RetireScenarios Open the planner

Free retirement scenario planner

See how your retirement plays out, year by year.

RetireScenarios projects your balances, taxes and cash flow for every year from retirement to the end of your plan. Try different what-ifs, compare them side by side, and stress-test them against bad markets before you commit to one.

Start planning, it's free See how it works
  • No account or sign-up
  • Your plan stays in your browser
  • Set up in a few minutes
The RetireScenarios dashboard on a phone, showing the portfolio summary and first-year cash flow for a sample plan

The questions it helps you answer

A spreadsheet can tell you what you have today. RetireScenarios shows what happens next, one year at a time, and lets you change one thing and see what moves.

  • Will my money last?

    Follow your portfolio to the end of your planning horizon and see the years where cash flow runs short.

  • Which account should I draw from first?

    The order of withdrawals from taxable, traditional and Roth accounts can change your lifetime tax bill.

  • Should I convert to Roth before RMDs start?

    Model conversions year by year and see the tax you pay now against the tax you avoid later.

  • What if the market drops the year I retire?

    Schedule bear markets and corrections, or switch to pessimistic returns, and see how the plan holds up.

  • Retire at 62 or wait until 65?

    Copy a scenario, change the dates, and compare the two side by side.

  • When should we claim Social Security?

    Set each person's start age, COLA and a confidence factor, and see what each choice does to the years that follow.

See it in action

Screens from the planner, showing a sample couple who plan to retire in 2027 with $1.7 million across four accounts.

Account Balances chart: each account and the total portfolio plotted year by year from 2027 to 2056, with dips for scheduled bear markets
Every account, every year. Watch the taxable account fund the early years, Roth conversions build the Roth balance, and scheduled bear markets take their toll.
Scenario Dashboard: return assumptions, portfolio summary and first-year retirement cash flow
Dashboard. Portfolio summary and first-year cash flow. Click any amount for a breakdown.
Monte Carlo sheet: 10th percentile, median and 90th percentile outcomes and a fan chart of the portfolio range over time
Monte Carlo. The range of outcomes across thousands of simulated markets.
Year-by-Year Table: starting portfolio, investment growth, income, expenses, taxes and cash flow for each year, with a bear-market marker
Year-by-year table. Growth, income, expenses and taxes for every year, with bear-market years flagged.

Everything a real retirement plan needs

Built for the details that simple calculators leave out.

Year-by-year projections

Withdrawals, income, taxes, expenses and net cash flow for every year of the plan. Open any year to see the full breakdown.

Tax-aware from the start

Federal brackets by filing status, state income tax for all 50 states and DC, bracket inflation over time, and required minimum distributions.

Smart withdrawals

Smart Sequence draws from taxable, then traditional, then Roth. Or write your own rules by account, amount or percentage, and age range.

Roth conversion planning

Plan conversions by year, or let the optimizer fill a tax bracket of your choice while it keeps an eye on Medicare IRMAA tiers.

Stress tests

Recurring bear markets and corrections with your choice of size, timing and recovery period. Flip any scenario to pessimistic or optimistic returns.

Monte Carlo analysis

Run 5,000, 10,000 or 50,000 simulations to see the range of outcomes market volatility could produce, not just one average path.

Compare scenarios

Keep up to five scenarios and compare them side by side: portfolio at years 10, 20 and 30, first-year cash flow and average tax burden.

Singles and couples

Plan for one or two people. Accounts and income belong to a person, so RMDs and Social Security start at the right age for each.

PDF reports and backups

Export a multi-page PDF to share with your advisor. Back up to a password-protected file that also restores in the RetireScenarios iOS app.

How it works

A setup wizard walks you through the basics the first time you open the planner.

  1. Add people and taxes

    Enter birth dates, your state, and your federal filing status.

  2. Add accounts and income

    Enter traditional, Roth and taxable balances with expected returns, plus Social Security, pensions and annuities.

  3. Set your expenses

    Start with base annual spending in today's dollars, then add line items with their own inflation rates and age ranges.

  4. Explore and compare

    Read the dashboard and year-by-year table, then copy the scenario and change one thing to see what it does.

Your numbers stay with you

You don't need an account to use RetireScenarios, and your plan isn't stored on a server. Everything runs in your browser.

  • Stored on your device, encrypted

    Your scenarios are saved in this browser and encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM.

  • Backups you control

    Download a backup file whenever you like, with an optional password. Keep it somewhere safe: clearing your browser's site data also clears your plan.

  • Free to use

    Every feature is available in the web version at no cost.

Questions

Is RetireScenarios financial advice?

No. It's an educational planning tool. Projections are estimates, not predictions. Use it alongside a qualified financial planner or tax advisor before you make decisions.

Why are results rounded to the nearest $500?

A 30-year forecast can't be accurate to the dollar. Rounding keeps the focus on trends that matter. Enter your inputs as precisely as you like.

Where is my data stored?

In your browser's local storage on this device, encrypted. It isn't sent to us. To move a plan to another browser or device, create a backup and restore it there.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes. The planner works in any modern browser on desktop, tablet or phone. Backups also move between the web version and the RetireScenarios iOS app.

How are taxes calculated?

Federal income tax uses the brackets and standard deduction for your filing status, adjusted each year by the bracket inflation rate you choose. State tax uses your state of residence. Traditional withdrawals, Roth conversions and RMDs are taxed as ordinary income.

How many scenarios can I keep?

Up to five, so you can test several strategies against each other.

Start with what you know. Explore the rest.

The setup wizard gets a first scenario running in a few minutes. You can refine it from there.

Open the planner