Why Is It Called The Complete Retirement Planner
TCRP is a unique financial planning tool that incorporates technical and educational features that simply won’t be found elsewhere.⢠Interview style questions, with explanatory notes, easily guide you through the set-up, providing an unparalleled ease of use. ⢠Clear educational notes on complex topics help to inform you. ⢠Flexibility in entering variable income, expenses, investment returns, savings, and one time events allows for individual needs. ⢠Critical variables that are often ignored by other planning tools, but have a big impact on results, are accounted for .⢠A high level of clarity and detail in the results provides transparency into how it all works from start to finish, making it truly “complete”.
These are the combined features that set TCRP apart from all other financial planning tools:⢠Entries for: multiple sources of annual income , non-retirement cash/investment savings balances and expected interest/return rates for before and after retirement, retirement savings balances/contributions/annual return rates, HSA balance and contributions, desired retirement age and Social Security claiming age. Entering this information by spouse provides a great deal of flexibility andis essential for accuracy!
⢠The ability to itemize current and futureexpenses, and how those amounts may change over different time frames. This determines actual need, by year. For greater accuracy, fixed expenses are not inflation adjusted! This detail is significant.
A Little Goes A Long Way
Whether you are just entering the workforce or are far along the path to retirement, these retirees valuable insights shouldnt be overlooked. Many of them underscore the importance of financial literacy. If more people were educated on topics such as investing, compound interest and employee benefits, nearly half of the population might not be looking at impoverished retirement.
Take a moment to evaluate where you stand financially and be honest with yourself. Knowing where you are relative to where you need to be can make all the difference in the long run. Hard numbers can be scary, but they can also spark action that will completely transform your future.
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Where Did The Idea For The Complete Retirement Planner Come From
I was searching for a comprehensive retirement planning tool to help me plan for retirement. I couldnt find one that accounted for enough personal information, provided a year by year plan, had flexibility, and that didnt use assumptions that didnt apply to me. Then I found out that 74% of households dont have a written retirement plan, and I knew why while theres lots of advice about planning for retirement, there are virtually no in-depth tools that help put that advice to work . Everyone benefits from having a solid financial plan, but its complicated to figure out, and people need help. My solution was to create the most thorough, easy to use, and affordable retirement planning tool possible.
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Digging Deeper Into Newretirement
As the dashboard implies, NewRetirement features 33 different retirement planning sections divided into ten broad categories.
In each section, you can enter data and/or change assumptions. If all of this were dumped on the user at once, it’d be overwhelming. Fortunately, it’s a step-by-step process that never gets out of control.
The ten main categories that NewRetirement tackles are:
- Medical and long-term care. As you probably know, medical costs are one of the fastest-rising yet most oft-overlooked chunks of the average American budget. NewRetirement includes an entire section for modeling current and future health-care costs.
- Debts. NewRetirement allows you to list all of your current debt .
- Estate planning. This section doesn’t have a lot of resources but offers a bit of information. Plus, it lets you track whether you’ve completed important estate-planning documents.
Nearly every step of the way, NewRetirement offers you the ability to learn more about relevant topics. For instance, when you enter your expected longevity, NewRetirement links you to a life-expectancy calculator and suggests five related articles.
As you tick boxes indicating that you’d like to learn more about a particular topic, relevant articles are added to the info and opportunities tab in the main menu. This is an excellent, useful feature, something I’ve never seen in another retirement tool.
How Should I Estimate Inflation
The third assumption inflation is total nonsense. Yet, financial planners guess at it every day by applying a linear projection of the past.
Making this assumption is absurd. Even PhD economists cant accurately calculate inflation for one year into the future. Yet somehow, youre supposed to forecast inflation 20-30 years into the future. It makes no sense.
The conventional wisdom is to assume 3% inflation based on recent history . The problem is government debt, entitlement programs, bank bailouts, and QE2, 3, and so on have all become substantial problems compared to the recent past, and dont bode well for future inflation.
Nobody has a crystal ball, but logic indicates mindless extrapolation of the recent past may not be applicable to the future.
In addition, you dont have to stretch much farther back in time to find a dramatic contradiction to the 3% assumption. Prices doubled in the 1970s, cutting purchasing power in half.
Until Paul Volcker got things under control, inflation was a real problem in this country for a decade and a half.
The key point is you cant estimate inflation for 30+ years into the future with any degree of accuracy or confidence.
Its impossible because so much will change between now and then, creating unforeseeable circumstances that will determine the result. Yet, retirement calculators require you to guess anyway.
