Frequently asked questions

The product

What does the app do?

It's a planning tool for your household's money. You enter your income, spending, accounts and goals. It shows how much is safe to spend each month, how likely your plan is to work across many possible market futures, what you'll owe in taxes each year, and which changes would help most.

Does it manage my money or make trades?

No. It doesn't hold money, place trades, file taxes or draft legal documents. You stay in control of your accounts.

Is this financial advice?

No. It's planning information and education. Results depend on assumptions that may not hold. Consider reviewing important decisions with a qualified professional.

Who is it for?

Households in the United States planning for retirement or already retired, from first-time planners to people who want detailed control over taxes and withdrawals. The tax and benefit rules are US rules only.

What devices does it work on?

Any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer. It's designed for phones first. You can add it to your home screen like an app.

Do I need to link my bank accounts?

No. You can enter balances by hand, update them monthly, or import them from files. See importing and exporting.

Privacy

Who can see my plan?

You, and the people you choose: household members you invite, advisors you share with, and anyone you send a read-only link to. You can remove access or turn off a link at any time.

Do you sell my data or use it for advertising?

No. We don't sell your data or use it for advertising. We share it only with service providers needed to run the app, such as hosting and email delivery, and with people you choose to share with.

Where are my calculations done?

On your device. Projections and simulations run in your browser. Your plan is stored on our servers when you're signed in, so it can sync across your devices.

Do your pages load third-party trackers?

No. The app and these pages load no third-party scripts, fonts or images. A strict content security policy blocks them.

Can I delete my data?

Yes. Signed in, go to Settings and delete your account. This removes your plans, scenarios, share links and connections. Download your data first if you might want it.

Security

How do I sign in?

With an emailed sign-in code or a passkey. There are no passwords to steal or reuse. You can add two-step verification with an authenticator app.

How is my data protected?

• All traffic is encrypted in transit.
• Passkeys are stored as public keys. We never see your fingerprint or face.
• Access to a household is limited to its members and the people they invite, and every request is checked against that.
• Tokens for connected services are encrypted with keys kept separately from the database.
• IP addresses in security logs are stored as one-way hashes.

Can I see activity on my account?

Yes. Settings shows recent sign-ins, sharing changes, connections and deletions, so you can spot anything you don't recognize.

What happens if I lose my phone?

Sign in on another device with an email code. If you use two-step verification, move your authenticator app to a new phone before you replace the old one. There are no backup codes.

Accuracy

Where do the tax figures come from?

Every tax and benefit figure lives in a data file with its primary source and the date it was checked. Sources include IRS revenue procedures and notices, the tax code, Social Security Administration notices, Medicare announcements and state revenue departments. The 2026 figures are published ones. Later years are projected by indexing current law for inflation, plus changes already enacted.

What isn't modeled?

The Taxes screen lists it. Federal items not modeled include the qualified business income deduction above the threshold, rental depreciation, the 25% and 28% capital gains rates and most credits other than the child tax credit. The Social Security explorer doesn't model the earnings test. Each state lists what it leaves out. See how taxes are calculated.

How are market returns simulated?

By default, with actual historical market returns and inflation, about a century of annual US data, reshuffled in five-year blocks. You can switch to random returns based on your own assumptions. See how simulations work.

How do you check the calculations?

The engine has automated tests for its rules, including Social Security benefit calculations checked against Social Security's published worked examples. Shortcuts, such as the lookup table behind the guardrails, were measured against full simulations against a tolerance set before measuring. The guardrails methodology gives the results.

Why might my numbers differ from another calculator's?

Different tools use different return assumptions, time steps, tax detail and definitions of success. This app works month by month, taxes each year in detail, and uses history-based simulations by default. Compare the inputs before comparing the outputs. See compare planning tools for side-by-side comparisons.

Plans, trials and billing

What plans are there?

Prices are before any applicable taxes. The price, billing period, any free trial and the date of the first charge are shown before you subscribe and again on the payment page.

What's included in the free plan?

The free plan is one plan, saved to your account and synced, with export, delete and plan import. It shows your chance of success on up to a set number of simulated markets, your monthly safe-to-spend number, and overviews of your cash flow, taxes, accounts and outlook. You can plan with a limited number of household members, counting you.

What does Plus add?

Plus runs up to a higher number of simulated markets. It allows more plans, saved scenarios, share links and household members. It also adds these features:

• ways to improve your chances, ranked
• What if… and the spending guardrails
• year-by-year cash-flow detail
• tax rates, Roth conversions and withdrawal order
• the Social Security explorer, equity compensation and insurance planning
• rules and the contingency playbook
• the spending strategies comparison
• estate planning and deferred compensation
• guardrail alert emails, full reports and exports

Is there a free trial?

New subscribers may get a free trial of a set number of days, once per person. We ask for a payment method when the trial starts. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, your subscription starts and your payment method is charged the price shown, on the date shown. You can cancel during the trial at no charge.

Does my subscription renew automatically?

Yes. It renews at the end of each billing period, every year or every month for monthly Plus, until you cancel. The renewal date and amount are always shown in Settings, under Plan and billing.

How do I cancel?

Online, at any time, in Settings under Plan and billing. You can cancel at the end of the current period, and keep your plan until then, or right away, which ends paid features immediately. You can also cancel from the payment processor's secure billing page linked there.

What about refunds?

Refunds are covered by the Subscription Terms, which you can read in the app under Terms, privacy and disclosures.

