What if I told you that there is a simple, but very robust one-tab Excel workbook that you can download that will take you about 15 minutes to complete each year and will provide you with data points that will enable you to determine important planning information for your entire period of retirement, such as:
- How much you can afford to spend each year (spending budget)
- How much to invest in risky vs. non-risky assets (investment strategy)
- Whether you should consider going back to work on a full or part-time basis
- Whether you should consider deferring your (or your spouse’s) Social Security benefit, and
- Whether (and by how much) you should consider changing your spending budget or investment strategy in response to favorable or unfavorable experience (such as higher-than-expected inflation or poor investment performance)
How much would you pay for this financial planning tool designed to help you develop a robust retirement plan?
But wait. There’s more. What if I told you that the workbook is based on the same proven actuarial principles and processes that actuaries use to develop funding requirements for defined benefit pension plans and for measuring the funded status of Social Security (and not based on rules of thumb like the 4% Rule)?
or,
What if I told you that you can get all this important information without having to run 100,000 simulations that enable you to develop questionable probabilities of success and provide limited planning guidance if future experience differs from assumed experience?
or,
What if I told you that this workbook can reflect all your retirement assets (including your home equity) and all your retirement liabilities (including expected long-term care costs)?
or,
What if I told you that you can easily change the input amounts/assumptions to make your plan more or less conservative or provide you with a range of results?
or,
What if I told you that you can easily modify future spending expectations (and therefore increase or decrease your current spending budget) by
- Distinguishing between essential and discretionary spending
- Distinguishing between recurring and non-recurring spending
- Employing different expected rates of future increases by type of expense, and
- Reflecting lower spending expectations after first death within the household
or,
What if I told you that your personal data and whatever you enter into the tool resides on your personal computer and is not accessible by us. You can save the workbook from year to year, print it out and make notes on it to be used in your next year’s planning.
Now, how much would you pay? Don’t answer.
Because we want to help people like you make better decisions in retirement, we make the Actuarial Financial Planners (AFP for Single Retirees and Retired Couples) available for free. You can download them from the “spreadsheets” section of our website. No tax, no shipping, no special handling charges.
