??? with Firecalc

[wyecrabber1]

Tonight, I entered my data into Firecalc and got very different results from my previous inquiries. I had the input data from a previous report and entered those number -- again the graphic page and summary was markedly different.

The report from tonight stated I had a 25% success rate, where as the previous report as showed a 100% success rate. I checked my data entry and it was okay. The culprit seems to be that the social security / pension data is not being included in the calculations. The results were the same with or without the ss/pension data.

This is the first time I've had a discrepancy using the calculator. Has anyone else had problems. It's been more than 6 months since I last used Firecalc.

Thanks!!!

 

[SecondCor521]

It has been working fine for me.

Just now:

Clicking "Submit" with all default values resulted in a success rate of ~95%.

Adding $20000 of SS starting in 2022 increased the success rate to 100%.

Deleting the SS entry and adding $20000 of pension income starting in 2024 also increased the success rate to 100%.

...

Remember that the SS and pension entries are supposed to be annual numbers, not monthly numbers. If you're entering monthly numbers, FIREcalc will treat them as annual numbers, and an entry of, say $1000 for SS may not be enough to affect the success rate.

 

[Geld ist Freiheit]

Double check that you have the Pension Income button checked (it defaults to Off Chart Spending).

Having that number (potentially tens of thousands of dollars) input as an expense instead of income will impact the results.

That has bitten me more than once.

 

[Dtail]

Make sure your numbers are input as yearly numbers vs. monthly numbers. My results from Firecalc have been consistent.

 

[Gumby]

In addition to the suggestions above, make sure the starting year is correct for SS and pensions. If you are already receiving social security or a pension, use the current year (2021) as a starting date. The program does not accommodate numbers in those boxes prior to the current year and it will be as if you are not receiving that money at all.

Also make sure the inflation adjusted box is checked for the pension if you do indeed get a COLA.

MOD NOTE: Thread moved to Firecalc Support forum

 

[Lawrencewendall]

May just be me but FIRECalc ignores fields with commas in them.

 

[CindyBlue]

I just tried it and it's working for me...

 

[braumeister]

May just be me but FIRECalc ignores fields with commas in them.

True, but that's generally true for spreadsheets as well.

Quite a few FIRECalc questions are answered in this page:
https://firecalc.com/intro.php

and one of them is often the most useful:

I am not sure that my entries are doing what they should. How can I check?
One way is to start with a nearly blank scenario with zero expenses, zero inflation, and zero growth. Make a single change at a time and see the effect on the timeline. Remove that change and make another. Keep doing this until you satisfy yourself that your changes are happening as you expect.

 

[wyecrabber1]

Early this morning, I found the culprit -- and it is as Gumby stated. The dates for receiving social security must be the current year or greater.

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/bjl4VMfuAcpnP8dJoIYivHB3gCzlM05aCKoowQ7LHTb