Overview
The Retirement Planner is a tool that allows you to explore different scenarios for retirement savings. Once you plug in the data, such as your current investments, your planned contributions, and your living expenses and income after retirement, you will see a projection graphed for you. You can enter different data to see how different decisions will impact your projected savings at retirement!
To access the Retirement Planner, navigate to the Savings Goals page, and then click on the Retirement Planner tab! This feature is currently available on the Quicken Simplifi Web App.
Note: The Retirement Planner is intended as an exploratory tool. It provides a rough estimation and should not be utilized solely for retirement planning decisions.
Entering Data - Advanced
The Advanced option gives you more fields to work with, such as being able to separate tax and tax-deferred balances and contributions, account for expected annual increases of contributions, as well as set your own inflation rate.
Age: Enter your current age.
Already taxed investment balance: Input the total from investment accounts in which money has already been taxed, such as Roth IRAs and brokerage account balances.
Tax-deferred investment balance: Input the total from tax-deferred accounts in which money has not been taxed, such as traditional IRAs and 401k account balances.
Annual taxable contributions: Input the total contributed annually to accounts with after-tax income, such as Roth IRAs.
Annual tax-deferred contributions: Input the total contributed annually to accounts with pre-tax income, such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s, in which taxes are typically deferred until retirement when you withdraw.
Expected annual increase of contributions: Select the expected annual growth rate of your contributions.
Retirement age: Enter the age you expect to retire at.
Life expectancy: A wide variety of factors impact an individual's expected lifespan. You can use the linked calculator to calculate life expectancy for yourself.
Annual living expenses: Input your expected annual expenses post-retirement. This amount will be deducted from your retirement savings each year in the calculation.
Annual retirement income: Input any expected income from social security or any post-tax non-investment income.
Inflation rate: The default inflation rate is set to 3%, but you can change this to any number of your choosing.
Pre-retirement investment returns: Select your expected return on investments pre-retirement.
Post-retirement investment returns: Select your expected return on investments post-retirement.
Pre-retirement tax rate: Enter your current tax rate. This is typically higher during your working years than in retirement.
Post-retirement tax rate: Enter the tax rate you expect after retiring. This is usually lower than pre-retirement rates since your income can decrease.
Entering Data - Basic
Using the Basic option simplifies the data needed for the projection, such as combining your current tax and tax-deferred investments into one.
Age: Enter your current age.
Current investments: Input your total investments, including both taxable and tax-deferred accounts.
Annual investment contribution: Input the total contributed annually, including both taxable and tax-deferred accounts.
Retirement age: Enter the age you expect to retire at.
Life expectancy: A wide variety of factors impact an individual's expected lifespan. You can use the linked calculator to calculate life expectancy for yourself.
Annual living expenses: Input your expected annual expenses post-retirement. This amount will be deducted from your retirement savings each year in the calculation.
Annual retirement income: Input any expected income from social security or any post-tax non-investment income.
Investment returns: Select your expected return on investments.
Pre-retirement tax rate: Enter your current tax rate. This is typically higher during your working years than in retirement.
Post-retirement tax rate: Enter the tax rate you expect after retiring. This is usually lower than pre-retirement rates since your income can decrease.
Using the Retirement Planner
As you plug data into either form as outlined above, you will immediately see the change reflected in the graph. You can easily play around with all different kinds of data points to see how each change can impact your retirement savings!
You will also see high and low estimates (90th percentile and 10th percentile) alongside your plotted line, and you can even adjust the future amounts displayed for inflation. With these additional customizations, you can easily plan for all different kinds of retirement scenarios!
If you have any questions about using the Retirement Planner in Quicken Simplifi, our Support Team is happy to help!