Quicken Lifetime Planner?

[explanade]

I tried QLP a couple of times before they went subscription.

I subscribed at the start of the year mostly using the Mac version.

I subscribed at the Quicken Deluxe level.

So I tried installing the Windows version and importing a QTX file from my Mac Quicken file.

It screwed it up badly, got all the bank accounts okay but didn't get my brokerage account balances right at all. It overestimated my net worth, gave me way more shares in some stocks, more than doubling my investment balances.

Tried it twice, never got any better.

So I wanted to mainly try out the QLP but it appears QLP doesn't exist any more.

Instead there's something called Retirement Calculator and it's just a simple panel and you can only enter maybe a half dozen variables, like return, inflation rate, estimated tax rate.

Pretty useless, the numbers it generated.

So I'm wondering if you have to subscribe to a higher level to get access to QLP.

Anyone try using it after they went subscription or maybe they got rid of it altogether?

Subscriptions were suppose to let them add features, not remove them.

 

[grasshopper]

On my Windoze version of Quicken under planning I still have QLP use it 3-4 times a year. Up to date subscription.

 

[explanade]

What kind of subscription did you get?

Maybe Premier instead of Deluxe?

Because the version I saw had a Planning tab at top but when I clicked it, all it offered was to create a budget.

 

[grasshopper]

Deluxe, planning dropdown menu shows, budgets, debt reduction, LP, tax center, and savings goals. My QKN version is R42.8, build 27.1.42.8, with all updates.

 

[explanade]

OK, found it, thanks.

 

[pb4uski]

On my Windoze version of Quicken under planning I still have QLP use it 3-4 times a year. Up to date subscription.

+1 I have Deluxe.

 

[G-Man]

I'm using the Fidelity Retirement Planner today for retirement planning.

How does Quicken Lifetime Planner compare to the Fidelity tool?

 

[qwerty3656]

I'm using the Fidelity Retirement Planner today for retirement planning.

How does Quicken Lifetime Planner compare to the Fidelity tool?

One issue I saw with Fidelity, is that taxes seemed to be a black box. Do you see a way to manage taxes? In my case, most of my money is Roth and not taxed.

 

[G-Man]

One issue I saw with Fidelity, is that taxes seemed to be a black box. Do you see a way to manage taxes? In my case, most of my money is Roth and not taxed.

There is an input for state and local tax.

 

[pb4uski]

For a basic plan, I think highly of QLP. It is intuitive, flexible, easy to use and covers a lot of bases... so as a result, I used QLP for my basic plan and highly recommend it.

The only "flaw" is that it is a deterministic planner and doesn't stress test your plan for sequence of returns risk. To compenste for that, jut before I retired I ran my situation through FIRECalc and a number of other stochastic planners to assess the SORR of my plan and all gave me different versions of a green light... so I pulled the plug on working for hire.

 

[explanade]

Thing I like about Fidelity RIP is that it generates year to year projections.

I think QLP did that as well, when I tried it almost 10 years ago. I will have to play with this one a little more.

 

[pb4uski]

^^^ Yes, you can look at each year of the projection with QLP... IIRC either in nominal $$ or in real $$.

 

[G-Man]

I noticed there are a number of posts on this forum about "Personal Capital" as well.

I just don't like the idea of having to link my accounts (Fidelity, etc.) when using the online program. I signed up today, but have not finished the initial data inputs required.


https://www.personalcapital.com/

 

[G-Man]

^^^ Yes, you can look at each year of the projection with QLP... IIRC either in nominal $$ or in real $$.

I did a google search and it looks like the Lifetime planner feature is no longer available with the online version.

Are you using a PC based version?

 

[explanade]

Well my income will be higher once I take SS and start taking RMDs as well as continue to pay taxes on dividends and cap gains distributions.

But one thing that kind of gave me pause in converting my 401k assets, which are about 5X the value of the Roth IRA account that I have, is that it's entirely a bond trust.

So it forms a key part of my AA, which is probably too heavily on equities, like 74% to 23%, equities to fixed.

And my Roth IRA is entirely equities.

I could pour it into some fixed instrument but that bond trust has much better returns than something like VBTIX.

 

[pb4uski]

I did a google search and it looks like the Lifetime planner feature is no longer available with the online version.

Are you using a PC based version?

Yes... have used the desktop version for almost 30 years.

 

[zaqxsw]

I've used the Quicken Lifetime Planner it for decades. Love the flexibility and simplicity IF you already capture all of your finances in Quicken.

 

[qwerty3656]

There is an input for state and local tax.

Yes - but not federal? If I withdraw Roth money, I would like to assume no federal taxes.

 

[pb4uski]

Yes, there are inputs for 1) federal tax and for 2) state and local taxes.

On a different subject, I just clicked on Change Assumptions and Explore What-Ifs and rather than open the windows that it has opened in the past it tried to jump to a web page and I got an error message that navagation was cancelled. Never seen that before. Is it just me?

 

[PatrickA5]

Yes, there are inputs for 1) federal tax and for 2) state and local taxes.

On a different subject, I just clicked on Change Assumptions and Explore What-Ifs and rather than open the windows that it has opened in the past it tried to jump to a web page and I got an error message that navagation was cancelled. Never seen that before. Is it just me?

What Ifs seems to work fine for me.

On a slightly different topic, Quicken sent me an email survey today about what I thought of a potential new product that has to do with estate planning. It sounded like a comprehensive vehicle to store all of your financial "stuff" in one place for your heirs. It's something that I'd be very interested in since almost everything is in Quicken already. Of course, they will want money (subscription) for it.

 

[rodi]

I used QLP a lot when I was formulating my plan - I liked that it integrated some things like paying for the kids college (from 529s) and that it brought up lots of scenarios I hadn't thought of. I also ran fidelity's retirement calc a bunch of time... Firecalc... i-orp... pretty much every calculator I could get my hands on.

Each are different... and running the different calculators made me think of different aspects of my plan that I might not have thought of. As mentioned - the downfall of QLP is that it is deterministic (fixed rate of investment increase, fixed rate of inflation, fixed tax rate....) Firecalc offers historic investment returns, Fidelity lets you have different inflation for healthcare, education, etc... So they all have a purpose if you drill down into the guts of them.

Once I got the green light on all of them, I knew I had a good plan. Fortunately, that happened before my boss pulled a travel requirement out of his backside which resulted in my 2 week notice.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I got that survey today as well.
Since I can't even download transactions from some of my credit unions now which is pretty much all I need these days, there is zero chance of me using any new Quicken products.