Welcome to retPlan: a financial retirement planner & simulator. retPlan allows you to specify a variety of details of your financial status as you approach and enter retirement. With this information, and your guesses as to future economic conditions (such as interest rates and inflation rates), retPlan will track your financial status over time. To use retPlan, you need to specify 4 classes of entries:

Expenses	Living expenses when you are retired (food, enterainment, health insurance, etc.)
Income	Income streams when you are retired (social security, pension, part time jobs, etc.)
Assets	Current financial assets (bank accounts, mutual funds, 401ks, etc.)
Investments	Current and future investments, which can involve loans & liabilities (mortgages, automobiles, education expenses, etc.)

You can also use

Goals	Define goals that can be used to include (or exclude) sets of entries
General	Specify general parameters (such as your current age, and the average inflation rate)
Main	View year-by-year schedules of your income, expenses -- and show how your assets change in response!
Scenarios	For added flexiblity, you can specify different scenarios. Each scenario can be a bit different (say, dropping a few entries); or it can be completely different (say, with different general parameters).

Sprinkled throughout retPlan are a fair number of help links, that look like these buttons and these links. Click either of these, and this popup window appears, with hints & tips specific to the topic.

The following icons appear at the top, or side, of the window:

	Click this to close the help window. You can also close the help window by hitting the ESC key!
	Click to display this (topic specific) help message in a new window. Note that the styling might be a bit rough (some of the shadings and indentations will be missing).
	Used to resize the popup window: depress this button, and then move your mouse (while keeping the button depressed). Alas, you can't make the the help window larger than the retPlan window.
	Used to move the popup window: depress this button, and then move your mouse (while keeping the button depressed). Alas, you can't move the help window outside of the retPlan window.
↥	This will take you to the summary help page; which contains brief descriptions, and links, to the main features of retPlan
	This will display a clickable menu of retPlan help topics
⎙	Click this to display the help topics in a seperate window (or tab). You can view just one help topic at a time, or view them all at once

What are entries? An entry is simply a set of information describing an item -- such as an expense, an income, an asset, or a investment.
You can specify as many, or as few, entries as you wish -- the idea is to capture the fundamental features of your life, but without the need to go into deep detail. Basically, each entry is tracked over time. If different things behave differently (i.e.; different financial assets have very different interest rates), having an entry for each of these "things" is useful. But if they behave similarly (i.e.; different kinds of food purchase have the same inflation rate), it might be easier to combine them into one entry.

Entries from each of these classes has its own set of variables. But they all share some common variables:

Name	A one-word name.
subname	A secondary name. This is optional -- you can use it for finer breakdowns. For example, you might have several expenses with a name of markets, with subnames like supermarket, farmersMarket, cheeseStore, etc. Note that the combination of a name and a subname identifies an entry. The one exception is income entries (which also require a special ageRetire variable).
Group	For display purposes, entries are combined into groups. For example, a food group could contain the above examples, along with entries with names of lunchTruck and automat. In addition, sub-totals are computed for all entries in a group -- for example: for all of the food entries. In many places you can choose to display all the entries, or (to save screen space) just group summaries. Thus, the use of names, subnames, and groups is a matter of taste and convenience. It's probably a good idea not to have more than a dozen groups in any one class -- more than that and summaries of just the groups can get longish.
Goals	All entries are assigned a goal. By default (if you don't bother specifying a goal), the core goal is used. goals are used to quickly drop (or retain) sets of entries. This provides a very convenient way to see what happens when some stuff isn't done (or is done). For example, you may identify a luxuryLiving goal, that includes expenses like theaterSubscription, bigParties, and seasonTickets. If your finances might be tight, you can quickly include (or exclude) these entries by activating (or deactivating) the the luxuryLiving goal. Of course, you could always do the same thing by deleting an entry. But then, if you wanted to put them back in, you would have to re-enter the information. Thus, the use of goals is a convenient shortcut.
Value	The value is a dollar amount. It means ... expenses : The yearly cost (of this item). income: yearly payments from this income Assets: current value of the asset Investment: price (or resale value) of the investment

Note: the name, subname, group, and goal can only be one word (no embedded spaces), and can only contain alphabetical characters (a to z, and A to Z), numeric digits (0 to 9), and the underscore (_). They can be up to 40 characters long, and are case insensitive.

The view feature (on the expenses, income, assets, investments, and goals pages) will display a table of all entries; with each row used for one entry. In the first (or 2nd) column is a checkbox. You can use these to modify, delete, or export one (or more) entries you select using the checkboxes.

modify	The contents of the checked entries will be inserted into the bulk entries edit form. You can the change them, and save the results. Or you can change their names: when you save the results, new entries will be created
delete	The checked entries will be deleted, and the table of entries updated. You will be asked to confirm this deletion (a list of the names of the chosen entries will be displayed).
export	The contents of the checked entries will be converted into a CSV file, and displayed in a popup window. You can view this, or cut and paste it to a text file or a spreadsheet. Or, click on the ⌮ to download it to a file. This requires some server help, so you will see your browser's file download alert box, using a default name that describes what you are downloading. Note: the CSV entries can be imported back into retPlan -- using Enter using CSV under bulk -- just cut and paste it to the textarea box.

The expense class of entries expense are used to specify recurring expenses -- things that you purchase at a more-or-less constant level every year. This can include food, health insurance, gasoline, utilities, real estate taxes, entertainment, vacations, clothing, etc etc etc.

It should not include one-time expenses. And, in particular, it should not include loan payments. Those should be specified under investments.

The Expenses page is used to specify expenses. Basically, for each expense you specify several variables. The expenses page contains help buttons that provide much more details.

Frequency	How often does this occur (i.e.; weekly, monthly, yearly). This is a convenience, it makes easy to enter the yearly expense (retPlan only uses yearly expenses in its calculations)
Inflation multiplier	Does the cost of this item rise at, below, or above the general rate of inflation
Tax deductible	Is this expense tax deductible (i.e; charitable donations)
Start and end year	When does this expense start (i.e.; right after retirement). When does it end (say, after 20 years of retirement you won't be taking wilderness vactions).
Value	What is the cost of this expense. Enter what it would cost today: not what you think it will cost during retirement (the inflation multiplier, and the inflation rate, are used to calculate future costs).

The income class of entries
income is used to specify income sets -- streams of income that may depend on your retirement age. This can include social security payments, pension payments, and part time jobs.

income entries are a bit unusual: they are identified by a name, subname, and an ageRetire. The idea is to capture the variation in income as your retirement age changes.

It should not include one-time payouts (i.e.; from selling a house) -- those should be specified under investments. Nor should it include distributions of assets (such as minimum payments from a 401k) -- those should be specified under assets.

