A little clarity.
A lot more possibility.Your retirement plan, one decision at a time.
A lot more possibility.Your retirement plan, one decision at a time.
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Free retirement planner: will your savings last?Will your savings last? A quick estimate in about 2 minutes, or your full plan
Compass runs your plan through 2,000 possible market futures, with taxes, Social Security and Medicare, and tells you how often the money lasts.
Tests your plan in 2,000 market futures, with taxes, Social Security and Medicare. Free, no signup; your plan stays on this device.
- Free, no account, no email
- Your plan stays in this browser
- Save it to your computer, open it again
Coming back?
What you’ll find out
- Will my money last?
- How often it lasts in 2,000 futures, the age it runs out in a bad one, and the single change that helps most.
- How much can I spend?
- Your retirement paycheck: what you can spend each month after taxes, and where it comes from.
- When should I claim Social Security?
- Every age from 62 to 70, ranked for your plan, for you and your spouse.
- How much tax will I pay?
- Federal, state and city income tax and Medicare surcharges, year by year, with ways to pay less.
- Should I convert to a Roth?
- Whether it’s worth it, and how much to convert each year.
- Do I have to type in all my funds?
- No. Compass can read a PDF statement, a photo or a screenshot of your holdings.
Nothing leaves your browser
Compass runs on this page and saves your plan here as you type. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere. To keep a copy, or to move to another computer, use File → Export Full Plan, and Import Plan to open it again. Clearing your browser’s data deletes the copy kept here.
Step 1 of 5 — Your situation
1 of 3
Step 1 of 3 — Your Investment Mix
How is your retirement account roughly invested?
Slide to the stock/bond mix that's closest to yours — you can switch to your real funds later in the plan.
The first number is stocks; the second is bonds. For example, 60/40 means 60% stocks and 40% bonds. If you are unsure, check your retirement account’s investment breakdown; the selected mix is an assumption you can revise.
60/40
← Aggressive
MORE RISK
LESS RISK
Conservative
Step 2 of 3 — Your Numbers
A handful of numbers — that's all this needs to give you a real projection.
When will you start Social Security?
Spending Goal ($)
% of Portfolio
How much will you spend in retirement?
After income tax, in today’s dollars. Social Security counts toward it, so don’t subtract it. Leave out health care and taxes — Compass adds them itself.
Step 3 of 3 — Your Projection
Running 2,000 simulations…
This is a quick estimate. It uses your answers, one stock/bond mix and Compass’s return assumptions.
Ready to make this more accurate? Full Control uses your real fund lineup, filing status, state tax, Roth conversions, other accounts, and more — all with the same simulation engine that just ran your quick estimate.
See My Full Results ›
← Change my numbers
← Change my mix
Plan, Project & Stress-Test Your Retirement
Complete Retirement & Tax Planning Simulator
Monte CarloTax awareSocial SecurityRoth modelingRMD planningGuardrails strategy
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Retirement Plan Summary
Jump to a section
Setup
Savings
Retirement details
Additional Plan Options
Additional Plan Options
Results & Tools
Simulation Results
Year-by-Year Projection
Real Market History
Bad Timing Risk
Saved Scenarios
You
Four short cards about you: your dates, your work, your income in retirement and your health care. Your spouse answers the same cards next.
How the simulation works
The simulation uses your investment mix, fund expenses, expected returns, volatility, and relationships between asset classes. It runs 2,000 possible market paths so you can see a range of outcomes rather than relying on one forecast.
Estimate from pay — a rough figure. Your ssa.gov statement has the exact one.
Your dates
Your work
Working now?pay until you retire
Health plan from this job?
It covers your spouse too
Work after you retire?part-time or a new job
Self-employed or a business?
Your income in retirement
Social Security?tap the age you start
A pension?
An annuity?
Other income?alimony, royalties, a trust, VA disability…
Health & long-term care
From 65, which Medicare?
How much care do you usually use?
