Fidelity RIP tool

[tdv2]

I was online this morning running the RIP tool.....It looks like Fidelity made the change to the new planner they have been talking about for a month or two. It appear to me that the new planner is way more conservative than the previous one. I didn't do an analysis on the percentages yet. IMO the tool was always one of the most conservative out there....now it appears to be even more so.

Would like to hear what others are seeing in their runs on the new planner.

 

[travelover]

I've been using RIP to project my RMDs. Would this change also affect anticipated portfolio growth?

 

[Peter]

I just tried the new tool. It imported all my information from the old tool, and gave the same results, as far as I can remember. (Of course, I can't see the old tool now, so have to rely on memory. Dangerous!)

One change I notice is that there is now a much more detailed budget spreadsheet. All the entries showed up as $0; the total used was the number I used in the old tool.

I played with some of the inputs, for example increasing expenses to see when I would run out of money. Again, it seemed similar to what I remember from the old plan.

Don't yet have an opinion on whether they've improved the user interface.

 

[panacea]

I was online this morning running the RIP tool.....It looks like Fidelity made the change to the new planner they have been talking about for a month or two. It appear to me that the new planner is way more conservative than the previous one. I didn't do an analysis on the percentages yet. IMO the tool was always one of the most conservative out there....now it appears to be even more so.

Would like to hear what others are seeing in their runs on the new planner.

conservative how? Don't the results simply depend on your inputs like any good retirement planning software?

 

[Options]

This is not good news for those of us who do not have Fidelity accounts but who have been using the guest login option. Supposedly, the guest option was to expire after 30 days but I have been using it for at least a couple of years. With this new update, it looks like a guest or trial login option is no longer available (at least as far as I could determine).

I agree FRIP is the most conservative tool I have found, which is why I always relied upon it as a worst case scenario. Looks like I'll have to look for alternatives now as I don't intend to open a Fidelity account. If only Vanguard had something of equal caliber.

 

[Jack_Pine]

Wow. Have used it a lot of the years and this is a big change. I actually opened a 5k account just so I could save the results.

My plan is now failing but I noticed it is missing a fairly large cash account. It is not including it in the analysis and calls it unassigned as all the other accounts are tagged retirement. I use the drop down to tag it retirement but it just goes back to unassigned after I save it.

 

[big-papa]

Wow. Have used it a lot of the years and this is a big change. I actually opened a 5k account just so I could save the results.

My plan is now failing but I noticed it is missing a fairly large cash account. It is not including it in the analysis and calls it unassigned as all the other accounts are tagged retirement. I use the drop down to tag it retirement but it just goes back to unassigned after I save it.

I had the same issue. For me, the accounts that were not included were accounts that I had manually entered. The tool can now directly link to accounts I have at other institutions, which I did. Once I did that, I could assign them to "retirement" and everything worked as expected and the results were more-or-less the same as before. Produces a nice little report, too.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Well, that just rocked my world this morning having the tool changed. The RIP and my own spreadsheet are the tools I use the most. My own spreadsheet is the most conservative because I project the current interest rate environment to not change much going forward. I'll have to analyze the RIP changes more later, but I don't see any big change to our ending retirement numbers. I'm always tweaking our numbers though, making what if changes to the discretionary categories like travel, so I don't remember the exact amount at "end of plan" before the changes.

 

[MRG]

This is not good news for those of us who do not have Fidelity accounts but who have been using the guest login option. Supposedly, the guest option was to expire after 30 days but I have been using it for at least a couple of years. With this new update, it looks like a guest or trial login option is no longer available (at least as far as I could determine).

I agree FRIP is the most conservative tool I have found, which is why I always relied upon it as a worst case scenario. Looks like I'll have to look for alternatives now as I don't intend to open a Fidelity account. If only Vanguard had something of equal caliber.

You can open an account and never fund it. Don't worry they won't care. Think I still have an options express account from 10+ years ago, least last time I had a brain fart and logged on it was still there.

 

[stepford]

Whoa, that is a big change. Somewhat disconcerting as I use RIP as my primary analysis tool. All the results seem pretty much the same though, so I guess it's largely a cosmetic change.

The nicest feature is how for every change it immediately calculates the effect on your assets at the end of plan. Makes it much quicker to do things like change your AA or tax rate and then see how much you can alter your spend rate to compensate.

Being an official crotchety old fart though, I still miss the old RIP.

 

[Live And Learn]

It looks like they are using the 90% sucess rate assumption. I had always set my rate to 95%. It looks like now there are only 2 assumptions - average market (50% success) and underperforming (90% success). The results look in line with the 90% success rate that I had gotten previously. The good news is that it still shows that I should be ok to age 96, but I'd rather they had the 95% setting again.