The Income page is used to specify income sets. Basically, for each income set you specify several entries, and each entry has several variables. The income page contains help buttons that provide much more details.

ageRetire	This entry is used given you retire at this age. Thus, within an income-set, only one entry is used -- the one that matches your actual retirement age. Actually, linear interpolation is used if no exact match is found.
COLA adjustment	What is the COLA (cost of living adjustment), as a fraction of the inflation rate.
Start and end year	When does this income start (i.e.; you take a part time job after retirement). When does it end (say, you leave this part time job after a few years).
Value	What is the yearly payments from this income set, given you retire at ageRetire. Enter the currently announced value: not what you think it will be during retirement: the COLA adjustment (and the COLA adjustment modifier), and the inflation rate, are used to calculate future payments.

The assets class of entries
assets are used to specify your current financial assets -- such as bank accounts, mutual funds, and 401ks.

It should not include physical assets (such as your house) -- those should be specified under investments. Not should it include loans (which should also be specified under investments).

The Assets page is used to specify assets. Basically, for each asset you specify several variables. The assets page contains help buttons that provide much more details.

Average interest rate	What is the interest rate paid on this asset. If the interest rate may vary over time, enter the average over the lifespan of this asset.
SD of interest rate	What is the standard deviation of this interest rate? This is used when all interest rates are adjusted, using the Interest rate adjustment general parameter. Note: if the interest is the same in all circumstances, enter 0.0.
Real/nominal	Is the interest rate real (should inflation be added to it). Or is it nominal (use it as is).
Tax deferred	Is this a tax deferred asset (such as 401k). That is, when you extract payments from this asset, do you have to pay income tax on it?
Fraction of interest earning subject to income tax	What fraction of this assets earnings are subject to income tax? For example, a normal bank account will have a value of 1.0 (all of its interest earnings are subject to income tax); while interest earnings on a municipal bonds account will have a value close to 0.0 (since these earnings are exempt from federal, and maybe exempt from your state's, income tax).
Addtions	How much do you anticipate adding (or removing) from this financial asset every year -- from now until retirement. For example, contributions to a 401k you get through your work. Note that these additions are assumed to stop the year you retire.
Value	What is the current value of this financial asset. Enter the actual dollar amount -- don't adjust them for tax deferrment status (that adjustment occurs when funds are withdrawn). Do note that the value of the asset will continue to grow -- at the specified rate of interest -- from now until retirement. It will also grow at this rate after retirement, but distributions from it may also occur.

The investments class of entries
investments are used to specify your current, and future, investments & liablities -- such as purchases of second homes, future automobiles, help with children's education, etc.

It should not be used for regular expenses, even large ones (such as home repairs) that happen more or less yearly -- use the expenses page for those. And it should not include financial instruments -- use the assets page for those. It should include any loans you take out, even if you get nothing of tangible (i.e.; resale) value from the loan (i.e.; a loan to pay for a trip around the world).

The Investments page is used to specify investments. Basically, for each investment you specify several variables. The investments page contains help buttons that provide much more details.

Appreciation rate	What is the real appreciation (or, if negative, depreciation) rate of this investment. This is a pre-inflation rate -- the actual change in actual cash value will use the sum of its appreciation rate and the inflation rate.
Start and end year	When does this investment occur (i.e.; you buy a 2nd home 3 years after retirement). When does it end (say, you sell your primary residence 20 years after retirement).
Down payment	How much do you have to pay when the investment occurs. For one time payments (i.e.; liabilities), that require no loan, this should be the size of this one-time payment (so you should enter an actual dollar amount). Or, for future investments, you can enter a xx% (the percent of the value of the investment, in the future).
Loan variable	If you take out a loan, there are several variables to enter: Loan amount: the size of the loan (do not include any down payment). Enter an actual dollar amount. Or, for future investments, you can enter a xx% (the percent of the value of the investment, in the future). Interest rate: the interest rate. retPlan does not support variable rate loans -- if you have one of these, enter a guess of what the average rate will be. Term: length of loan, in years. Tax deductible: are interest payments tax deductible (i.e.; for a house mortgage)
Value	What is the current value of the thing being invested in. Enter the actual current dollar amount -- don't anticipate what it will cost in the future -- the appreciation rate and inflation rate will do that for you.

What are retPlan's goals
retPlan uses goals as a quick and convenient way to retain, or drop, set of entries (from any of the 4 classes of entries). When an entry is dropped, it is not used at all. For example, you could specify a set of entries under the charity goal: such as donations, liabilties you take on in the future, or even a 2nd (low paying volunteer) job. If you don't think you can afford to be so charitable, you can deactive this goal and see how it effects your bottom line.

More powerfully, if you define several goals, you can see what combination of goals you can afford, and what combination you can not.
Thus, by using goals you can specify a wide range of possible expenses, income streams, assets, and investments. . And when you are ready to simulate your financial status -- just activate them in the order of importance (and see how it effects your bottom line).

General parameters retPlan has a several general parameters. These include:

• The overall inflation rate
• Your current age
• Up to three retirement ages -- simulations will be done for each of them, and bottom-line comparisions will be made across all 3.
• How are IRAs and 401ks distributed?
• Your average income tax rate

The General page contains further descriptions of these (and other) parameters.

Your overall financial status, and details over time
The Main page contains a summary of your financial status; and contains links to display final results. These include year-by-year schedules of your expenses, income flows, and investment status (i.e.; principal owned and interest paymement). And year by year views of the bottom line. For example: how much do expenses exceed income, and how do your assets change accordingly.

Working with scenarios
To make it easy to compare a large set of situations, you can specify multiple scenarios.

Each simulation contains a full set of specificatons -- general parameters and entries for all four classes. You can create a scenario that is a copy of an existing scenario, change some parameters, and examine the results.

If you are dedicated, you can generate a lot of scenarios; and the compare them at your leisure.

Note that scenarios are a coarse tool. For finer control (but without any long term storage of parameters), you can use goals.

Calculating tax-deferred asset distributions using a life expectancy table.
Most tax deferrred assets (such as 401ks and IRAs) have a yearly minimum distribution requirement based on a life expectancy table. You can instruct retPlan to use this table to determine yearly withdrawals from these assets.