What happens to my data if I downgrade or cancel?

Nothing is deleted. Plans, scenarios, share links and settings stay. Features beyond the free plan's limits become read-only or unavailable until you subscribe again.

Who processes payments?

Stripe processes payments. We never receive or store your full card number. Receipts and invoices are available from the billing page.

What if paid plans aren't available yet?

Until billing is turned on, every feature is included for every household. Settings, Plan and billing shows "Everything is included" while that's the case.

The Advisor plan

Who is the Advisor plan for?

Financial professionals who want to plan with client households. The Advisor plan includes a set number of client households. Extra households are priced per household a year each.

What do clients get?

Each client household with an advisor's seat gets the Plus features while the advisor's plan is active.

Who owns a client's data?

The client. A client chooses whether their advisor can edit their plan or only view it, and can change that or remove the advisor at any time. A plan an advisor sets up for a client becomes the client's when the client accepts it.

What happens to clients if the advisor's plan ends?

Client households keep their data and move to the free plan unless their owners subscribe.

Does the app give advice to clients?

No. It's a planning tool and doesn't provide investment, tax or legal advice to anyone. Advisors are responsible for their own client relationships and obligations. See working with an advisor.

Importing and exporting

Can I bring in a plan from another planning tool?

Yes. In Settings, choose Import a plan from another tool and pick that tool's JSON export file. The file is read on your device and never sent to us. A summary shows what came over, what was approximated and what wasn't brought over.

Can I import my investment holdings?

Yes, from an Excel or CSV file with one row per holding, on the Accounts or Asset allocation screen. The file is read on your device.

How do I export my data?

In Settings, under Your data, choose Download this plan or Download everything in my account. Both are JSON files you can keep or import later.

Retirement planning basics

How much do I need to retire?

Start with the spending you expect, then subtract income that doesn't depend on your savings, such as Social Security and pensions. Your savings have to cover the gap, plus taxes, for as long as you might live. A common first estimate is 25 times the yearly gap, which is the 4% rule in reverse. The savings-needed calculator walks through the sum, and the 4% rule guide explains where that estimate falls short.

What is the 4% rule?

It's a rule of thumb from studies of past markets. You withdraw 4% of your savings in the first year of retirement, then raise that dollar amount with inflation each year. In the historical periods those studies tested, it lasted 30 years in nearly every case. It ignores taxes, fees, flexible spending and retirements longer than 30 years. See the 4% rule and its limits.

When should I claim Social Security?

You can claim from age 62, with a permanent reduction. Each year you wait past full retirement age adds 8% to your benefit, up to age 70. Waiting tends to pay off if you, or a surviving spouse, live into your 80s. See choosing your claiming age and the claiming calculator.

When do required minimum distributions start?

At 73 if you were born from 1951 through 1958, and at 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. The rule for 1959 births isn't final yet. Each year's amount is last year-end's balance divided by a factor from an IRS table. See the RMD guide and the RMD calculator.

Should I convert some of my traditional IRA to a Roth?

It can help if your tax rate now is lower than the rate you'd pay later, for example in the years between retiring and claiming Social Security. You pay tax on the converted amount in the year you convert. Watch Medicare premiums and ACA subsidies, which depend on income. See Roth conversions and the conversion tax calculator.

Is Social Security taxable?

Up to 85% of your benefits can be federally taxable, depending on your other income. Tax starts when your other income plus half your benefits passes $25,000 if you're single, or $32,000 if you're married filing jointly. Those thresholds aren't indexed for inflation. See how Social Security is taxed.

When can I take money from retirement accounts without a penalty?

Usually from age 59.5. Before that, withdrawals from IRAs and workplace plans generally add a 10% additional tax. Exceptions include leaving your employer in or after the year you turn 55, for that employer's plan, and a series of equal yearly payments. See the Rule of 55 and 72(t).

When should I sign up for Medicare?

Most people sign up during the seven-month window around their 65th birthday. If you or your spouse still have health coverage from current work, you may be able to wait without a penalty. Missing your window can mean a lasting late-enrollment penalty and a gap in coverage. See Medicare enrollment timing.

What is IRMAA?

It's an extra charge on Medicare Part B and Part D premiums for people with higher incomes. It's based on your income from 2 years earlier, so a large Roth conversion or sale can raise premiums two years later. See IRMAA and ACA subsidy cliffs.

What is a qualified charitable distribution?

From age 70.5, you can give directly from an IRA to a qualifying charity, up to $111,000 in 2026. The gift counts toward your required distribution but isn't taxable income. See QCDs and donor-advised funds.

How much can I put in a 401(k) or an IRA in 2026?

Up to $24,500 of your pay in a 401(k), 403(b) or 457(b), plus catch-up contributions from age 50. Up to $7,500 in IRAs, plus $1,100 more from age 50. See 401(k) and 457(b) limits.

What is sequence-of-returns risk?

It's the risk that markets fall early in your retirement, while you're withdrawing. The same average return can leave you with much less if the losses come first. See sequence-of-returns risk and cash buffers and buckets.

Calculators and comparisons

Are the calculators free?

Yes. The calculator pages show each formula with a worked example, and you don't need an account to read them. Each links to the screen in the app that runs the same sum on your whole plan.

How does the app compare with other planning tools?

See compare planning tools. Each comparison uses only the other product's own public pages, cites each page and the date we read it, and says where the other product is stronger. If you spot a mistake, tell us through the contact form.