Long-term care?home care, assisted living or a nursing home
Your spouse
The same cards, about your spouse. Every age here is theirs.
Estimate from pay — a rough figure. Your spouse’s ssa.gov statement has the exact one.
Spouse’s dates
Spouse’s work
Working now?pay until they retire
Health plan from this job?
It covers you too
Work after they retire?part-time or a new job
Self-employed or a business?
Spouse’s income in retirement
Social Security?tap the age they start
A pension?
An annuity?
Other income?alimony, royalties, a trust, VA disability…
Spouse’s health & long-term care
From 65, which Medicare?
How much care does your spouse usually use?
Long-term care?home care, assisted living or a nursing home
Savings
Add each retirement account you have. For each one: what kind it is, how much is in it, and how it’s invested.
Enter a ticker if you know it, then choose the closest fund category. The category sets the assumptions; typing a ticker does not look up fund data.
About fund data
The ticker and name are for your own tracking. The category you select drives the return and risk assumptions in this tool.
60/40
← Aggressive
MORE RISK
LESS RISK
Conservative
Bond
US Equity
Foreign Developed
Emerging Markets
Alternatives
Asset Class Mix
PortfolioAllocation and score are shown first.
| Ticker | Fund / Category | Exp. Ratio | Est. Return* | Est. Std Dev* | Est. Sharpe* | Portfolio Fit | Allocation % | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Allocation | 0.0% | |||||||
No funds added yet — use the form above to add your first one.
Allocation total: 0.0%
Portfolio allocation
0.0%100.0% remaining
Uses the real 2026 federal 0%/15%/20% long-term capital gains thresholds, stacked on top of your other ordinary income for the year -- applies to your MAIN Taxable Brokerage account only.
No
Yes
Pre-tax is the default and the most common case for a 401(k)/IRA. If this money is actually a Roth or taxable brokerage account, switch the dropdown above — don't leave it on Pre-Tax and expect the numbers to be right.
Saved Portfolios
Give the mix you just built a name and balance, then save it as a portfolio below.
How saved portfolios work
Save your current investment mix as a named portfolio — switch between a few different ones instantly, no need to run anything first, unlike Saved Scenarios below. Give one a real Balance ($) and it routes automatically to the matching field in Plan Details for its tax treatment and owner. Once you have two or more saved with a balance, portfolios sharing the same tax treatment AND owner (Pre-Tax, Roth, or Taxable — You or Spouse) blend into one automatically — no button to click, and it stays in sync every time you add, edit, or delete a portfolio. Auto-saves to this browser and travels with Export Full Plan / Import Plan.
How do I assign portfolios to me vs. my spouse, and by tax type?
Each saved portfolio here represents one real account — a specific 401(k), IRA, or brokerage account you or your spouse actually hold. Build and save one per account, then blend them together. Step by step:
- If you're modeling a spouse's accounts too, turn on Spouse first — the "Owner" dropdown below only appears once that's on.
- In Accounts above, build that one account's real fund mix, then set Account Tax Treatment to whatever that account actually is — Pre-Tax, Roth, or Taxable Brokerage.
- Come back down here, give it a name, enter its current Balance ($), choose Owner: You or Spouse, and click Save Current Portfolio. Didn't have the balance handy, or need to correct it? Edit it anytime afterward directly in the table below — no need to re-save.
- With just one portfolio saved (a real Balance ($) set and nothing else saved yet), its balance routes automatically to the matching field below — Current Balance for a Pre-Tax account tagged to you, and so on — no button to click. See the table below for exactly where each combination lands.
- Repeat the steps above for every other account — including ones with the same tax treatment or the same owner. It's normal to end up with several Roth entries, for example, if you and your spouse each have one.
- Once a second portfolio also has a real balance, the Blend Multiple Portfolios panel appears below showing exactly how they group and where the combined money goes — applied automatically the moment it happens, the same as a single portfolio. Add, edit, or delete any portfolio afterward and it re-blends and re-applies right away, with no button to remember.
