Flexible Retirement Planner Support Forum

Hello,

Thanks for developing this super planner! I have cash savings for the first 3 years of retirement. I've experimented with including this value as either
1. the only Tax Free portfolio (return 0, first in w/d order)
2. a lump sum Tax Free Savings in additional inputs/Retirement Year
3. splitting it into Misc Income entries (Taxable percent 0) to match the annual expenses until it's depleted and withdrawals come from Taxable and Tax Deferred portfolios.

I think I've settled on the first option, tax free portfolio value. However, I've noticed that the annual reduction in Tax Free portfolio value is greater than the annual expenses/withdrawal: Yr 1 ~10%, Yr 2 ~5%, Yr 3 ~2%. The other 2 portfolios behave as I would expect until the Tax Free portfolio is depleted.

Can you think of what I might be missing?

If your retirement age is lower than the "Min IRA Withdrawal Age" that's set on the main input page (default 60), withdrawals from tax deferred and tax free portfolios are subject to a 10% early withdrawal penalty.

Aside from that, I'm not sure what could explain the discrepancy.

It may be simplest to just reduce retirement expenses during these first 3 years to account for the extra savings. You can do that by zeroing out retirement spending on the main input page and accounting for expenses with an "other expenses" cash flow in additional inputs that starts 3 years after retirement. I think your idea to use a 3 year misc income cash flow also seems like a pretty straightforward way to go.

One tip to see what's really going on with cash flows from year to year is to click the details view tab, then select the "show more details" radio button on the top right. You can also right-click on any column header and select "show all columns" for even more detail. Finally, right-clicking on any cell brings up a menu that lets you export the table to excel if that's needed.