How can I post an Excel file?

[accountingsucks]

I spent a bit of today building an Excel file that tracks my expected retirement savings until the age of 100 (I'm 30 now) I think it is fairly accurate as I have diligently tracked my expenses for awhile now and my sources of income are known and predictable. I've basically assumed inflation will increase my expenses 2.5% per year and that I will get salary increments of 3% per year. I've built an 8% return into my investments.

Is there anyway I can post this file? I would like others to take a look at it to critique anything they think is wrong. Also someone could use it as a template if they wished.

There are many retirement calculators online and none of them can really keep track of all the assumptions and inputs inherent in a retirmenet plan, but these can easily be built into a spreadsheet. Plus it's easy to adjust any given number such as rate of return, etc to see how the numbers change.

According to my calcs if I save around $3000 a month I should be able to retire at 45 and live off the interest until I'm 100....

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by accountingsucks I think it is fairly accurate as I have diligently tracked my expenses for awhile now and my sources of income are known and predictable.*

You will be lucky indeed for this assumption to remain true for the next 20 years.

However, it got me thinking, and looking back I have used a spreadsheet that I started in 1993 doing similar to what you are doing and tracked target salary and target 401(k) savings against what I predicted for that salary. I assumed contributing the max, a 10% return and salary increases of 7% each year. In 13 years I am only off by a mere 1.5% - amazing really as these days I use all the sophisticated planning tools available to me on line.

The bigger picture had my wife going back to work and earning a good salary, good luck in real estate etc so I am actually far better off in total than I could have imagined, but in tracking that single salary it has remained remarkably close to my optimistic aims.

[accountingsucks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan You will be lucky indeed for this assumption to remain true for the next 20 years. However, it got me thinking, and looking back I have used a spreadsheet that I started in 1993 doing similar to what you are doing and tracked target salary and target 401(k) savings against what I predicted for that salary. I assumed contributing the max, a 10% return and salary increases of 7% each year. In 13 years I am only off by a mere 1.5% - amazing really as these days I use all the sophisticated planning tools available to me on line. The bigger picture had my wife going back to work and earning a good salary, good luck in real estate etc so I am actually far better off in total than I could have imagined, but in tracking that single salary it has remained remarkably close to my optimistic aims.

No doubt that this has so many assumptions/guesses, but I'd rather plan than not plan at all. As far as my expenses, I don't know how else I could estimate them besides having tracked them and then assuming an inflationary increase each year. I think my estimate will be fairly reasonable.

[Alan]

I think planning using a spreadsheet as you suggest is going to work well for you. I'm sure you'll look for better tools 10 - 15 years from now. 13 years ago I didn't track my expenses, I just aimed at saving the max in my 401(K), zero debt outside of a reasonable mortgage, and savings accounts for big ticket items such as cars, college funds and vacations. (plus I always had a rainy day fund for the unplanned expenses). 14 years I tracked nothing !!

[TromboneAl]

To post it, find some location to which you can upload the file. For example, if your ISP gives you personal web space, you can put it there. Then you can link to it from here.