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Personal Capitals Retirement Planner Or Simple Calculator
Personal Capital has made its name as the one-stop-shop for all of your financial needs, and that includes helping you to calculate your retirement number with their Retirement Planner feature or simple calculator.
When you sign up with Personal Capital, you start by connecting your financial accounts, including your bank accounts, investments, mortgage, credit card, and any other accounts.
The Retirement Planner will use your actual financial data from the accounts youve linked to the Personal Capital Dashboard to show you how prepared you are for retirement based on your ideal target retirement date.
Dont feel like doing the whole planning scenario? Try their simple retirement calculator.
Additionally, you can use the Investment Checkup feature that asks you to create a basic risk profile, pick a target retirement date, and your projected income sources, and the program will recommend a portfolio for you. Finally, there is a fee analyzer that can help you to understand the fees you are paying on your current investments.
- Pros: Personal Capital uses real data instead of assumptions. Its also an easy program to learn and use.
- Cons: You have to sign up for an account in order to use any of their tools.
- Pricing: Free after email signup.
- Test Results: Retire in 31 years using the simple calculator.
Get started with Personal Capital or read our full Personal Capital review.
Enter Current And Estimated Income
The next step is stating your current monthly income and estimated annual income until you reach retirement age.
You can fine-tune your active and passive income streams after completing the initial questionnaire. PlannerPlus members can define a specific annual percent change for a precise projection.
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Newretirement Review: An Excellent Retirement Tool
Updated: by Financial Samurai
If theres one thing I love to do, its plan for retirement before retirement and during retirement. The more you can plan for retirement, the more retirement success you will likely have.
In the old days, I would write everything out on a spreadsheet and update each line item every month. Fortunately, more fintech companies are taking the guesswork out of retirement planning.
One such firm thats making headway in the space is NewRetirement. This is my NewRetirement review for all of you looking for a great retirement planning tool. Both my wife and I sat down and reviewed the product together.
The Flexible Retirement Planner
If you are looking for a downloadable retirement tool that gets more in-depth, the Flexible Retirement Planner may be the retirement calculator you need. Available as a downloadable tool now, Flexible allows you to input just about any financial details to create a better picture of your retirement savings.
Flexible Retirement Planner uses Monte Carlo Simulation, which is a method to assess risk and uncertainty. Using this method with retirement planning allows you to see all potential outcomes, good and bad, so you have a better idea of where you stand financially. One nice feature is they allow you to adjust the Monte Carlo Simulations sensitivity.
- Pros: Flexible Retirement Planner gives you a very detailed picture of your retirement plan.
- Cons: Its a bit dated in format. If you want a quick snapshot of your retirement savings, Flexible Retirement Planner isnt the right retirement calculator. There are plenty of other calculators listed that would be a better choice.
- Test Results: Unable to test.
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Retirees Confess What They Wish Theyd Done With Their Money
Retirement is the culmination of decades of financial decisions, and the unfortunate truth is that some of those decisions arent always good. This is exceedingly common, in fact. At present, millions of Americans are making financial choices that will hurt them down the road. According to a GOBankingRates survey, an alarming 64% of Americans will retire broke.
T Rowe Price Retirement Income Calculator
With the T.Rowe Price Retirement Income Calculator, you input income sources such as Social Security and pensions, as well as asset values, and it projects the likelihood that your plan is sustainable through life expectancy. It also provides suggestions to make your plan sustainable.
Overall Score: Fair, scoring 2.2 out of 3
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A Look Inside Newretirements Retirement Planner
Curious what the NewRetirement Planner looks like? Heres a glance at the signup process and a sample output.
In my demo, I used the following inputs for future retiree William, who lives in a coastal city with his spouse and two young children.
- William is 38 with longevity age goal of 88
- Spouse Helen is 36 with a longevity age goal of 92
- They have 2 young children in daycare/preschool
- Both plan to earn $150,000 in compensation until age 55 and then retire
- Their combined savings is $200,000 in retirement accounts plus $50k in cash and investments
- They own a home worth ~$1.2mil, paid 20% down, purchased 3 years ago
- Mortgage balance of $726,000 at 2.6%, $6,500 monthly payments
- $8,800 in monthly expenses
Newretirement Advisors: Work With A Fee
A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER is a professional fiduciary, meaning the advice offered is entirely professional and for your own best interests.
Financial advice can be expensive, but NewRetirement Advisors keeps your costs low through effective use of technology: zoom meetings, electronic communications, and collaborative use of the NewRetirement Planner.
Set up your engagement with as much support as you need from annual meetings to on demand questions and phone calls covering any and all aspects of your money. Learn more or book your free discovery session.
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What Funds Should You Buy
There are a variety of funds types to consider when saving for retirement. Here are the most popular options.
