Spending levels - am I doing something wrong?

[rvictor]

Hi folks.

I have gone through Firecalc 3 using the following entries:

Start here tab:
Spending $34,200
Portfolio $18,700
Years 25
Other Income/Spending:
Social security $17124 starting 2040
Not retired?
Year 2040
Add to portfolio $3,420
Spending models
Inflation assumption CPI
Constant spending power
Your Portfolio
Fees 0.25%
Total market since 1871, fixed income long interest rate, 64% equities.
Portfolio changes
None
Investigate
The success rate of your portfolio and withdrawal plans

Click submit.

Result: 100% success rate.

But no matter what I do to spending levels on the first tab, I get a 100% success rate. I change it to $250,000, I still get a 100% success rate.

Sounds great, but seems a little unlikely.

Am I doing something wrong, or have I misunderstood how the calculator works?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[REWahoo]

The "Start Here" page gives the option of entering "...how many years you want the plan to last (or the calendar year you want the plan to end)." If you want to retire in 2040 and see the results for 25 years, you want your plan to last 55 years from 2010, or until 2065. Entering either of those two numbers (55 or 2065) should give you the results you are looking for.

 

[donheff]

I have occasionally experienced problems where it doesn't seem Firecalc is really accepting the new data. In those cases I cleared the cache and restarted the browser. Either I misinterpreted the problem or the technique worked.

 

[Rustward]

Just FYI, on the results page there is a link that says "link to this set of data". You can right click and copy and paste it; it's useful for saving, sending to someone else, or posting here. It produces a big ol' honking URL but it will contain all the parameters relieving the recipient of having to re-enter all the data to look at the scenario.