Retirement Plan Builder

Enter your numbers once and see how savings, Social Security, and retirement spending fit together year by year. Free users get a snapshot and key milestones; Premium unlocks the full timeline, save/compare, and export.

How this tool works

This planner combines logic from several of our calculators — growth projections, Social Security claiming adjustments, spending-gap math, required minimum distributions (RMDs), and a simplified federal tax estimate — into one consistent timeline.

Use it as your starting point. Premium adds a Monte Carlo stress test on the same plan. Open the specialized calculators below for Roth conversions and deeper tax modeling.

Federal estimates use fixed 2026 ordinary-income brackets and base standard deductions. Future calendar years reuse these values as a projection assumption, not future statutory law. Credits, itemized deductions and additional age-based deductions are not included.

This is a quick annual planning snapshot. Ages mean ages attained in each calendar year; retirement and claims begin at the start of the selected modeled age-year, with 12 monthly payments. Exact birthday-month, midyear retirement, payment lag, spousal top-ups and survivor benefits are not modeled. Spending is entered in dollars for the later of projection start or retirement start, and inflates after that year. Before retirement, contributions represent your net saving after living costs and taxes. Use Your Retirement Journey Matters for the deeper six-phase process.

About you

Projection start year

Enter savings as the estimated portfolio balance on January 1 of the selected year. For an already-retired household, enter spending and benefits already being received in start-year dollars; enter spouse age attained in that year. For future retirement, enter spending in retirement-start dollars. Other income and future Social Security estimates retain their existing income-start/claim-year basis. No earlier years are simulated. Spending inflation and benefit COLAs begin after the first modeled year (or after retirement/claiming for future benefits). Enter any federal tax allowance already included in spending in the allowance field; it is removed once before the model estimates taxes independently. Budget surplus is never automatically added to assets.

Birth year Uses the age you attain this calendar year and Social Security Full Retirement Age.

Full birth date Required for the June 30 / July 1, 1949 RMD boundary.

Planned retirement age When you expect to stop working and start drawing from savings.

I'm already retired

Money at projection start

Retirement savings at projection start ($) 401(k), IRA, brokerage — one combined total for this snapshot.

Withdrawal start AGE (not calendar year) Enter your AGE, not a year. Born in 1957 and starting withdrawals in 2027? Enter 70 here and choose 2027 in Projection start year above. Projection start year controls the first year modeled; withdrawal start age controls when portfolio spending draws are allowed. Leave blank to use retirement age. RMDs still apply when required.

Annual contributions until retirement ($)

Expected return before retirement (%) Only used if you are still saving and growing your portfolio before retirement.

Spending in retirement

What you expect to spend each year — household expenses, not your income.

Estimate from current spending Enter annual spending directly

Household monthly spending, normally excluding federal income taxes ($) Living expenses, not gross income. Federal income taxes are calculated separately. If this budget already includes a federal-tax allowance, enter it below to prevent double-counting.

Retirement spending (% of current) Many planners use 70–80% while still working. Already retired? This is set to 100%.

Federal income taxes already included in your spending ($/month) Optional: enter the monthly federal-tax allowance already included in the household budget above, in the same dollars as the spending budget. It is removed before any retirement-spending percentage; the remaining non-tax baseline follows spending inflation. The calculator still estimates federal taxes independently each year. This allowance prevents double-counting; it does not reduce or override calculated taxes. Leave $0 if your spending already excludes federal income taxes.

Guaranteed income in retirement

Steady income from Social Security, pensions, and similar sources. Each person's Social Security is entered separately.

Your Social Security

I'm already receiving my benefit

Your benefit at Full Retirement Age ($/month) From your SSA statement (PIA at FRA) — for future claiming estimates.

You plan to claim at age

Spouse's Social Security (optional)

Spouse is already receiving their benefit

Spouse's benefit at Full Retirement Age ($/month) From spouse's SSA statement. Leave at 0 if not applicable.