 

[Live And Learn]

Being an official crotchety old fart though, I still miss the old RIP.

+1

 

[Corporateburnout]

I find the results to be similar to the old tool. I don't see the detailed annual income and expense report that included taxes and RMD but I only looked at it quickly so it may still be there somewhere.

 

[tdv2]

conservative how? Don't the results simply depend on your inputs like any good retirement planning software?

Results depend on inputs and the methodology the sofware uses. If they changed the simulation methodology, the results will be differnent with the same inputs. Not sure if they did anything like that. My inputs appear to be the same.....although I need to double check. On my first pass with the new tool it appeard that the results of the analysis were weaker.....i.e. less $$ left over at end of plan than previous runs I made a few days ago.

 

[DEC-1982]

It appears that the URL I use to get to my Fidelity 401k/pension does not have the updated tool. I still see the message

Coming Soon - Retirement Income Planner is being updated ...

and running through the tool shows it is the same at present. They must be going through a phased roll-out of the updated tool.

 

[Jack_Pine]

I had the same issue. For me, the accounts that were not included were accounts that I had manually entered. The tool can now directly link to accounts I have at other institutions, which I did. Once I did that, I could assign them to "retirement" and everything worked as expected and the results were more-or-less the same as before. Produces a nice little report, too.

Thanks, just figured that out. Love that feature.

 

[braumeister]

By coincidence, I just ran five different calculators the other day, including the new version of Fidelity's RIP. My results were as follows:

Fidelity RIP and ESPlanner were almost identical, both being the most conservative.

******** just slightly less conservative, giving me a spending rate about 1% higher.

FIRECalc still less conservative, at 5% higher.

ORP still less conservative, at over 7% higher.

Since even the most conservative RIP and ESP calculators give me an acceptable spending rate which is 15% higher than my actual budget, I feel comfortable in the occasional splurge.

 

[Options]

You can open an account and never fund it. Don't worry they won't care. Think I still have an options express account from 10+ years ago, least last time I had a brain fart and logged on it was still there.

Thank you. I'll have to try that and hopefully it still works.

By coincidence, I just ran five different calculators the other day, including the new version of Fidelity's RIP. My results were as follows:

Fidelity RIP and ESPlanner were almost identical, both being the most conservative.

******** just slightly less conservative, giving me a spending rate about 1% higher.

FIRECalc still less conservative, at 5% higher.

ORP still less conservative, at over 7% higher.

Since even the most conservative RIP and ESP calculators give me an acceptable spending rate which is 15% higher than my actual budget, I feel comfortable in the occasional splurge.

This has been my experience regarding order of most to least conservative with these calculators as well.

Unfortunately, when my computer crashed two weeks ago the ESPlanner software went with it. I'll have to buy it again.

 

[Alan]

Thanks for the heads up, I hadn't updated RIP since the start of the year. I like the new interface, imo easier to use and update.

 

[Jack_Pine]

Thanks for the heads up, I hadn't updated RIP since the start of the year. I like the new interface, imo easier to use and update.

Yeah, I am good with the new interface as well. Everything is just in a different place. Seems like you don't have to go to as many pages as you used to toe make changes (which is good)

 

[Ticker]

Whoa, my projections have changed considerably!! I used the RIP tool to plan my retirement, it seemed to give me a little more confidence.
with the changes, it shows a 40% decline than previous evaluations. I am not sure what to think.....

I still have enough to live on, but now I am rethinking buying that RV....

 

[Ticker]

I went back again and now see the difference. there's a toggle that lets you
project in either today's dollars or future dollars. that's the 40% difference.

I came out way ahead in future dollars for an average market.

 

[Corporateburnout]

I went back again and now see the difference. there's a toggle that lets you
project in either today's dollars or future dollars. that's the 40% difference.

I came out way ahead in future dollars for an average market.

Are you sure you want it in future dollars? To me today's dollars is a better value because it would take inflation into consideration.

Also, Your 40% reduction from the old version may be more related with average vs below average market returns.

 

[Alan]

I went back again and now see the difference. there's a toggle that lets you
project in either today's dollars or future dollars. that's the 40% difference.

I should have mentioned that feature but as I usually use the today's dollars feature I never even thought about it.

 

[Alan]

If only Vanguard had something of equal caliber.

On the long run into retirement I used to use the Financials Engine tool available through the Vanguard site but these days I prefer the FRIP and FIRECALC calculators.