Methodology

Indexed from 2026 law

Federal thresholds index; state and estate do not

The projection prices each future year at 2026 law grown at the plan's inflation rate: federal brackets, the standard deduction, the IRMAA income tiers and the poverty guidelines index the way the statutes do. State brackets, the estate exclusion and the Medicare surcharge dollars stay at 2026 values, so state and estate tax run higher, and far-year surcharges lower, than indexed law would charge. The Monte Carlo trials price each year as the projection does. The optimizer still prices every year at 2026 law.

Frozen at 2026 limits

Contribution ceilings never move

The 2026 ceilings apply in every future year — a 401(k) is capped at the same figure in 2056 as it is today. Only the age-based catch-up changes, and it changes with age rather than with the year.

Carried, not deposited

Your employer match

The plan holds your employer’s match and neither the projection nor the odds simulation pays it in, so no modelled balance grows by it.

Standard deduction only

Itemised deductions

Every year takes the standard deduction. Your mortgage interest is carried on the plan and never deducted, so modelled tax runs higher than an itemising household would owe.

Adults only

The benchmark health premium

Marketplace pricing counts your children toward household size and never toward the benchmark premium. In years that draw no subsidy the modelled premium is an adults-only policy.

Estimated from current pay

Your Social Security benefit

No earnings record is held, so the benefit is estimated from current pay rather than from the 35-year wage-indexed average the law uses. The estimate can land either side of the real figure.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

One return

Filing as an unmarried couple

You and your partner are not married, but the model prices one joint return for the two of you. Two separate returns are not modelled yet, so modelled tax can land either side of what you would owe.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

Fully taxable

What you paid into your pension

The whole pension is taxed as ordinary income. After-tax money you contributed to it is not modelled and there is no field that states it, which in most households means more modelled tax than the law charges.

Not applied

Your state’s pension exclusion

No state’s pension or retirement-income exclusion is modelled. Your state taxes the pension as ordinary income at its own rate, which for some states is more than the law charges.

Estimated

Rental depreciation

Depreciation is an estimate: a default share of the purchase price is treated as building, the purchase year is counted whole, and the land-to-building split your assessor uses is not read.

Premium only

Long-term care

The care itself is not modelled — no onset age, no daily rate, and nothing prices how likely it is. A premium you state is priced as a cost in every year the policy is held; choosing to self-insure records no reserve and prices nothing.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

Recorded, not modelled

Your pay beyond a salary figure

The model prices a salary and the date it stops, and nothing else about how you earn. What you told us here is held on the plan and reaches no modelled year — no vest is received, no bonus is added, no payout schedule is priced, and time away from work does not interrupt your pay.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

Recorded, not modelled

Money arriving that isn’t your pay

The model prices your pay, your Social Security, a pension, and an annuity, support, other income or an inheritance once it carries an amount and its dates. An item checked without its figures is held on the plan and reaches no modelled year, and your Social Security is computed as though every year you worked paid into it.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

Recorded, not modelled

Your spending beyond the figure on record

The model spends what your plan already holds, carried forward in real terms and adjusted for inflation; from your retirement year it spends the retirement level you chose instead, once that level has its figure. A level with no amount named, and marking support or giving, are held on the plan and reach no modelled year — the level does not replace the figure the model uses, and support or giving adds nothing to what the model spends.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

Recorded, not modelled

Where you will live later

Every modelled year is priced in the state your plan holds today. A move to another state reaches the model once it names the state and a year still to come; what you told us here names no such move yet, so it is held on the plan and reaches no modelled year.

Recorded, not modelled

What happens to the home

The model carries the home and its costs exactly as your plan already holds them, in every modelled year. What you told us here is held on the plan and reaches no modelled year — a sale reaches the model once it carries a sale year still to come, on this answer or on the property you hold, and none of these answers changes what is paid against the mortgage.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

Recorded, not modelled

What goes into your accounts, and what comes out

The model grows every balance your plan holds, and deposits into your accounts by whichever rule your plan sets — the rates you stated, or the Flows rules that replace them. Without Flows rules, what a year leaves after tax, spending and those deposits goes into your first brokerage account; with no account on record, into the brokerage account the model assumes; and with accounts but no brokerage account among them, into none. What you told us here is held on the plan and reaches no modelled year — nothing raises a contribution to its legal limit, no employer match is paid in, and an HSA is never drawn on, whichever way you use one.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

Recorded, not modelled

Borrowing you expect later

The model carries the debts your plan already lists and applies the payment you stated to each of them from the first modelled year. What you told us here is held on the plan and reaches no modelled year — a debt has a balance, a rate and a term but no year it begins, so borrowing you expect later has nowhere to arrive.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

Recorded, not modelled

Tax facts your plan’s own figures do not carry

The model taxes the gains your plan realizes and never nets a capital loss against them. What you told us here is held on the plan and reaches no modelled year — no loss carried forward offsets a gain in any year, and a qualified charitable distribution is priced only as a giving event entered by hand, carrying the amount and the year this question does not ask for.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

Recorded, not modelled

What you want, and what you would do

The model runs one plan against the horizon and the assumptions you set, and reports how it fares. What you told us here is held on the plan and reaches no modelled year — no priority changes what the model gives up first, no bar decides whether a result counts as working, no balance is protected as a bequest, and how you say you would react to a fall changes nothing you hold.

Setup keeps an answer in this area that no modelled year reads.

SEPP / 72(t) schedules

A substantially equal periodic payment schedule on a retirement account is not shown in this release; a plan that holds one is projected without its page.

Inherited IRAs

The ten-year window and required distributions of an inherited IRA are not shown in this release; no account type for one is offered.

The 529 funding panel

The panel that reads a 529 against an education event — basis, earnings, rollover room — is not shown in this release; the projection still draws a 529 toward the education costs of the beneficiary it names, and still counts its state deduction.

The vehicle form

The form that enters a vehicle purchase or lease is not shown in this release; a vehicle already in a plan is still projected.

The custom event form

The detailed one-off expense form is not shown in this release; one-off expenses are entered in setup, under “What life costs later” at “Any large one-off expenses ahead?”