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As I approach retirement, I have utilized several free retirement calculators to help answer the question, “Can I retire?”. The exciting thing is they all seem to be confirming it’s okay for me to punch out when the time is right. Of course, like any model, these are only as good as the accuracy of the input and assumptions.
Below are the calculators I have used. Do you have any comments in general about these tools or have you used something you found useful that’s not on my list?
Fidelity Retirement Planner
Variable Percentage Withdrawal (VPW) Retirement Worksheet (created as a community effort by Bogleheads)
FI Calc
FIRECalc
Rich, Broke, or Dead? Post-retirement FIRE Calculator
I have been using ProjectionLab for the last 2 years and love it. Definitely recommend checking out/adding to list https://projectionlab.com/
I’m in my third year using Wealthtrace which they tout as more of a wealth tracking software than just financial planning or retirement planning. The Roth conversion tools were what got me to try them as that was the primary problem I was trying to solve for. I added New Retirement earlier this summer first to check the Roth results from Wealthtrace, but later to see the difference between the two. The Roth conversion tools in New Retirement were of little value for us because at this time I couldn’t choose which accounts you want to convert from and we exclusively want to convert my wifes IRA not mine at this time.
I do get comfort from the Monte Carlo analysis. I linked my brokerage to Wealthtrace to take advantage of how they use historical annual return and volatility for each holding (vs what appears to be user input and assumptions on other calculators). I will likely de-link changing my credentials and only link quarterly or semi-annually and then de-link to reduce the risk of theft and exposure as my portfolio doesn’t change significantly.
Respectfully, have you genuinely found the ongoing time spent using these tools to have guided your decisions to your ultimate financial benefit or are you looking for a comfort factor, etc? I started in pretirement with running the typical inputs, understanding that anything can happen at any time or sequence in any direction and magnitude. Is 85% probability comfortable? 95%? Honestly, while we’re each responsible for our managing our money, I’m finding that you can start to drive yourself crazy planning things to death when ultimately, nobody knows the future. If it gets to the day when you need to take your gold dust with you to buy groceries, we’ve got a whole different level of problems and confidence level. Hopefully, we never see that happen.
“…have you genuinely found the ongoing time spent using these tools to have guided your decisions to your ultimate financial benefit or are you looking for a comfort factor…”
Does it matter? Aren’t both of those things good?