Where the money actually lands (always automatic, whether it's one saved portfolio or several blended together):
Pre-Tax
You
Retirement details → Current balance (your Main Portfolio)
Pre-Tax
Spouse
Spouse & Household → Pre-tax 401(k)/IRA balance
Roth
You
Your other assets and accounts → Roth → Balance
Roth
Spouse
Spouse & Household → Roth balance
Taxable
You
Your other assets and accounts → Taxable brokerage → Balance
Taxable
Spouse
Spouse & Household → Taxable brokerage balance
Every row above lands in the field matching who it's tagged to, the same way Pre-Tax already did. Roth and Taxable still don't have an owner-specific RMD rule, so a "You" and a "Spouse" account of the same type add together into the exact same combined balance either way — this only changes WHERE the number is visible on screen, never what the simulation actually uses.
A blend (or a single saved portfolio) fully overwrites whichever of these fields it routes into, automatically, every time you add, edit, or delete a portfolio — so if you're also entering money directly into one of these six fields by hand (rather than through a saved portfolio), keep that separate from whatever you're saving here, and know it'll be overwritten the next time Saved Portfolios changes, to avoid double-counting the same dollars.
No portfolios saved yet.
Blend Multiple Portfolios
How the plan uses your accounts: each tax type is kept apart (pre-tax, Roth, brokerage, cash, HSA), because each is taxed differently. Within a type, the balances are added up for taxes and the order money is taken out, but two or more accounts of the same type each keep their own balance and grow by their own investments. Nothing to enter: it follows your accounts.
About you
Estimate using SSA longevity tables
Contributions
What you put in each year. Leave your employer’s match out of this number — if you get one, add it below.
Your 401(k)/IRA contributions not counting the employer match
Employer match
Only if your employer adds to your 401(k). Plans are usually written like “50% of what I put in, up to 6% of my salary”: the first number is the match rate (50 cents per dollar you put in), the second is how much of your pay gets matched. Your salary also lets Compass count Social Security you claim before you retire.
Social Security
Enter the benefit at full retirement age from your ssa.gov statement, and Compass works out what you get at the age you claim.
Assumptions
What the 2,000 futures assume about markets, prices and Social Security. The usual settings are filled in; change them to test a tougher future.
No
Yes
Spending
One yearly amountI know roughly what I'll spend
Itemize my expensesBuild it in the Expense Planner
Spending goal, after income tax
In today’s dollars. Social Security counts toward it, so don’t subtract it. Leave out health care and taxes — Compass adds them itself.
Not sure what to spend? The Retirement Paycheck page finds the most you can spend safely, once you have a result.
—
Your spending comes from the itemized Expense Planner. Taxes and modeled healthcare costs are added on top, the same way as a yearly amount.
Your spendingWhat you plan to spend
A share of savingsWithdrawal rate
Adjusts with marketsGuardrails
Estate optional
Only if you want a goal for what you leave, or your state has an estate tax.
Property & debts
Your home, other property and what you owe. A mortgage or loan payment is spending until it’s paid off, and a home can be sold if savings run low, so both change your plan.
Spending
What you’ll spend in retirement, and how you’ll draw it from your savings.
Plan options
Everything below is optional and off by default — turn on whichever actually applies to your situation. They're grouped by topic, and each one opens its own settings further down the page in the same order.