The life expectancy table

Age	Life expectancy	Minimum % distribution
60	32	3.1%
61	32	3.1%
62	31	3.2%
63	31	3.2%
64	30	3.3%
65	30	3.3%
66	29	3.4%
67	29	3.4%
68	28	3.6%
69	28	3.6%
70	27	3.7%
71	26	3.8%
72	25	4.0%
73	25	4.0%
74	24	4.2%
75	23	4.3%
76	22	4.5%
77	21	4.8%
78	20	5.0%
79	19	5.3%
80	19	5.3%
81	18	5.6%
82	17	5.9%
83	16	6.3%
84	15	6.7%
85	15	6.7%
86	14	7.1%
87	13	7.7%
88	13	7.7%
89	12	8.3%
90	11	9.1%
91	11	9.1%
92	10	10.0%
93	10	10.0%
94	9	11.1%
95	9	11.1%
96	8	12.5%
97	8	12.5%
98	7	14.3%
99	6	16.7%
100	6	16.7%
101	6	16.7%
102	5	20.0%
103	5	20.0%
104	4	25.0%
105	4	25.0%
106	3	33.3%

retPlan can automatically estimate the average tax rate as a function of the AGI (income-deductions) in a given year. To do this, retPlan uses statistics from CBO on average tax burden by income class. This has changed over time, as the tax code has changed.
When you chose to automatically calculate, you will pick which year's statistics to use.

For a chart displaying tax rates as a function of AGI -- for all the years supported within retPlan -- use the Info button.

The COLA adjustment modifier
Every income entry has a COLA adjustment variable. This is used to set the Cost of living adjusments -- how much (as a fraction of the overall inflation rate) does this income increase every year.

The COLA adjustment modifier allows you to reduce (or increase) these values by a fixed fraction. For example a value of 0.9 means all the COLA adjustments are reduced by 10%. For example:

Inflation	5%
An income entry with a COLA adjustment of:	0.85
The COLA adjustment modifier is :	0.8
Then the rate of increase for this income stream will be:	0.85 * 0.8 * 5.0% = 3.4%

Basically, setting the COLA adjustment modifier to be < 1.0 means you are a pessimist: you don't think your income streams will live up to their promises; across the board, they won't increase at the claimed rate of inflation. Conversely, a value >1.0 means you are an optimist: your income streams will do a better than expected job of tracking inflation!

Setting the inflation rate
The inflation rate is a key component of retPlan. It effects expenses, income, financial assets, and investments!

A single inflation rate is used. This inflation rate should be your guess as to the average (over time) inflation rate. That is, if you think inflation will fluctuate, you will have to guess what its average will be.

While the use of a single number is rather simple, retPlan has a number of ways of modifying how the inflation rate is used.

For expense entries	Each expense entry has an inflation multiplier parameter. It is a fraction applied to the overall inflation rate, yielding the inflation rate for this expense.	For example, if inflation=4%, and an expense's inflation multiplier is 1.25, then this entry will have a (yearly average) inflation rate of 5%.
For income entries	Each income entry has an cola adjusment parameter. It is a fraction applied to the inflation rate	For example, if inflation=2%, and the income's cola adjustment is 0.9, then this entry will have a COLA of 1.8%. Note: you can globally modify all the cola adjustments using the Cola adjustment modifier parameter.
For financial asset entries	Each asset entry has a Real/nominal parameter. It is a flag used to specify how the asset's interest rate is calculated. If set to nominal, the interest rate is used as is. If set to real then the interest rate is relative to the inflation rate.	For example: if inflation=2%, and the assets average interest rate is 4.0. If real is used: the interest rate used each year is 6% If nominal is used: the interest rate used each year is 4%
For investment entries	Each investment entry has an Appreciation rate parameter. It is a real appreciation rate -- the actual yearly rate of change is the sum of its appreciation rate and inflation rate.	For example, if inflation=6%, and an investment appreciates at 4% per year, then the yearly change in value is approximately 10%

The average tax rate
retPlan uses an average tax rate to calculate your actual (after tax) income. This rate is applied to all earnings (your AGI); which includes income streams (such as pensions), distributions from tax deferred assets, and interest earnings from non-tax deferred assets.

The average tax rate is specified on the General page. You can:

• Specify a state & and local income tax
• and specify a federal income tax rate

For the federal income tax, you can

1. Specify an exact percent
   ... you can use the worksheet to estimate an average tax rate as a function of income
2. Or, let retPlan calculate it for you, as a function of each year's adjusted gross income (AGI) -- using a table derived from IRS statistics. This is the default method. You can choose which year (of IRS statistics) to use (the default is 2019).

Expense: yearly total
The {Yearly} column contains the approximate yearly expenses associated with this expense (or with this group of expenses). Note that this is calculated based on the frequency and value used when specifying expenses.

Approx. value? For groups, an Approx. value figure is displayed. This measures total yearly expenses for all entries in this group, assuming all expenses start in the first year of your retirement, and inflation is 0%. Thus, the actual values may differ.

Expense: age range You can dictate the timespan over which this expense occurrs; using a starting year and an ending year. In years outside of this range, the entry is dropped (you do not incur the expense in those years).

If you know (or can realiably predict!) how expenses will change over the course of retirement, you can specify multiple entries with non-overlapping ranges. Each entry would have a different value (and possibly a different inflation multiplier).

Expense: deductible Is this expense tax deductible? If it is, your net income (used to compute income taxes) will be reduced by this amount.
For example, charitable donations are usually tax deductible (assuming you itemize your tax forms).

Expense: inflation multiplier
retPlan uses an overall inflation rate (specified on the General page). This inflation rate is used to change the cost of an expense as time passes by. However, the cost of some items may increase (or decrease) at a rate different than this long-term average inflation rate. You can use the inflation mult variable to specify such differnces!

inflation mult is a multiplier applied to the general inflation rate. Thus: the inflation rate for an entry will equal:

For example, assuming the inflation rate is 4%.

An inflation mult of …	yields this inflation rate (for this entry)
1.0	4.0%
1.25	5.0%
2.0	8.0%
0.5	2.4%

Specifying expense entries …

Hints:

If you do not specify a group or a goal, then other and core are used (respectively). For value, you can use xxK for thousand. Thus, 5000 is the same as 5k (the k is case insensitive) The value should be the cost if this expense was incurred today. This cost will rise at the specified rate of inflation, starting from today! The value should be the cost during retirement. For example, if your kids will have moved out when you retire, but are living with you now, then a food expense should not include what you may be spending to feed your kids! Frequency values can be Y,Q, M, B, or W (yearly, quarterly, monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly). If you are using the add form, use one of the several radio buttons to choose a frequency. Note that retPlan only stores yearly expenses -- so the frequency variable is just used to simplify data entry (so you don't have to do multiplication in your head!). inflation mult is a multiplier used for this expense. I.e.; 1.0 means use the overall inflation rate; 1.4 means inflation is 40% higher than over all (so a 2% overall inflation means 2.8% inflation for this expense). If taxDeduct is 1, this is a tax deductible expense (such as a charitable contribution). If you are using the add form, check the is this tax deductible... button. If you do not specify a Year Start or a Year End, then 0 and 100 are used (respectively). A value of 0 for Year Start means you incur the specified expense in the first year of retirement. Thus, Year start of 1 would mean you don't have the expense for a year; and Year end of 4 means the expense lasts until 4 years after the start of retirement. Alternatively, to specify an absolute age (to start and end), enter -age. For example, Year Start=-65 and Year End=-75 means the expense occurs between the ages of 65 and 75 (inclusive). If you are using the add form, you can click on the check to enter ages .. checkbox -- this toggles between specifying ages (such as 65 to 100) or years (such as 3 years after retirement to 20 years after) You can include commas in the description (that's why it is the last item on the csv entry forms) The subname is optional On csv entry forms: empty lines, or lines whose first (non-space) character is a ;, are ignored

Income: yearly income
The yearly income is a simple approximation, as it ignores the age range (it assumes the income stream starts as soon as retirement starts).

