Personal Capital Glitch?

[Lawrencewendall]

I use the free version of personalcapitol.com. I created 3 scenarios under the retirement planning section. One scenario has me start SS at 62, one at 67 and the other at 70. All 3 have retirement starting at 57 in 4 years. Theoretically, there should be no difference between the 3 until age 62, but all 3 show different account values every year from 53 to 61 for both median and worst case. How is this possible?

 

[CaliKid]

I use the free version of personalcapitol.com. I created 3 scenarios under the retirement planning section. One scenario has me start SS at 62, one at 67 and the other at 70. All 3 have retirement starting at 57 in 4 years. Theoretically, there should be no difference between the 3 until age 62, but all 3 show different account values every year from 53 to 61 for both median and worst case. How is this possible?

Do they invest the money differently, in their forecasts, based on age?

 

[Lawrencewendall]

Do they invest the money differently, in their forecasts, based on age?

My age is the same in all 3 scenarios and the timeline is the same (out to 93). The further out, those early differences have more of an impact. Not sure which is right.

 

[aja8888]

Maybe you could ask someone at Personal Capital?

 

[Lawrencewendall]

Maybe you could ask someone at Personal Capital?

I plan on it but since I'm using their free version, I don't expect much. Thought I'd ask here if anyone else encountered the glitch.

 

[Sunset]

Are the account values every year from 53 to 61 smaller the farther away collecting SS age ?

I could see they allow you to spend more if you are getting SS earlier.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

Are the account values every year from 53 to 61 smaller the farther away collecting SS age ?

I could see they allow you to spend more if you are getting SS earlier.

The numbers are smaller the closer to withdrawing SS and I put in a fixed yearly spending amount for all 3 scenarios. I submitted a help ticket. Will post back here with their reply.

This is the answer I got:
"When we run calculations for your Retirement Planner, we try to extrapolate data for your investment accounts using a Monte Carlo system. In this system, we run 5,000 different simulations and take the average result. In this way we try to get a median picture of what your returns will look like. However, this does mean that there may be some variation between one projection and the next, even if the details are exactly the same. The difference shouldn't be exceptionally drastic, but differences are possible."

The paperwork is at w*rk, so i'll check tomorrow on the difference.

 

[Rdub]

I have been using Personal Capital for a while. I used to send them suggestions and issues I was having with the free version and they always responded and fixed the bug. Give it a shot.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

Just looked. Difference at 61 is 11k between SS at 62 and SS at 70. Starting SS at 62 is the less. Difference at 70 is 62 being 200k less. I guess ballpark is better than nothing. FIRECalc shows drawing at 62 to be 200k better at 70.