Your savings accounts and cash beyond the ones in step 1
Other Accounts
Cash, an HSA, and any account not added in step 1
Household & taxes who the plan covers and how it is taxed
Spouse
Their age, Social Security and savings (also asked in step 2)
Health care & state tax
Health insurance before 65, your Medicare plan, state tax
Income in retirement money that arrives besides Social Security and your savings
Pension
A fixed monthly check from a former employer
Annuity
A lump sum traded for guaranteed income
TIPS Ladder
Inflation-protected bonds paying set income each year
Part-Time Work
Some work income after you officially retire
Self-Employment
Freelance, consulting or small-business profit, taxed for real
Rental Income
Rental property income beyond your primary home
Property & one-time money a home sale or inheritance, your net worth
One-Time Money
Selling or downsizing your home, an inheritance
Property & Debts
Your home, other property and what you owe — your net worth
Spending & strategy what you spend, and how you handle taxes, giving, care and risk
Expense Planner
Build a real number instead of guessing
Roth Conversions
Convert pre-tax savings to Roth to lower later taxes
Charitable Giving
Donating directly from an IRA, tax-free
Long-Term Care
A real cost most retirement plans miss
Glide Path
Shift toward bonds as retirement goes on
Spouse
For a married couple — adds your spouse's Social Security, their own retirement timing, and what happens financially if one of you passes before the other.
No
Yes
About your spouse
Every age in this section is your spouse’s own age, not yours.
Their Social Security
Enter the benefit at full retirement age from their ssa.gov statement and Compass works out the amount for any claim age — or skip it and type the amount for their claim age. Leave the amount at 0 if your spouse won’t get a benefit of their own.
Their work
Their savings are their accounts, added in step 1 (Accounts) like yours.
Their contributions until they retire optional
Survivor
The standard plan has each of you live to your own plan-until age. Pick who passes first to test the survivor years.
Health care & state tax
Federal tax and Medicare Part B are always counted. This adds state tax, health insurance before 65 and the rest of Medicare.
No
Yes
Before Medicare
The years before Medicare at 65 with no job’s plan: what each person chose on their health card, and the prices.
You
Spouse
Medicare from 65
Part B for each person on Medicare, plus the coverage each person picks on their health card, priced for your state.
Your own numbers (optional — blank uses the estimate)
Your spouse’s own numbers (optional — blank uses the estimate for their coverage)
Pension
For a fixed monthly check from a former employer — most private-sector workers don't have one; many government and union workers do.
No
Yes
Pension income is fully taxable as ordinary income (like a paycheck) — different from Social Security, which only gets partially taxed. It's added on top of Social Security each year, directly reducing how much your 401(k) needs to cover.
Annuity
An insurance contract that pays guaranteed income in exchange for a lump sum — only relevant if you already have one or have a real quote in hand.
No
Yes
Each annuity's price comes out of the account you pick at the age you buy it (only as much as that account holds: the income is that share of the quote) — this tool doesn't estimate what payout a given premium would buy, or what a given payout would cost; enter the real numbers from an actual quote or contract. Once income starts, it's treated as fully taxable ordinary income added on top of Social Security and any pension, exactly like pension income — this assumes the annuity was purchased with pre-tax retirement money (the common case for money already inside a 401(k) or IRA); a non-qualified annuity bought with already-taxed money has its own partial-taxation rules ("exclusion ratio") that aren't modeled here.
TIPS Ladder
Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities bought to mature one a year: each year pays the same amount in today’s dollars, whatever inflation does, with no market swings when held to maturity. Compass takes the cost out of the account you choose, and each year’s bond matures back into that account — so an IRA ladder is taxed when you withdraw, a Roth ladder never, and a brokerage ladder on its interest and inflation adjustments every year. Enter the cost from a quote or ladder calculator, or the real yield (TreasuryDirect, your broker) and Compass works out the cost.
Part-Time Work
For continuing to earn some income — consulting, part-time work, a small business — for a while after you officially retire.
No
Yes
Pay from part-time work or a new job after you retire, before tax: it’s taxed as wages (with FICA), counts in Social Security’s earnings test before full retirement age, and reduces what your savings must provide. Add as many jobs as you have, each with its own ages and raise.
Self-Employment
For freelance, consulting or small-business profit (1099 / Schedule C) after you retire.