Note that several group totals are displayed: one for each retirement age. The retirement ages are those specified on the General page. These are approximate, they do not account for COLA adjustments or the year range.

Income: retirement age income
Income entries are different than other entries. Many kinds of retirement income depend on your retirement age . For example, social security payments increase by (more or less) 6% for every year after 62 years of age (up until 70 years old).

retPlan accounts for this by using income sets. Each income set is comprised of one or more income entries. Each entry in a set has the same name and subname, but has a different ageRetire. The actual income you receive is calculated by comparing the actual retirement age to entries in an income set (and using linear interpolation if necessary).

For example, assume an income set with 3 entries ...	ageRetire	62	65	68
	Value	24k	30k	33k

Then if you …	Retire at	income received	Why?
	61	0	If you retire before the earliest age in an income set, you receive 0.0.
	62	24,000	This matches the ageRetire=62 entry
	66	31,000	Linear interpolation is used: using the 30,000 values (at age 65) and 33,000 value (at age 68).
	79	33,000	The value of the last entry in the income set (ageRetire=68) is used

For example, assume a cola mult of 1.0, and an inflation rate of 4% (hence the COLA rate is also 4%). Then, using the above numbers:

Current age	Retire at	Nominal $ received (after COLA & inflation)	Notes
55	62	29.6k
55	64	39.9k	At age=64, the interpolated value is 28,000
60	62	26.0k
60	64	32.8k

Note: the above example assumes the COLA adjustment modifier general parameter is 1.0.

Income: age range You can dictate the timespan over which this income occurrs; using a starting year and an ending year. In years outside of this range, the entry is dropped (you do not earn this income in those years).

If you know or can realiably predict!) how an income stream will change over the course of retirement, you can specify multiple entries with non-overlapping ranges. Each entry would have a different value (and possibly a different COLA adjustment).

Income: cost of living adjustment Income sorces (such as a pension, or social security), are often subject to cost of living adjustments. Typically, these are pegged to the rate of inflation, so your payments go up along with the inflation rate. But just how much it goes up can vary -- some COLAS are more generous than others!

cola adjustment is a multiplier applied to the general inflation rate. Thus: the cost of living adjusment rate for an entry will equal:

For example, assuming the inflation rate is 3.0%.

An cola mult of …	yields this cost of living adjustment rate (for this entry)
1.0	3.0%
0.9	2.7%
0.66	2.0%
1.1	3.3%
0	0%

Notes:

• In the above example, the last line (a cola adjusment of 0) is used to specify a fixed income stream -- one where you receive the same amount every year.
• You can use the COLA adjustment modifiier General parameter to modify all of the COLA adjust parameters.

Specifying income entries ...

Hints:

You must specify a name. The subname is optional. The name and subName must be one word (no embedded spaces), and can only contain digits, letters, and the underscore ageRetire is required. It identifies an age of retirement. Each retirement income stream is specified using an income set. An income set consists of one or more entries with the exact same name and subname, but with different values of ageRetire. The income stream actually used (for an income set) will be computed using the actual retirement age. In other words, only one value from an income set is actually used. Some details … Entries of an income set can be in any order (they will be sorted by ageRetire) Actual income (from this income set) will be 0 if you retire before the first ageRetire For retirement ages after the last ageRetire, income will be the value of the last entry in the income set If an income set contains one entry, then income will be 0 if you retire before ageRetire, and constant if you retire at (or after) ageRetire Linear interpolation is used if necessary. Example: For ageRetire=62, income= $32,000 For ageRetire=65, income= $35,000 Then, if the retirement age is 64, income would be $34,000 If an income set contains just one entry that has ageRetire equal 0 -- you get this income regardless of when you retire. Note: on the add page, fill in the at this retirement age ... text box If you do not specify a group or a goal, then other and core are used (respectively). Years Start and Year End limit the years (after retirement) you recieve this income stream. To not limit these years (that is, to recieve the income from retirement until death)>, set Years Start=0 and Year End=100 If you do not specify a Years Start or a Years End, then 0 and 100 are used (respectively). A value of 0 for Year Start means you earn the specified income in the first year of retirement. Example: Years Start=1 and Year End=4: you recieve this income in the first,second, third, and fourth year after retirement. Values should be yearly income: before income taxes, but after unavoidable (and non-refundable) deductions (such as FICA taxes). You can use xxK for thousand. Thus, 32000 is the same as 32k (the k is case insensitive) Values should be year income. Shortcuts: On the bulk entry forms: to specify a monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly income (and have it converted to yearly income), enter: M=xxx, B=xxx or W=xxx (respectively). And you can use the xxxK trick (i.e.; B=0.5K) add entry form: you can enter a yearly income, or a monthly income. Other choices are not available. The fraction taxable is what fraction of this income stream is subject to taxation, and should be a value between 0.0 and 1.0. 0.0 means this income stream is not subject to taxation; while 1.0 (the default) means it is all subject to taxation. Social security example: if your pension income is 80k, and your SS payments are 20k, use 0.85 … the COLA Adjustment is the ratio of cost of living adjustments (COLA) to inflation (the overall inflation value specified on the General page). If not specifed, a value of 1.0 is used. Notes: 1.0 means income stream keeps up with inflation, and 0 means no-inflation adjustment (same dollar amount every year). Values less than 1.0 means COLAs do not keep up with inflation. The COLA adjustment modifier rate general parameter can be used to modify all of the (entry specific) COLA Adjust parameters. For example: setting COLA adjustment modifier rate to be less than 1.0 simulates all income streams do not live up to their promised inflation rate matching

Fraction subject to income tax
Most income streams are subject to state and federal income tax -- but often not the complete amount.

