Frequently asked questions

It helps you forecast cash balances and explore retirement and brokerage projections. You can see how your entered income, spending, and assumptions affect future results, and identify when the modeled balance may become too low.

Start with Cashflow. Enter your starting balance, regular monthly income and expenses, and upcoming one-time items. Then use that information as a starting point for reviewing your retirement spending assumptions.

The forecast is calculated from the data you enter. Scheduled payments and projected balances should not be treated as independently verified bank transactions. Keep your inputs aligned with your actual situation.

Review it when balances, income, bills, or plans change. A regular monthly review can help you catch outdated amounts and missing one-time items.

No. It shows modeled outcomes based on inputs and assumptions. A forecast with no depletion is limited to its calculation period and is not a guarantee about the future.

Use the balance at the beginning of the period being modeled, before the transactions included after that point. Using a later balance while also counting payments already reflected in it can double-count those movements.

Enter positive amounts and choose the correct transaction type. Income adds to the balance and Expense subtracts from it.

Payment timing matters. Expenses early in a month may arrive before income later in the month. Review the daily balances and monthly low, not just the closing balance.

Recurring items occur once per active month. Do not use one monthly item as though it automatically represents weekly or biweekly payments. Use separate dated entries where needed to reflect the actual timing.

Edit its recurring item and use the dated amount-change controls. Enter the new amount and effective month, then save. The app retains earlier dated changes, so you can preserve the history of the bill.

Not if you want to preserve the earlier base amount. The main Amount is used before dated changes take effect. Add a dated change for a later increase instead.

The newer saved amount updates that month’s existing step. It does not create a second payment for the month.

Use an override for that individual occurrence. A dated recurring change is for an amount that continues from the selected month onward.

The cashflow calculation places it on the last available day of that month.

In Cashflow, blue identifies an overridden opening balance. It replaces the normal balance carried forward from the previous month. Open the opening-balance editor and use Clear Override if you want normal carry-forward restored.

Check for an opening-balance override in that later month. An override establishes a new starting balance there, which can interrupt the effect of changes in earlier periods.

Your threshold is the minimum cash cushion you chose. Going below it means the forecast falls below that cushion. Going below zero means the scheduled movements exceed the cash available in the model.

No. The cashflow calculation applies the day’s scheduled transactions and records the resulting balance. It does not simulate bank processing times or intraday settlement order.

Summary focuses on balances: Open, High, Low, and Close. Income & Expenses focuses on transaction totals, separating income and expenses into recurring and one-time categories.

Open Cashflow → More → Income & Expenses and tap a monthly amount. The detail list shows the transactions contributing to that total.

Seasonal recurrence belongs to the app’s one-time item system. Those occurrences remain in the One-Time reporting category even when scheduled in several months or years.

Edit each relevant recurring or one-time item, check Exclude from Income & Expense Summary, and save. The item still affects the cash balance but is omitted from that report’s totals and detail list.

The exclusion checkbox controls reporting. Do not rely on the name alone.

Yes. Edit the existing item and change its exclusion setting. You do not need to recreate it.

The report can exclude transfers that still move cash. Opening-balance overrides can also affect the balance without being income or expenses. Check those differences before assuming the report is wrong.

It does not have to be. Enter each separately. The retirement calculation applies Social Security only from its configured start year onward.

No. The clarified mortgage field is for principal and interest excluding property tax. Enter property tax separately, following each field’s displayed units. An escrowed total entered alongside separate property tax can count taxes twice.

The model treats property tax separately from the mortgage component. Ending the mortgage does not eliminate property tax.

Use estimated monthly costs in today’s dollars. The app applies its inflation factor. Entering an amount you have already inflated for retirement would inflate it again.

Do not include the same spending in both places. If you use the separate healthcare fields for those costs, remove the corresponding amount from Adjusted Current Costs. The healthcare fields add to the other modeled spending.

They are names for optional retirement lifestyle-spending phases. You choose percentages and transition ages to represent your expectations. They are planning assumptions, not predictions about your health or spending.

No. It means the affected lifestyle component is modeled at 90% of its otherwise-calculated amount—a 10% reduction. It does not reduce every component of your retirement costs.

The separate healthcare add-on, mortgage interest, and property tax are not phase-adjusted. The factor applies to the lifestyle/non-housing component. Medical spending left inside Adjusted Current Costs can still be part of that component, so separate your inputs carefully.

Check whether the withdrawal is manually overridden. A saved manual override takes precedence over the calculated withdrawal for that period.

It identifies depletion at the level of detail used by that forecast. Retirement results may identify a year; cashflow can identify a day. Neither establishes when real balances will actually be depleted.

Only if they represent separate funds and you understand the relationship between the models. If both projections represent the same money in alternative scenarios, adding them would count it twice. Automatic transfers or synchronization between calculators should not be assumed.

Models can differ in starting dates, inflation, taxes, payment timing, return assumptions, withdrawal rules, and the period they calculate. Compare those inputs and definitions before comparing the final balance alone.

Open Retirement What-If, adjust the What-If retirement year, and select Run Comparison. Review the Current Plan and What-If results side by side. See the Retirement Guide for the three distinct planning screens.

It is the share of simulated trials in which the balance reaches zero, even if later contributions allow it to recover. It describes the simulation under its assumptions, not a guaranteed real-world probability.

No. The displayed 25th, 50th and 75th percentile curves describe the distribution of simulated balances. Outcomes outside those curves are possible.

Simulated returns vary between trials and runs. Review the trial count and the assumptions shown in the app. A simulation explores a range of outcomes; the standard projection follows its own calculation assumptions.