No
Yes
Enter the business’s profit before taxes. Each year Compass adds it to your other income and works out the real tax: income tax at your bracket (after deducting half of the self-employment tax, your Solo 401(k)/SEP contribution and the 20% qualified business income deduction), the 15.3% self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare, and state tax. What’s left helps pay your spending; profit beyond what you spend is saved. It also counts toward Social Security taxation, IRMAA and ACA subsidies. For pay from a job after retiring, use “Work after you retire?” instead — that’s wages (with payroll tax), not a business.
Rental Income
For income from a rental property or other real estate you own beyond your primary home.
No
Yes
Rental income is fully taxable as ordinary income, like a paycheck — added on top of Social Security, pension, and annuity income each year, directly reducing how much your savings need to cover. A property's rent goes on its own card in Property & debts (its rent, how it rises, the share collected and its years), so it starts when you buy it and stops when you sell it. Use Other rental income for rent that isn't from a property card.
Other rental income
Other Accounts
For savings, a brokerage account, an IRA, or a Roth account you hold outside the main portfolio above.
No
Yes
Which money is spent first — cash, brokerage, pre-tax or Roth — is your choice. Set it under How you’ll pay for retirement, next to the Withdrawal Method.
Cash and savings
Checking, savings, CDs, money market.
Traditional IRA
A pre-tax IRA you hold apart from your main account.
A Traditional IRA only applies when Account Tax Treatment above is set to Pre-Tax — it wouldn't have a consistent tax treatment to merge into otherwise, so it's hidden here.
Taxable brokerage
A regular investment account: only the gains are taxed when you sell.
Roth
A Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) you already have.
Health savings account (HSA)
Spent tax-free on medical costs.
One-Time Money
Money you expect to receive once — selling or downsizing your home, an inheritance, a business sale, a bonus. Add as many as you have, each at your age or your spouse's, into the account you pick, after tax or taxed as income that year. For a large one-time cost (a new roof, a wedding), use a one-time item in the Expense Planner instead.
Net Worth
Adds your home equity and other real estate to the balances you've already entered, minus your debts.
No
Yes
Your accounts are already counted. Add your home, other property, things of value and what you owe; payments count as spending until each loan is paid off.
What you own
Home as a backstop
Off: the simulation doesn’t touch your home.
+ Add something you own
Estimated Net Worth Today
$0
Assets Breakdown
Gross Value
Total Liabilities
$0
Charitable Giving
Only if you plan to donate directly from your IRA to a charity once you're 70½ or older — a real tax break most people never use.
No
Yes
Real IRS rule: this kind of donation (called a Qualified Charitable Distribution, or QCD) requires you to be 70½ or older, and must come from an IRA, not a 401(k): if your pre-tax money is in a 401(k), roll some into an IRA by then — Compass assumes you do. The 2026 limit is $111,000/person/year. It counts toward satisfying that year's RMD, but isn't included in your taxable income at all — better than taking the RMD and donating it yourself, which would still count as income first.
Long-Term Care
For the cost of a nursing home, assisted living, or an in-home aide — a real risk that's easy to leave unplanned for.
No
Yes
Your own long-term care (your spouse answers it on their card): an extra cost on top of everything else, for the years you set, while you’re alive, and any insurance that pays toward it. The costs offered are 2025 national medians (CareScout/Genworth Cost of Care Survey); your area’s may differ a lot. Care lasts about 3 years on average, but some need under a year and some 5 or more.
Buy Insurance vs. Self-Insure. A different question from the care scenario above, which asks "what if this definitely happens": here, both strategies face the exact same simulated markets AND the exact same real-world odds of actually needing paid care (48% lifetime chance — Urban Institute — with a mortality-weighted onset age and a realistic duration, not a guaranteed event you set yourself) — only the funding choice differs. This runs its own separate set of simulations and, if the Long-Term Care toggle above is also turned on, ignores that deterministic scenario entirely while it runs, so the two features never double up.
Glide Path
Models a stock/bond mix that changes with age instead of staying fixed for the whole plan — like a target-date fund.