• To specify all of this amount is subject to income tax, enter 1.0
• To specify none of this amount is taxable, enter 0.0
• Values between 0.0 and 1.0 can be entered. For example: for 85% of the income is subject to income tax, enter 0.85

Some examples:

Social security:	SS taxable fraction depends on your income -- but is never more than 0.85. total income SS earnings fraction subject to income tax 40k 20k 0.48 50k 30k 0.60 58k 25k 0.85 70k 20k 0.85 70k 30k 0.85 Hint: for greater detail you can try this social security income tax rate calculator
FERS	Depends on payments made during retirement. Typical fraction is 0.95. more details

Investment: down payment
An investment's down payment is (obviously?) the size of the down payment: this is a one-time payment made when the investment occurs. While down payment often is used in the context of loans, in retPlan the down payment is also used for one-shot purchases (i.e.; for liabilities paid off in one payment). For example:

You take out a loan to buy a $250k house	You pay a 10% downpayment	The down payment is 25,000	The loan is 225,000
In 10 years, you contribute $20,000 for your daughters wedding (i.e.; you take on a liablity)	You pay for it out of future income	The down payment is 20,000	The loan is 0.
In 15 years, you need $50,000 in cash to cover a few years of miscellaneous expenses	you don't want to draw down your financial assets (or have the debits asset go negative)	The down payment is -50,000	The loan is 50,000

Note: downpayment is treated as an expense in the year the investment occurs; so it is kind of like an expense with a carefully specified year range. And, for loans for cash (negative down payment), it can yield a yearly excess (total earnings > total expenses) that will be distributed to your non-tax deferred financial assets.

Investment: loan
If you will pay for a future investment, or are currently paying off an existing investment, with a loan -- you will need to specify a few variables:

loan amount	This is how much you will spend, or currently owe. If you are not taking out a loan, enter 0. For example, if you anticipate a one-time expense, with a down payment that will be covered by your non-tax-deferred assets. If this is an existing investment, do not include a down payment! Enter the amount of the currently owed principal (i.e.; the balance on the loan). That is: do not enter the original loan amount See below for a hint on calculating currently owned principal!
term	The length of the loan (in years). This is ignored if the loan amount is 0. For existing loans, this should the number of years left on the loan (that is, it should not be the original term).
Interest	The interest rate on the loan. This is ignored if the loan amount is 0. This is an absolute amount -- retPlan does not support variable rate loans.
Deduct	Are interest payments tax deductible? For example, interest payments on a mortgage are (for most people) are fully tax deductible. However, if the loan is to pay for a vacation, probably not.

Investment: appreciation
Many investments will appreciate over time -- their real value will increase (such as a house in a growing city). Other investments depreciate -- they lose value over time (such as an automobile). For example, assuming an existing investment worth $100,000 ...

Appreciation rate	Inflation rate	in this many years	The nominal value will be	with a real (inflation adjusted value) value
0	0	10	100k	100k
0	5.0	10	163k	100k
2.0	3.0	10	163k	122k
-6.0	3.0	10	74k	54k

Investment: start and end age
retPlan's investment entries are often used to account for future one-time purchases (i.e; not everyday living expenses). These often occur at known times -- they are not as dependent on your retirement age as expenses and income are.
Each investment has a start age and an end age -- your age when you obtain the investment, and the age you sell it off.

• To specify a existing investment (or one you plan to obtain as soon as you retire), enter a start age of 1.
  Note: existing investments should have a 0 down payment -- and you should specify loan parameters reflecting currently owed principal (not the original terms).
• If you never intend to sell the investment (i.e.; your kids will inherit it), enter an end age value of 200.
• Actually, you can enter years after retirement for both the start and end year. In particular, a value of 0 means the investment occurs as soon as you retire

Investment: value
The value of an investment (or a one-time expense) is what it is worth today! That is …

Are you planning on making an investment in the future: then it is not what you will have to pay for it in the future.

Is it an investment you currently own: then it is not what you paid for it in the past

For future investments & expenses, retPlan will calculate the cash (the nominal ) expenditure needed in the year when the investment (or expense) occurs. This is done using both the appreciation rate (for this investment) and the inflation rate (as set on the General page).

For example ...

Current price	inflation	(real)appreciation	#years	The price will be	real (inflation adjusted) value
$100,000	3%	0%	5	116k	100k
$100,000	2%	1%	5	116k	105k
$200,000	2%	-3%	5	221k	200k
$50,000	2%	1%	15	78k	58k

Specifying investment entries …

Hints:

If you do not specify a group or a goal, then other and core are used (respectively). The value of the investment is today's value (i.e.; what it would cost to purchase today). today's value should be used for investments you currently own. Today's value should also be used for future investments (when ageStart is greater than your current age) -- that is, what it would cost to obtain this investment today. The actual (nominal) cost of a future investment will be based on its current value, the inflation rate, and its appreciation rate. For consumption goods (or other goods with no resale value), enter 0 The investment occurs when you are ageStart years old. Leaving ageStart blank, or entering a 0 means this investment will occur as soon as you retire. Entering a 1 means this is a currently active investment (for example, a house with a partially paid off mortgage). Special case:. -xx (values less than or equal to 0) means the investment occurs xx years after retirement. If you are using the add form, you can click on the years after retirements .. checkboxes -- this toggles between specifying ages (such as 65) or years (such as 3 years after retirement) The investment ends (is sold for its appreciated value, minus any remaining principal) when you are ageEnd years old. Leaving ageEnd blank, or entering a 0 means this a investment will never be sold. Entering a 1 means you will sell this immediately upon obtaining it. This is used for windfalls, or for loans for cash. Note that the proceeds from a sold investment are treated as a negative investment expense. If the sales value is high enough, excess value (money left even after paying all other regular and investment related expenses) are treated as a one-time addition to your assets (with deposits based on their priority parameters). Conversely, if the investment is under water (more principal is owed than its appreciated value), the loss is treated as a one-time investment expense (which may necessitate withdrawals from non-tax deferred assets) Notes: The end age and begin age are both at the beginning of the year. If they are the same year, the investment is sold as soon as it is acquired (this is the same as ageEnd=1). For a 1 year investment, the end age should be 1 greater than the begin age Special case:. as with ageStart: -xx (values less than 0) mean investment occurs xx years after retirement. If you are using the add form, you can click on the years after retirements .. checkboxes -- this toggles between specifying ages (such as 65) or years (such as 3 years after retirement) The Down Payment is the nominal dollars (no inflation adjusment) paid the year the investment occurs. For currently owned investments, this should be 0. For one-time payments (such as one-time expenses), use the Down Payment to enter the amount (and set loan amount to 0) Shortcut: xx% (0<xx<=100) are interpreted as xx percent of value, at the time of investment. Thus, for future investments (whose value increases due to appreciation and inflation), the nominal amount (the actual $ expenditure) of the down payment will also grow. Note that future down payments (or one-shot expenses) are drawn from savings and other non-IRA assets -- using the priority parameters to allocate where withdrawals are from. The loan amount should be 0 if no loan is required (say, if a one-time payment is used, or if you already own the investment) Shortcut: xx%0<xx<=100) is interpreted as xx percent of value, at the time of investment Thus, for future investments (whose value increases due to appreciation and inflation), the nominal amount (the actual $ expenditure) of the loan amount will also grow. For Down Payment,Loan Amount, and Value: you can use xxK for thousand. Thus, 45000 is the same as 45k (the k is case insensitive) Loan payments are automatically computed -- given the Loan Amount, the Interest Rate, and term (the length of the loan). These payments are automatically divided into interest payments, and principal payments Interest Rate and the (real) Appreciation rate should be entered as a whole numbers. Examples ... 3 means 3.0% increase per year. -5.0 means 5.0% decrease per year (i.e.; a depreciating asset) . Note that actual (nominal dollar) change in value is (roughly) the sum of inflation and appreciation. Example: an investment that requires a one time payment (i.e.; not a loan), and value = 100k appreciation= 5 (5% increase per year), and inflation=0. Then after 3 years the value of the asset = 100k * 1.05 ^ 3 = $115,673 If interest payments are tax deductible (i.e.; a primary or vacation home), canDeduct should be 1. Otherwise (i.e.; if no value specified) interest payments are not tax deductible. If you are using the add form, can click on the check if this is tax deductible checkbox You can include commas in the description (that's why it is the last item on the csv entry forms) The subname is optional On csv entry forms: empty lines, or lines whose first (non-space) character is a ;, are ignored For further details (such as how cost of future purchases of appreciating, or depreciating investments); click on ? buttons at the bottom bottom of the in the add form

