’s purchasing power through the entered horizon. Its crossover excludes tax, investment returns and survivor benefits. Portfolio/tax totals are future nominal USD; regular federal tax is recalculated only when federal mode is active.

Spousal/survivor coordination, benefit eligibility, earnings-test reductions, retroactive claims, suspension and exact claiming months are not calculated. The person must not need an earnings-test reduction. Review estimates with SSA’s personal benefit calculators ↗. Open comparisons →

Optional federal projection mode

For an already-retired Single household of one person or joint household of two spouses, all at least age 60 in 2026. Starting balances must be December 31, 2025 valuations. Classify every recurring income source and confirm supported account rules: fully pretax original-owner traditional/SEP/SIMPLE IRAs under the Uniform Lifetime table, qualified original-owner Roth IRAs, and taxable cash/savings. Short-term/loss brokerage cases, mixed/after-tax IRA basis, workplace/inherited accounts and special spouse/birth-year RMD cases are excluded.

Growth is applied to opening balances. Required IRA distributions are taken first, then additional withdrawals in your entered order are solved together with regular federal tax. Any cash surplus is deposited into taxable savings, whose interest is taxed in following years. Enter the federal-only portion already in your monthly budget so it can be removed before the buffer, inflation and spending phases. Keep other tax and healthcare costs in the budget. Year-end distributions, no first-year deferral or overdue amounts, and no IRA aggregation are assumed.

2026 nominal tax brackets and standard deductions are held fixed for future years; the enhanced senior deduction stops after 2028. Only standard-deduction regular federal income tax is calculated. Optional state income tax covers Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming and limited Pennsylvania retirement cases only. No unsupported state/local tax, payroll/self-employment tax, AMT, NIIT, credits or comprehensive withdrawal optimization is included. Optional Medicare surcharges use historical 2024/2025 MAGI then projected income from two years earlier, with 2026 thresholds and charges frozen. Standard premiums stay in the budget; partial-year coverage, appeals, assistance and post-horizon surcharges are excluded. Eligible Roth conversions are modeled only within the disclosed strategy scope. Cash-event proceeds remain net of your separately estimated costs/taxes. Review available scope →

Owner-IRA minimum planning

The separate IRA worksheet starts with a December 31, 2025 valuation, calculates a supported original-owner IRA’s annual minimum, and illustrates future years using the entered return. It uses the Uniform Lifetime table where applicable and rounds targets upward to cents. Owner Roth IRAs have no lifetime RMD in this illustration. It calculates one IRA at a time; it does not aggregate multiple accounts or transfer any money.

Future rows hold current supported beginning-age rules and factors constant, apply growth to the opening balance and take modeled withdrawals at year end. Already-allocated qualifying distributions apply to 2026 only. Inherited accounts, workplace-plan exceptions, younger sole-beneficiary spouse tables, annuities, prior deferred/overdue amounts, death-year rules, tax, penalties and the future starting-age case for a 1959 birth year are not automatically modeled.

Open IRA minimum planning → · IRS distribution rules and tables ↗

Questions about CYF