Flexible Retirement Planner Support Forum

Jim,
(still playing with the FRP). I can't quite figure out how to handle this. I've been retired for about 10 years. Some time ago I took part-time employment in teaching and have been putting some of those funds into a Roth IRA up to the max allowed (and spending the rest). How can I get the FRP to accept the additional Roth contributions for a specified period (this will only continue for as long as I'm still having fun teaching) into the Tax Free portfolio?
(Other question: since I run multiple portfolios is there some way to enter these, individually, in the FRP, or do I have to estimate an "average" ROR, sigma...?)
dave (smith)

Dave,

Thanks for posting your questions. I think the "additional inputs" section of the planner should have most of what you're looking for.

From the main FRP page, click the "Additional Inputs" button on the right side of the page. A new window will pop-up that allows you to enter more details about your plan. On the lower half of this window, look for the item labeled "Cash flow type" and select "Tax Free Savings" on the corresponding drop-down menu (I think it's the last choice). For start and end years, select when you expect the contributions to begin and when you expect them to end. Finally, enter the contribution amount and click the "add" button.

To make sure the planner did what you expected, click on the "Detailed View" tab after you run the planner and verify that the year-by-year inputs and outputs look reasonable.

As far as your question about supporting multiple portfolios, you're correct that you need to average out the return/std deviations to get one set of values to enter for your overall portfolio. The planner doesn't have support for multiple portfolios. However, with the additional inputs you can specify different rates of returns for different years of your plan. For example, you might have a more aggressive portfolio earlier in the plan with a higher return/volatility and later in the plan you may expect to have a more conservative portfolio with a lower return/volatility.

Thanks for trying the planner and please don't hesitate to post again if you have more questions.

Regards,

Jim