Approximate total assets
The approx. total assets field (on the Assets page) lists the approximate value of all of your assets. There are 3 values displayed:

$NNNk	The current value of all your assets. This is the value as of today, and includes the current amount of your tax deferred assets. Thus, it is not what you would have if you cashed them all out!
MMMk	An approximate after tax value of these assets. This adjusts the values of tax deferred assets, using the average tax rate (as specified on the General parameters page).
[JJk]	The additions to your assets. This is the sum of the yearly additions across all assets. It includes additions to tax deferfed assets, so the real (after tax) value of these additions can be less. These additions are from extra --- they are not due to growth of assets. For example, if you have several more years of work before you retire, and you are adding $10k a year to your IRA, then additions would be 10k.

What are the debit and cash assets?
debit is a special asset that is created by retPlan, and can not be removed.

• debit has a very special feature -- it can go negative! This means debit is borrowed from when you have a yearly shortfall, but all of your non-tax deferred assets are empty. In a sense, debit is a line of credit -- you can borrow from it when you really need to. Therefore, its priority is always 0.0.
• Whenever debit is negative, any excess cash (say, from selling an investment; or from an investment with a negative down payment) is used to pay off this debt. Once debit becomes non-negative, the normal rules for distribution of excess cash (using asset priority parameters) are used. But debit can not become positive -- its largest possible value is 0.0.
• debit is like other assets -- it gets even more negative at the specified rate of interest.
• debit is initialized by retPlan (you don't have to add it) using a moderately pessimstic assumption: when you need to borrow from it, the interest rate will be 4% greater than the inflation rate. You can change that if you want.

What is a taxDefer asset?
taxDefer refers to assets that are in tax deferred accounts. This includes IRAs, 401ks, and the Thrift Savings Plan.
Tax deferred accounts contain money deposited, and interest earnings on this money, that have never been taxed. Thus, upon withdrawal they are subject to income tax.

• Distributions from taxDefer occur yearly -- using the distribution rate, and starting age, that is specified on the general page (typically, one starts at 70 years old using the life expectancy table rates).
• That is the only way withdrawals occur.
  Thus … in years with shortfalls (where total income < total expenses) extra money is not not withdrawn from taxDefer accounts. It is only drawn from non taxDefer assets.
• If these shortfalls are large, and there is a lot of money in your taxDefer assets, you may want to increase the distribution rate.

• Current shortcomings of retPlan (that might be fixed in later versions)
  the same distribution rate is used for all taxDefer assets -- you can not specify different rates for different taxDefer assets;
  you can not specify an exact timepath for withdrawals -- the rate schedule set on the general page is not that flexible
  interest earnings on taxDefer assets are 100% taxable: see %taxable help for details.

Using priority to allocate asset withdrawals and deposits
What should be done when you have a yearly shortfall -- when your total costs (living expenses + investment expenses) exceed your total earnings (income + tax deferred asset distributions + sales of investments).

Answer: withdraw cash from your non-tax deferred assets!

But how? If you have multiple non-tax deferred assets, how much should be withdrawn from which? The priority variable is used to calcuate these withdrawals (or deposits, if you have a yearly excess)!

Priority value	Action	Desription
0.0	Withdrawn from last. Never added to	These are your emergency accounts -- that are only used last -- when you have nothing else to use. And they aren't added to -- once exhausted, they are gone forever. Example: a coin collection you inherited
1.0	Withdrawn from first. Never added to	These are your spare cash accounts -- that are used before anything else. And they aren't added to -- once exhausted, they are gone forever. Example: a bunch of gift cards recieved at a going away party
0.0 < priority > 1.0	Higher priority accounts are withdrawn from more quickly, and added to less quickly.	The higher the priority, the less valuable the account -- you would rather take money from it that from an account with a lower priority (so priority means intensity of use when paying off shortfalls). Similarly, the higher the priority, the less you add (in years where total earnings > total costs). Examples... A checking account could have a priority of 0.8 (if you need it use it, and don't add much to it) A high performing stock account could have a priority of 0.3 (limit withdrawals from it, and favor it when there is money to be saved).
0.5	Equal weighting	If all accounts have priority of 0.5, then withdrawals (and deposits) are proportional to the size of the account.

Example: assume you have a $10,000 shortfall in a given year, and 3 non-tax deferred assets. Where should the money to cover this come from?

Asset value	Priority	Money withdrawn	comment
5,000	0.8	$2000	A checking account -- use it first (but try not to empty it)
10,000	0.5	$2500	A savings account -- use it in a normal fashion
27,500	0.4	$5500	Your largest account is in a well performing mutual fund -- try to keep it growing
Technical note:		the following function is used (for assets with 0.0<priority<1.0) withdrawal= shortfall * (value * priority)/ sum{value * priority} In the above examples, the weights equal 0.20, 0.25, and 0.55.

