Same result with and w/o SS

[WilliamG]

I seem to get the same projection with or without SS $ entered at other spending tab. It is like the SS $ are not picked up at all. Can't see what I am doing wrong!

 

[REWahoo]

I just did two FIRECalc runs, one using the default numbers and one with default plus $10K in SS starting in 2015. The default showed a 94.5% success rate (6 failures), adding SS reduced the failure rate to 0.

Looks like it's working OK to me.

 

[theloneranger]

I have run the scenarios with and without SS.
There is a big difference when I take out the SS payments.
Less income and lower success rate.

 

[WilliamG]

thanks for the responses guys. just did some more experimenting. i had been putting in starting year of 2009 for wife and my SS. We are already retired and wanted calculations to reflect already on SS. I just changed the year to 2010 and the calculations are finally different and appear to reflect the SS $! I guess you must have to put in current year for SS already started!?

 

[NW-Bound]

I just did an experiment and experienced what the OP described. If one enters the start of SS in a past year, FIRECalc ignores it as if it does not exist. Looks like a bug or at least a deficiency to me.

 

[REWahoo]

Yep, FIRECalc won't accept start dates prior to the current year for SS, spending changes, etc.

I recall a discussion with Dory about his reason for designing the program this way but it's been a while. You might search this ("FIRECalc support") forum to see if it shows up.

 

[youbet]

Yep, you must have SS start in the current year or a future year. And it's clear why. But I don't know why dory chose to have SS entered with a prior year start date be ignored rather than sending an error message or similar.

I had to go through the same trial and error experimenting as OP to figure it out.

 

[Bongleur]

Might be useful to have a sticky "quirks" thread so people can learn about things like this.

 

[DayDreaming]

Sounds similar to the bug/quirk I reported here: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f36/bug-in-investigate-tab-42190.html

In my case, I accidentally had a past date for "What year will you retire?" in the "Investigate" tab. That caused FireCalc to ignore any SS or pension numbers.

Would be nice if FireCalc raised an error like "You can't enter past dates here, dummy!" rather quietly ignoring certain numbers.

 

[wzd]

Firecalc ignores pension

Looks like I just tripped over the same thing. Pension and other adjustments are now quietly ignored if 2010 is the starting year, just like SS.

I can hypothesize that old years are invalid because inflation adjustments would need to be made to the numbers, causing a lot of extra work and in some cases impossible work (i.e. adjust the inflation for 30 yr runs starting at earliest year of historical data). But the number for the year needs to have a warning or flag or something - the results are just wrong when it is ignored.