Actively managed mutual funds
These funds have been around for decades and are still the most-popular kind of security among retail investors. They hold a variety of stocks or bonds, and sometimes both, in one investment vehicle. Mutual funds are ideal for people who don’t want to choose their own stocks. Instead, a professional fund manager can do it for you. If you want to own a bunch of international stocks, but don’t want to pick individual companies, then buy an international stock fund. The same goes for tech stocks, U.S. stocks and corporate bonds there’s a fund for everything. The main drawbacks are fees and flexibility. Because someone else is doing the stock picking, fees are higher on actively managed mutual funds than on other kinds of investment vehicles. You also can’t buy or sell them during the day as they’re only priced after the market closes.
Index funds
Exchange-traded funds
Target date funds
Build your portfolio
A lot of people like investing on their own, but when it comes to retirement savings it’s a good idea to work with a financial advisor who has a certified financial planning designation. Here are a few things to look for in a good advisor.
Think about fees
Betterment Retirement Savings Calculator
Betterment is another leading financial advisor and investment provider offering a great retirement calculator.
As with most other retirement calculators, enter your basic information and check out Betterments analysis. Then, think about starting a retirement plan through Betterment if you like the experience.
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Newretirements Retirement Calculator And Planner
No matter the retirement question, this site likely has a calculator to help you find the answer.
The Simple Retirement Calculator by NewRetirement gives you a quick assessment of your current retirement savings. It shows you how long your money will last for you and your spouse at a set level of spending in retirement.
This simple calculator includes space for Social Security retirement income, as well as pension or annuities if you know that you can count on them.
Conveniently, you can make changes to the monthly amount you believe you will need in retirement. This helps you see how your spending affects the health of your retirement savings.
Once youve tried the simple calculator be sure to use the full NewRetirement Planner.
The NewRetirement Planner allows you to build, monitor, and maintain a full retirement plan. This helps you to get organized, monitor your situation, make informed decisions and take actions with your:
- Social Security
- Insurance, Work, Debt, and Estate Planning
- Savings/Investing
NewRetirement also offers a Social Security calculator, which can help you figure out the optimal time for you to take your Social Security retirement benefits.
Their Lifetime Annuity Calculator calculates how much retirement annuity income your savings could buy.
NewRetirement offers several other calculators that will help you to determine the best financial course for your retirement.
NewRetirement is being developed by Stephen Chen.
New Retirements Simple Retirement Calculator
New Retirements Simple Retirement Calculator is as advertised: simple. Although it lacks the fancy design or graphics, this calculator gives you a quick assessment of your current retirement savings, showing how long your money will last in retirement at a set level of spending in retirement.
Additionally, the New Retirement Planner contains a number of resources for retirement planning. Once you create a profile and enter information about your financial goals, youll be given suggestions. Results are provided in a format that is goals-focused, with a timeline showing how close you are from exiting the workforce within your specified time horizon. There are also suggestions for next steps in addition to a thorough analysis of your retirement situation. The overall flow and interface of the website, and inputting the information, makes the experience more user friendly for a person with basic retirement and investment knowledge.
The Planner allows you to input the value of your home and other assets while also incorporating debt, annuities, medical expenses, net worth, and estate planning. One thing I really liked was alternating from optimistic and pessimistic rates of returns on your investments and savings accounts, providing a truly holistic understanding of various investment scenarios.
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Calculate Your Retirement Savings And More
Do you know what it takes to work towards a secure retirement? Use this retirement calculator to create your retirement plan. View your retirement savings balance and calculate your withdrawals for each year. Social security is calculated on a sliding scale based on your income. Including a non-working spouse in your plan increases your social security benefits up to, but not over, the maximum.
The Best Retirement Calculators
As American workers began to shoulder more of the responsibility for funding their retirement, retirement calculators proliferated across the Internet. A Google search for online retirement calculator garners tens of thousands of hits. People are anxious about their retirement readiness, concerned about whether they will have enough money to last through their lifetime.
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Make Sure The App Offers Support
When it comes to any software solution, youll eventually have a question that will require support. And when this happens, youll need access to a live agent.
Check and see what types of support options are available before using a platform.
Often, companies restrict support, making it difficult to resolve issues. If customer service isnt a top priority, move onto another provider.
Learn How To Make Money Doing What You Love
Robert Sullivan, a retired senior financial analyst, said he would tell his younger self to follow your dream with your career but seek expert advice so you have a solid foundation on which you can base your abilities and can learn how to make a living doing what you love.
In doing so, you might even be able to carry your passion into retirement while still making money through it.
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