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Program Overview

The purpose of Retirement Planner is to assist you in understanding the financial resources you have available and to help you gain an idea of what expenses you will face when you retire. Once you understand where you are and where you are going you can develop a plan for the journey. Welcome again to Retirement Planner, lets get started.

You navigate in Retirement Planner with the toolbar buttons at the top of the screen. The Personal Data, Investment Data, Asset Worksheet, Income Worksheet and Expense Worksheet buttons take you directly to the appropriate screen so you can review or enter data. The Net Worth Timeline and Income/Expense Timeline screens present the values you have entered in graphical format. This graph presentation is easier and more intuitive than rows and columns of numbers.

Don't be intimidated by the number of entries you need to make. Each value by itself is simple to understand and available to you from your checkbook, investment statements, paycheck stubs or tax forms.

The first time you run Retirement Planner the program automatically runs the Personal Data Wizard. This wizard will assist you in gathering the information needed for the Personal Data and Investment Data screens.

The data entry process will flow easily if you take each screen in order, enter the data carefuly and review your entries for errors before moving on to the next screen.

If you gather your materials before you start you can enter the data in a half-hour or so. Once you have entered the raw data into the program you can examine the results and see where you are.

Start Date and End Date

The entry forms in the Asset, Income and Expense worksheets have a Start Date and an End Date for each item. You can use these dates to show when the associated item starts or stops. For example, if you are a homeowner with a mortgage you will make an entry on the Expense Worksheet under the Household tab for the House Payment. The entry will include the amount of the monthly payment and the date of the last payment. By giving the End Date for the payment you are telling the program that the expense will go away after that date. When the program accumulates a total for Expenses it will include the house payment up to (and including) that date and leave it out afterwards.

IMPORTANT You must enter an End Date for your job (The Wages, Tips and Salary entry under the Income Worksheet tab.) Retirement Planner does not assume you quit work on the date of your retirement. If you don't give an end date the program will assume you continue to work and continue to include your wages in your income. This would result in a significant error. The Retirement Date under the Personal Data shows when you start to receive Social Security benefits. It does not specify when you quit your main job.

Examples of items with start/stop dates are:
Item Monthly Amount Start Date End Date
Wages, Tips and Salary $3,200   6/30/2010
Part Time Job after Retirement $1,000 7/1/2010 6/30/2019
House Payment $1,273   6/15/2019
College Room/Board/Tuition/Books $1,000 9/1/2005 6/1/2009
Day Care for Ted $290   9/1/2005
Home Nursing Care for Dad $1,500   6/1/2009

Use Estimates for Quick Answers

If you have a good understanding of your current financial situation you can click on one (or all) of the boxes in the Quick and Easy Solution Estimate on the Personal Data screen.

When you enable these estimates the program ignores the values you have entered in the associated screen(s) and uses the value you provide.

Use Estimated Investments and Assets When you enable this estimate the values on Investment Data and Asset Worksheet screens are ignored.

This estimate should include the total value of all your investments and assets. This should include your 401(k), IRA, cash value pension, stocks, bonds, CDs, savings, home market value, etc. It should not include the value of a pension plan or annuity that will be paid out in monthly installments, those will be included in your income.

Using this estimate is less accurate because it treats your pre-tax and regular investments the same. In real life there is a significant difference in how these items are taxed.

Use Estimated Monthly Income When you enable this estimate the values on the Income Worksheet screen are ignored.

When enabled, this value is used as your earned income. The program assumes that this income stops when you begin to receive Social Security. If you are already retired you should leave the Estimated Monthly Income box unchecked.

If you are married, Retirement Planner assumes the income is evenly divided between you and your spouse. The half that is assigned to you is lost on your retirement date and the other half is lost on your spouse's retirement date. If you are single Retirement Planner assigns the entire income to you and you lose the entire amount on your retirement date.

Using this estimate will be less accurate when you have an income that starts or stops.

Use Estimated Monthly Income When you enable this option the values on the Expense Worksheet screen is ignored.

This estimate should include all your monthly expenses. A reasonable way to estimate it is to take your after tax income and subtract any long term investments you make. Divide by 12 to get the monthly figure.

This value will not be accurate unless your living expenses for the rest of your life are nearly constant. For most of us, this will not be the case. Our cost of living will decline as we get older and as we become less active. As we become elderly and frail our medical and living expenses will begin to increase.

[Home] [Registration] [Overview] [Entering Data] [Saving and Loading Files] [Personald Data] [Investment Data] [Asset Worksheet] [Income Worksheet] [Expense Worksheet] [Net Worth Timeline] [Income/Expense Timeline] [Printing] [Understanding Your Results] [Planning For Your Retirement]