What is a pctTaxable interest rate for an asset?
Assets grow at a rate of interest, and this growth is subject to income tax. However, some assets (such as mutual funds holding municipal bonds) are not subject to federal (and sometimes state & local) income taxes.

pctTaxable is used to specify what fraction of the value of an asset is subject to income taxes. Thus, for a normal bank account, pctTaxable should be 1.0. Conversely, for a fund that only holds tax exempt bonds, the number would be at (or close to) 0.0. Thus, as a general rule: pctTaxable should equal 1.0 minus the fraction of an asset interest earnings that are tax exempt.

Things get a bit complicated if the asset is subject to some income taxes, but not others. In those case, you will have to weight pctTaxable to reflect this mix. That is, you would reduce pctTaxable to account for the fact that not all income taxes are exempted. Example:

• Your average tax rate is 20%
• This includes 15% federal tax, and 5% state tax.
• You have a $25,000 of US Savings Bonds that earn 4% ($1000) per year.
• US Savings bonds are not exempt from federal taxes, but are exempt from state taxes.
• Therefore: pctTaxable should be 75% (since all of the account is in an asset that is exempt from 25% of your taxes)
• Conversely, if the asset was a muni bond fund, with bonds from a state you don't live in, the rate would 25% (since interest earning would be exempt from the 15% federal income tax, but not your state's 5% income tax).

Obviously, if an asset has a mix of tax exempt and non-tax exempt items, you will have to weight things accordingly.
In fact, the math might be simpler if you break the asset into two components, using different subnames (one for tax exempt, and one for non-tax exempt)!

Note: as of now, interest earnings on taxDefer assets must have %taxable of 100% -- that is, all withdrawalw from taxDefer assets are subject to all income taxes. If this is inaccuate, a workaround is to increase the interest rate on the asset.

Future versions of retPlan might relax this limitation.

What are the Average and (sd) interest rate for a financial asset?
You can specify the average interest rate (over all years) that a financial asset will grow at. You can also specify a standard deviation (sd) of this interest rate.

If the sd is 0.0, the same interest rate is used in all years.

If it is not 0.0, then the interest rate will be modified using the interest rate adjustment general parameter.

the Interest rate adjustment ± SD general parameter can be used as a shortcut: it allows you to simulate what would happen if the interest rate on all of your assets were higher, or lower, than their average. How does this work?

For each asset, the interest rate is calculated using:

The interest rate adjustment -- which must be a percentile value between 0.0 and 100.0, is converted into a weight (based on a normal cdf) The interest rate used (for an asset) is set to: average + (weight * SD) Reminder: the average and the SD are asset specific.

The actual (after tax) value of a tax deferred asset
Tax deferred assets (such as IRAs and 401ks) are accumulated using before-tax income. When it is time to take distributions from a tax deferred asset, you have to pay income taxes on them. retPlan uses a average income (the sum of federal, state & local) to calculate this tax.

You can specify exactly what your average income tax is, or you retPlan can estimate it for you based on your income (at the time the distribution is taken). See the General page for the details.

Specifying asset entries ...

Hints:

If you do not specify a group or a goal, then other and core are used (respectively). For value and additions, you can use xxK for thousand. Thus, 5000 is the same as 5k (the k is case insensitive) value is the current value. addditions are the per-year additions until retirement. The assumption is that upon retirement, these additions will no longer be made. avgInt (average interest rate over time) and sdInt (standard deviation of interest rate over time) should be entered using whole numbers. For example: 3.1 means 3.1% interest rate The Interest rate adjustment (on the General page) is used to globally adjust all interest rates, using each rate's sdInt On the add page, the above are entered using the average value and standard deviation text boxes. If this is a tax deferred (i.e.; an IRA or a 401k), taxDefer shoulde be 1. Otherwise (i.e.; if no value specified) this is not a tax deferred asset. On the add page, the above is specified using the Is this tax deferred .. checkbox, interestTaxable should be between 0.0 and 1.0. If some of the interest earnings from this are tax exempt (i.e.; earnings from a government bonds mutual fund), enter a a value less than 1.0. For example, a simple savings account should have a value of 1.0 (its interest earnings are all taxable), while a municipal bonds fun should be close to 0.0 (since interest earnings are exempt from federal and most state income taxes). Note: this refers to interest earnings, not withdrawals. Therefore, all distributions from a tax deferred asset (i.e.; automatic payments from a 401k) are subject to full income tax, even if a large fraction of them are due to interest earnings (on contributions made early on). This is a limitation of retPlan (that could be fixed, but at the cost of even more complexity!) On the add page, the above are entered using the Fraction of interest earnings subject to income tax ... text boxes. The nominal/real should be a 0 or 1. 0 means the interest rated is used as is -- thus, the value is interpreted as a nominal interest rate 1 means the inflation rate is added to the interest rate -- thus, the value is interpreted as a real interest rate On the add page, the above is specified using the Real interest rate .. checkbox, The priority should be a value between 0.0 and 1.0. It is used to prioritize what non-tax deferred asset should be used first. priority is used to determine how cash should be withdrawn from assets in years with a shortfall -- in years where your total costs (living expenses + investment expenses) exceed your total earnings (income + tax deferred asset distributions + sales of investments). Or, how cash should be saved when you have a excess (when earnings exceed costs)! 0.0 means do not use this, unless you have to. That is, empty all other assets (with priority > 0.0) first, and then (if you must) start withdrawing from this asset. If you have excesses -- don't put anything into this. In other words, this is only touched in an emergency. 1.0 means deplete this asset first. That is, empty it before touching any asset with a value < 1.0. If you have excesses -- don't put anything into this. In other words, this is used up and then abandoned. 0.5 is the default -- if everything has a value of 0.5, then cash is withdrawn (or added) to this asset as a function of its relative size. Otherwise, assets with higher (closer to 1.0) priorities are withdrawn from faster (and added to slower than) assets with smaller (closer to 0.0)priorities Example: assume you have a $10,000 shortfall in a given year, and 3 non-tax deferred assets. Where should the money to cover this come from? Asset value Priority Money withdrawn comment 5,000 0.8 $1538 A checking account -- use it first (but try not to empty it) 20,000 0.5 $3846 A savings account -- use it in a normal fashion 30,000 0.4 $4616 Your largest account is in a well performing mutual fund -- try to keep it growing Technical note: the following function is used (for assets with 0.0<priority<1.0) withdrawal= shortfall * (value * priority)/ sum{value * priority} In the above examples, the weights equal 0.16, 0.38 and 0.46. Priority is not used with tax deferred assets! Distributions from tax deferred assets are not effected by shortfalls (or excesses) in your yearly accounts. They are only effected by the distribution variables set on the General page. You can include commas in the description (that's why it is the last item on the csv entry forms) The subname is optional On csv entry forms: empty lines, or lines whose first (non-space) character is a ;, are ignored

Goals: specifying a retain or drop action
When active a goal can have one of two actions: retain or drop. What does this mean?

