Retirement planning guides
Each guide explains one decision in plain language, works through an example household, and links to the screen where you can test it on your own plan. They're educational, not advice.
For quick sums, see the calculators. To see how the app compares with other planning tools, see compare planning tools.
Spending in retirement
- How much can you safely spend in retirement?How to estimate a sustainable retirement spending level from your savings, guaranteed income, taxes and flexibility, with a worked example.
- What "chance of success" really meansWhat a retirement plan's chance of success measures, how Monte Carlo simulation with actual market history works, and how to read the number without over-trusting it.
- Spending guardrails explainedHow retirement spending guardrails work, why risk-based guardrails set the balances that would trigger a cut or a raise, and what to do when one is crossed.
- Sequence-of-returns risk, explained with numbersWhy the order of market returns matters once you start withdrawing, with a worked example, and the practical ways retirees reduce the risk.
- How to read a retirement projectionA guide to the parts of a retirement projection, including today's versus future dollars, average versus simulated outcomes, percentile bands and the cash flow table.
- The 4% rule and its limitsWhere the 4% rule comes from, what it assumes, and why your own safe withdrawal rate may be higher or lower.
- The bucket strategy and other buffers against sequence riskHow a cash and bond buffer can carry you through a market fall, what the bucket strategy really changes, and what it costs to hold that cash.
- Monte Carlo simulations vs historical backtestsHow random simulations and historical backtests test a retirement plan, why they give different answers, and how to read both without trusting either too much.
Retiring early
- How much do you need to retire early?How to size an early-retirement nest egg, why long retirements need a lower withdrawal rate, and how to reach your money before 59½.
- Retiring before 65: health insurance and the ACAYour health insurance options between leaving work and Medicare, how the marketplace premium tax credit works, and how to manage income to keep it.
- The Rule of 55 and 72(t) paymentsTwo ways to take money from a 401(k) or IRA before 59½ without the early-withdrawal penalty, how each works, and the traps that can undo them.
Taxes
- Roth conversions and filling a tax bracketHow Roth conversions work, how to size one to fill a federal tax bracket, and what to watch for, including Medicare surcharges, ACA subsidies and the senior deduction.
- Capital gains harvesting in the 0% bracketHow to realize long-term capital gains at a 0% federal rate in low-income years, how to size the sale, and the ACA and state-tax traps to check first.
- Which accounts to withdraw from first in retirementHow the order of withdrawals from taxable, traditional and Roth accounts changes your lifetime taxes, with a worked example of blending withdrawals to use low brackets.
- Required minimum distributions (RMDs)When required minimum distributions start, how to calculate them with the IRS table, the first-year timing trap, and ways to plan around them, including charitable distributions.
- Moving to another state in retirement: the tax sideHow state income, estate and other taxes change when you move in retirement, what a move can save, and how to time it.
- The widow's tax trapWhy a surviving spouse often pays more income tax on less income, with a worked example, and the steps a couple can take while both are alive.
- QCDs and donor-advised funds: giving to charity with less taxHow qualified charitable distributions and donor-advised funds cut the tax cost of giving, with worked examples of a QCD and of bunching gifts.
Social Security and Medicare
- When to claim Social SecurityHow your claiming age changes your benefit, how spousal and survivor benefits work, how the earnings test applies if you work, and how to compare claiming ages.
- IRMAA and ACA subsidy cliffsHow Medicare's income-related premiums (IRMAA) and the ACA premium tax credit cliff work, with the thresholds and worked examples showing what one extra dollar of income can cost.
- When to sign up for MedicareThe Medicare enrollment windows around 65, when you can wait because of work coverage, the late-enrollment penalties, and how HSAs and Medigap fit in.
- Spousal and survivor Social Security benefitsHow spousal and survivor benefits are calculated, how each spouse's claiming age changes them, and why the higher earner's choice often matters most.
- How Social Security benefits are taxedHow much of your Social Security is taxable, the provisional income formula and thresholds, the tax torpedo, and ways to keep more of your benefits.
Accounts and investing
- Using a health savings account in retirementHow to build and spend a health savings account (HSA) for retirement, including contribution limits, the Medicare cutoff, tax-free withdrawals and what happens after 65.
- 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) limits and catch-upsThe workplace retirement plan contribution limits for the current tax year, how 457(b) plans have their own separate limit, how catch-ups work at 50 and at 60 to 63, and the new Roth catch-up rule.
- Asset allocation targets and rebalancingHow to set a target mix of stocks, bonds and cash, how rebalancing bands work, and how to rebalance across taxable and retirement accounts without creating avoidable tax.
- Backdoor and mega-backdoor Roth contributionsHow high earners still get money into Roth accounts, the pro-rata rule that trips people up, and how after-tax 401(k) money becomes Roth savings.
Equity and deferred pay
- Deferred compensation (NQDC) payouts and electionsHow nonqualified deferred compensation is taxed, why the payout election matters so much, the 409A rules for changing it, and the risks to weigh.
- Equity compensation taxes: RSUs, stock options and ESPPsHow restricted stock units, incentive and nonqualified stock options, and employee stock purchase plans are taxed, with worked examples and the AMT trap.
Pensions, annuities and insurance
- Pension lump sum or monthly annuity?How to compare a pension's lump-sum offer with its monthly payments for life, using the implied payout rate, break-even ages, survivor options and taxes.
- Annuities explainedThe main kinds of annuity, what income annuities do for a retirement plan, how they're taxed, what they cost, and how to test one before you buy.
- Planning for long-term careWhat long-term care is, what Medicare and Medicaid pay for, the ways to pay for care, and how to test a care event against your plan.
Estate
- Estate basics: step-up in basis, beneficiaries and estate taxHow assets pass at death, why beneficiary designations matter more than many wills, how the step-up in basis works, and when federal or state estate taxes apply.
- Inherited IRAs and the 10-year ruleWho must empty an inherited IRA within 10 years, when yearly withdrawals are also required, the beneficiaries who can stretch payments, and how to spread the tax.