No
Yes
Each path moves its accounts in a straight line from the starting to the ending share of stocks — from the owner's retirement to the end of the plan unless you pick ages. Uses this tool's own stock/bond return, volatility, and correlation assumptions (the same as the stock/bond mix choice in Savings) rather than your funds, since a glide path is really about the mix changing, not which exact funds make it up.
Review & run
▸
Tax brackets in 2026 · Married Filing Jointly
Show
How you’ll pay for retirement
Each year, Social Security, pensions and other income are used first. Once required minimum distributions (RMDs) start, that required amount is also used first, because it has to come out of your pre-tax account anyway. Whatever is still needed comes from your savings in the order below — you choose the order.
Common choices:
Where extra money goes
A year can bring in more than you spend: an RMD bigger than you need, Social Security above your spending, Guardrails paying above your budget. Split it by percent: spend part, save the rest in the accounts you choose.
Not sure what to spend? Find it instead of guessing
This runs the reverse question: instead of testing a spending amount you pick, it searches for the most you can spend while still hitting a target success rate — everything else (age, balance, allocation) held exactly as configured above.
⚠ You've changed an input since this ran — click "Find My Safe Spending Level" again to update it.
Projections
How likely your money lasts across 2,000 market futures, and why.
Simulation Results
⚠ You've changed an input since this ran — the results below are from your old numbers. Click "Run Retirement Simulation" again to update them.
Every change tested in points of success
Improve My Plan
See which changes could make your retirement plan stronger.
Running each option through its own 2,000-path simulation — you can keep using the page…
Same retirement age, same spending: the money moves that leave more for you and your heirs — Roth conversions, the order your accounts are spent, gain harvesting and when you claim Social Security. Measured in dollars after tax.
Optimize My Plan
Find the best combination of Social Security age, Roth conversions, withdrawal order and gain harvesting for your plan.
Look closer every Social Security age, every stock/bond mix
Compare Social Security Starting Ages
See how different starting ages affect your projected plan. Compare the results before deciding what to change.
Running every claim-age combination through its own 2,000-path simulation — you can keep using the page…
Compare Stock/Bond Mixes
See how a more conservative (or more aggressive) allocation would have changed this exact plan.
Running each allocation through its own 2,000-path simulation — you can keep using the page…
Portfolio Projection
How your portfolio may evolve across 2,000 simulated market futures.
▸
Guardrails in Action
See when your spending plan may call for a raise or a temporary cut.
How guardrails work
The chart follows one future (pick weak, median or strong markets above), year by year, with the same numbers as the Year-by-Year table. The dark line is your retirement savings, main account plus Roth — what the guardrails measure, so a Roth conversion doesn’t look like a loss. The bands move every year because they’re set by your withdrawal rate, not a fixed dollar amount: the red zone is where this year’s spending would be more than the upper guardrail’s share of your savings, the green zone where it would be less than the lower one’s. Any amount set aside to bridge to Social Security is left out of the savings the rate is measured on. Amounts are in future dollars, as the account would show them.
Retirement savings (main account + Roth)
"Too high" zone — spending gets raised
"Too low" zone — spending gets cut
Raise triggered
Cut triggered
In the red zone, but no cuts in the last 15 years
Withdrawal rate each year
| Age | Withdrawal rate | What happened | Spending from savings | Retirement savings (main + Roth) |
|---|
This is a quick estimate from your answers. Add what applies to you for a fuller picture; the result updates when you run the plan again.
Details
More numbers
How longevity changes this measure
The headline rate asks whether savings last through your chosen planning age. The alternative measure below gives less weight to shortfalls at ages you are less likely to reach. It answers a different question and does not replace the headline result.