Spouse plans to claim at age

Other guaranteed income ($/year) Level annual amount for pension, annuity, or other income. Do not include Social Security. Use the same start age only for income beginning together.

Your age when this other income begins Leave blank for retirement start. Future income is excluded until this age.

Temporary cash before portfolio withdrawals ($, after tax) Cash outside the portfolio, such as net insurance surrender proceeds. Used only as needed for spending and modeled taxes before your portfolio withdrawal start age. Enter cash available after setting aside any taxes on its source; this calculator does not calculate insurance surrender taxes. Using this reserve is not treated as new taxable income. It earns no modeled return; unused cash stays separate from portfolio balances.

Tax & RMD assumptions

Tax filing status

Tax-deferred share of portfolio (%) Portion subject to RMDs (Traditional IRA, 401(k), etc.). Roth/brokerage is the remainder.

Spouse is sole IRA beneficiary? If your sole beneficiary spouse is more than 10 years younger, a joint-life divisor may apply; only verified table entries are supported.

Spouse's age attained in projection start year

Other advanced assumptions

Plan through age How far to project spending, RMDs, and Monte Carlo. Many planners use 90–95; Vanguard often uses 100.

Withdrawal rate for on-track check (%)

Expected return in retirement (%)

Inflation on spending (%)

Social Security COLA (%)

Return volatility for stress test (%) Standard deviation of annual returns (Premium Monte Carlo). Typical: 8% balanced, 10% moderate equity, 12% all-equity.

Monte Carlo simulations Premium stress test runs (100–5,000).

Your retirement plan snapshot

Projected at retirement

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Target for retirement-start income gap

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Annual guaranteed income at retirement start

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Lifetime est. federal tax (retirement years)

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Your planning takeaway Build your plan to see how savings, income, taxes, and withdrawals fit together.

Portfolio balance over time

Key milestones

Year / Age	Portfolio	Withdrawal	Temporary cash used	Social Security (household)	Other income	RMD	Est. federal tax	Total income	Spending requested / funded	Unfunded spending + tax

Year-by-year timeline

Year / Age	Portfolio	Withdrawal	Temporary cash used	Social Security (household)	Other income	RMD	Est. federal tax	Total income	Spending requested / funded	Unfunded spending + tax

Monte Carlo stress test

Thousands of random market scenarios test whether portfolio withdrawals can cover your spending gap and estimated federal taxes through your plan end age. Simulations use the same annual cash-flow timing, RMDs, account sources and tax funding as the deterministic plan. Zero volatility reproduces the deterministic plan at the same expected return.

72.4%

See the probability your plan lasts through your plan end age under thousands of market scenarios.

Upgrade to Premium

Educational model only

Federal tax estimates are simplified (standard deduction, 50% of Social Security treated as taxable, no state tax, IRMAA, or NIIT). The initial tax-deferred share also allocates contributions. Other assets are treated as tax-free principal/Roth assets because no taxable cost basis is supplied; taxable gains are not modeled. Discretionary withdrawals use other assets before traditional assets. Surplus income and excess RMDs are saved in other assets. Taxes and spending occur before annual investment returns; taxes take priority if resources are insufficient. RMDs apply to the tax-deferred portion of your portfolio only. Monte Carlo uses random annual returns (not a forecast of actual markets). This is educational — not tax or financial advice.

Dig deeper with specialized tools

These open in a new tab with your plan numbers pre-filled.

Social Security Claiming Analyzer → Plan Success (Monte Carlo) → Roth Conversion Calculator → RMD Impact → Spending & On-Track Checkup → Social Security + Spending Gap → Nest Egg Target →

RonBelisle.com — educational planning illustration. Review the displayed inputs, timing, assumptions and supported statutory scope. Results are estimates, not guaranteed outcomes or personalized advice. Retain scenario inputs with this printout.

✨ Calculator Premium Features Available