Best calculator for early retirement projections

[Dtail]

No, read the methodology they explain it better than I probably will.

You input your spend without taxes. 90k in your example. The app calculates your taxes and adds it into your total withdrawal so your withdrawal is 100k, again from your example.

Actually your explanation is what I am doing. Just misunderstood your explanation. Whew!!!

So taking it a step further with my example, if one has a withdrawal of 100k and a Fidelity score of 110, then one has a maximum spending of 110k.
Agree?

 

[COcheesehead]

Actually your explanation is what I am doing. Just misunderstood your explanation. Whew!!!

So taking it a step further with my example, if one has a withdrawal of 100k and a Fidelity score of 110, then one has a maximum spending of 110k.
Agree?

Yes, I agree. 110 means you have 110% of your anticipated expenses covered.

 

[Dtail]

Yes, I agree. 110 means you have 110% of your anticipated expenses covered.

Okay all is good now. Started doubting myself. Thank you very much.

 

[COcheesehead]

Okay all is good now. Started doubting myself. Thank you very much.

No, I do the same thing from time to time.

 

[Rianne]

A little on the optimistic side but it is using the classic 95% success rate on 4% WR inflation adjusted.
Just use the Fidelity calculator in conjunction for a more conservative view.

It seems you have to "sign up" "log in" to get to the calculator in Fidelity. I don't want their e-mails, newsletter etc. I'm not a Fidelity customer. Is there a link to get to the calculator you're speaking of?

 

[wmc1000]

use a throwaway account from google, yahoo, microsoft, etc. I use gmx.com for mine

 

[COcheesehead]

It seems you have to "sign up" "log in" to get to the calculator in Fidelity. I don't want their e-mails, newsletter etc. I'm not a Fidelity customer. Is there a link to get to the calculator you're speaking of?

Its only going to be as good as your inputs so if you are not a client and don't want to link accounts, I am not sure how accurate the results will be.

 

[Dtail]

Its only going to be as good as your inputs so if you are not a client and don't want to link accounts, I am not sure how accurate the results will be.

It seems you have to "sign up" "log in" to get to the calculator in Fidelity. I don't want their e-mails, newsletter etc. I'm not a Fidelity customer. Is there a link to get to the calculator you're speaking of?

There is a basic version of the Fidelity calculator. See the below link. It does not give one the detail and ability to play around with the numbers.
The detailed calculator that we use comes with being a Fidelity customer.
Link:
https://www.fidelity.com/calculators-tools/fidelity-retirement-score-tool

 

[tb001]

Fido’s will calculate your tax rate and add the tax liability into your analysis. So their gross amount includes taxes.

Curious how accurate others have found their tax estimates to be. They show a significantly higher tax liability for us vs my estimates using turbo tax and estimates from i-orp. Not sure how to resolve the differences.

For us, this is the huge wild card that keeps me awake and doing OMY. Using my expense estimates, we're at 97 with Fidelity and 95+% with Firecalc, with a fair amount of cushion in our budget. We have room to significantly decrease our spend, but would prefer not to for our initial years, especially with young kids in the mix.

 

[COcheesehead]

Curious how accurate others have found their tax estimates to be. They show a significantly higher tax liability for us vs my estimates using turbo tax and estimates from i-orp. Not sure how to resolve the differences.

For us, this is the huge wild card that keeps me awake and doing OMY. Using my expense estimates, we're at 97 with Fidelity and 95+% with Firecalc, with a fair amount of cushion in our budget. We have room to significantly decrease our spend, but would prefer not to for our initial years, especially with young kids in the mix.

A 97 at Fido is border line, but it is a more conservative tool than the others. I can understand your concern and maybe a reason to pause and reconsider your plan a bit closer if something like taxes will alter your outcome.
As far as tax estimates, there are so many unknowns, I would rather err on the high side.

 

[Dtail]

Curious how accurate others have found their tax estimates to be. They show a significantly higher tax liability for us vs my estimates using turbo tax and estimates from i-orp. Not sure how to resolve the differences.

For us, this is the huge wild card that keeps me awake and doing OMY. Using my expense estimates, we're at 97 with Fidelity and 95+% with Firecalc, with a fair amount of cushion in our budget. We have room to significantly decrease our spend, but would prefer not to for our initial years, especially with young kids in the mix.

If you are a Fidelity customer using the full range calculator, you can input your own tax rates for Federal and State.

 

[COcheesehead]

If you are a Fidelity customer using the full range calculator, you can input your own tax rates for Federal and State.

That's true. It is under the "time and expenses" tab.

 

[PointBreeze]

When I was in my last two years I went on every retirement calculator site known to man. Just getting my head around being able to retire earlier than I thought. I'm almost three years in and I continue to run scenarios knowing already that I'm ok. I can't explain it other than being anxious. Maybe just having a tough time being grateful

+1
It's a really hard habit to break. Having this mindset it what got us to the position of being able to retire in the first place!

 

[akl432]

This is such helpful discussion and information, all! Thank you so much!

For those that use the Fidelity planner, where do you see your income taxes listed as expenses? When I entered my information into the planner, I entered my federal/state income tax rates, and then I separately entered my discretionary/non-discretionary spending dollar amounts (I did not include income taxes in my discretionary/non-discretionary spending dollar amounts). Where would I see the income tax expenses included in my total expenses? For instance, under the "Detailed Income Analysis" section of the report, does the "Total Expenses" number include income taxes?

The question came up on another thread about making sure to include income taxes in expense projections, and I wasn't sure how Fidelity differentiated the discretionary/non-discretionary spending dollar amounts, from the income tax expenses.