If a goal's action is:	and if the goal is …	what happens?	Example
Retain	active	Entries with this goal are used	3 expenses have a luxury goal (i.e.; longVacations, fancyDining, and theater). These are kept: their costs contribute toward total expenses.
	inactive	Entries with this goal are not used (they are dropped)	None of the luxury goals are obtained; they do not contribute toward total expenses.
Drop	active	Entries with this goal are not used (they are dropped)	A moreWork goal on an income entry (i.e.; partTimeJob with a 4 year timespan). This entry is dropped -- its earnings do not contribute toward total income.
	inactive	Entries with this goal are used	You work at this part time job; its earnings contribute toward total income.

Basically, retain goals are for good things: ideally (if you meet this goal), you obtain these entries (i.e.; you "purchase luxury goods").
Conversely, drop goals are for bad things: ideally (if you meet this goal), you do not obtain these entries (i.e.; you "avoid working a part time job").

Goals can be active (☺), or inactive (☹);. You are happiest when all your goals are active.
This table shows costs, or earnings, associated with these goals.

Goals can be…

good things to obtain, or bad things to avoid.

For example ...

Type of goal	Shorthand	Example
Good stuff you obtain...	☺ Obtain	You take fancy vacations every year (a desired goal -- you want to be able to spend money on this)
Bad stuff you avoid...	☺ Avoid	You do not have to work a part time job in retirement (an undesired goal -- you would rather not need to earn this income)
Good stuff you can not obtain ...	☹ Not obtain	You just can not take those yearly fancy vacations
Bad stuff you can not avoid ..	☹ Not avoid	You need extra money, so you must work part time during retirement

Goal: specifying sets of goals using the goal variant The goal variant is optional. Variants, if entered, must be an integer between 1 and 20.
Variants are used to create a set of goals -- goals that have the same name!
You can have only 1 active goal in a set -- all others must be inactive. retPlan's goal choosing tools will make sure of that!
Using variants makes it easy to choose between somewhat different versions of the same expense (or income or asset or investment).

Specifying goal entries …

Hints:

You must specify a one-word name. The variant is optional. Variants, if entered, must be an integer between 1 and 20. Variants are used to create a set of goals -- goals that have the same name! When you include a goal, you can only include one from a set. That is: only one variant from a set may be included. Using variants makes it easy to choose between somewhat different versions of the same expense (or income or asset or investment). Instead of using variants, you could modify an entry (i.e.; change the age end on an investment entry). Specifying multiple variants of a goal, and then choosing which of these variants to include as a goal, should be quicker (though it does mean a bit more time creating entries). When active, a goal can have one of two actions. 1 (retain). These are good things -- entries with a retain goal are things you want to do (i.e.; expenses for things you like). 0 (drop). These are good things -- entries with a drop goal are things you do not want to do (i.e.; work a part time job for several years). On tbe add form, use the radio buttons to choose between retain and drop. You can include commas in the description (that's why it is the last item on the csv entry forms) On csv entry forms: empty lines, or lines whose first (non-space) character is a ;, are ignored

What are missing goals?
Every entry (every expense, income, asset, or investment entry) has a goal variable.
Goals are assigned when you create the entry; and when you assign a goal, you are only allowed to pick from a set of defined goals (goals are defined on the Goals page.)

However, if you delete a goal, any entry assigned this goal is a in state of limbo -- the goal it is part of is no longer defined.
So how are such entries handled? They are dropped! For example, if an expense is assigned a goal that is now undefined (i.e.; does not exist in the list of goals), it is not used to calculate total (or group total) expenses.

However, by clicking on the ⊄ button, you can display rows with these entries.

Charting your retPlan results
You can create line (or bar) graphs displaying year-by-year values of retPlan's trend measures. To use retPlan, just select which measures(s) you want to view, select your desired options, and then click the to view ... button. Or, you can display any combination of previously charted trend measures with the vu button.

retPlan's trend measures

𝔦  Assets 𝔦Investments 𝔦IRA/401k 𝔦Earnings 𝔦Costs 𝔦Shortfalls

The are three charting methods:

One retirement age. Select one (or more) of the measures, just one of the RetAge checkboxes, and do not check the Δ checkbox.    A year-by-year trend, for each of the selected measures: given the selected retirement age. Thus, if you select all 6 measures, 6 lines (or bar charts) will be displayed Several retirement ages. Select just one measure, two or three of the RetAge checkboxes, and do not check the Δ checkbox.    A year-by-year trend, for just the selected measure, for each of the selected retirement ages. Thus, if you select 3 retirement ages, 3 lines (or bar charts) will be displayed Differences across retirement Ages. Select one (or more) measues, exactly two of the RetAge checkboxes, and do check the Δ checkbox.    A year-by-year trend of the differences for each measure. The differences are value of larger retirement age - value for smaller retirement age. Thus, if you select all 6 measures, 6 lines (or bar charts) will be displayed

There are 3 charting areas. Choose one before you click the to view ... button.

← : 1/2 width area on left → : 1/2 width area on right ␣ : full width area on bottom (initially hidden)

Options:

ℜeal$	When checked, real (inflation adjusted) values are used
X / Y min and max	Select the X (age) range, and Y (value) range. This allows you to zoom in.
Bar charts also	When checked, bar charts and a line plot are displayed. This can be cluttered if there is more than one measure being displayed
Values also	Display the actual values next to the line plots. This can be very cluttered.
Every nth point	Display a subset of the values. For example: 2 means display every other value. This is especially useful when displaying values (it unclutters the graph)

Special displays

Earnings details	Immediately displays 3 earnings measures
Cost details	Immediately displays 3 cost measures

Custom combinations
The vu button allows you to display any combination of previously charted trend measures -- such as measures calcuated using different inflation rates; or different sets of goals

• Clicking vu brings up a table of trend measure plots created in this session. Each row of the table contains some descriptive information (such as the inflation rate used).
• You can select a number of these to display. They will be combined into one plot, using shorthand names in the legend.
• You can select up to 15 (which is probably more plot lines than anyone should try to display on a single graph)
• You can select some of the display options: such as the chart area to use, whether values are displayed and how many points to display, and the X and Y mins & maxs.
  However, other options (such as retirement age and real values) are ignored -- since the values used are from the prior charts.