Mortality-Weighted: —
Showing
Portfolio at Retirement
—
Future dollars
Bad Case
—
Weak markets (bottom 15%)
Tightest Budget Year
—
After tax
Paths With a Budget Shortfall
—
Across all 2,000 simulations
End-of-Plan Balance
—
Future dollars
Lowest Point (Median)
—
Future dollars
Weak Markets
—
Future dollars
Strong Markets
—
Future dollars
Success Rate (funds the plan)
—
Weak Markets (15th pct.) — Pre-Tax Portfolio
—
Median (50th pct.) — Pre-Tax Portfolio
—
Strong Markets (90th pct.) — Pre-Tax Portfolio
—
Worst Market Drop (Typical / Bad, 1 in 10)
—
Where your money actually ended up: Traditional vs. Roth
Your Roth conversions moved money from the Traditional side (taxed now, subject to future RMDs) to the Roth side (tax-free forever, no RMDs). Here's the split at , across the same three scenarios as everything else above.
| Traditional (Pre-Tax) | Roth (Tax-Free) | True Household Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak Markets (15th pct.) | — | — | — |
| Median (50th pct.) | — | — | — |
| Strong Markets (90th pct.) | — | — | — |
How this was worked out
Year-by-year table
About this projection
Switch scenarios to see how different market outcomes affect your balance. Taxes, required distributions, Social Security, and your selected withdrawal method are reflected in the yearly values.
Read your plan one year at a time
Choose a market scenario, then follow the ages down the table. These are projected outcomes, not a promised sequence of returns.
Each year is one line; lines between years mark changes such as retiring or Social Security starting. Open any year for the full breakdown. Showing tax details adds the tax columns; it does not change your plan or rerun the simulation.
One real future at a time: each tab replays one actual simulated market path from start to finish — the one whose outcome ranks at the 15th, 50th or 90th percentile of all 2,000 (how long the money lasts, then what is left at the end). Every row, account and dollar in it belongs to that same future, so the numbers add up year to year. Success Rate still counts all 2,000 paths.
Choose how much detail to display.
| Age | 401(k) / IRA | Roth Balance | Brokerage | Cash & savings | HSA | Spouse’s 401(k)/IRA |
Total savings |
Social Security |
Pension & other income |
Withdrawals | Std. Deduction | Total Tax | Avg. Tax Rate |
Money Available to Spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Balance, Roth Balance, Other Assets, and Portfolio Withdrawal are shown in future (nominal) dollars — the actual amount projected for that specific year, not adjusted for inflation. Spendable Income shows both: the nominal figure, with its today's-dollar equivalent underneath.
Planning note. This tool uses forward-looking market assumptions and current tax, Social Security, RMD, and Medicare rules. It is for planning and education, not personalized financial or tax advice.
Tax calculation details
Federal tax is computed each year from IRS progressive brackets and the standard deduction for your filing status, including the additional deduction at age 65+. Required Minimum Distributions begin automatically at your applicable RMD age under SECURE 2.0 and use the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. Social Security claim age and retirement age remain independent, so you can retire before starting benefits.
- 2026 federal tax includes the regular age-65+ deduction plus the temporary 2025–2028 enhanced senior deduction and its MAGI phaseout.
- Medicare IRMAA uses the CMS 2026 tiers and a two-year MAGI lookback when enough modeled history exists.
- RMDs use the prior year-end balance, and QCDs count toward satisfying that RMD.
- Roth conversions before you retire are allowed; their tax is paid the way you choose under Roth Conversion (from cash or brokerage, or out of the converted money) and counted in lifetime tax.
How every number is worked out, and what Compass simplifies or leaves out: How the calculations work · Limitations
Methodology, in brief: return/risk assumptions are forward-looking capital market estimates (Vanguard, BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco), not historical averages. Taxes, Social Security, RMDs, and Medicare IRMAA are computed from real current rules year by year. Real Market History replays 1928–2025 returns and inflation; Bad Timing Risk replays 1995–2024. This tool is informational only, not personalized financial or tax advice -- consult a licensed advisor or CPA before acting on it. How the calculations work and their limitations are in the User Guide.
Expense Planner
Your retirement budget, line by line — the plan spends it year by year.
Off: Compass uses the one Annual Spending Goal on Plan Details.
No
Yes
▸Your retirement spending picture
Where the Money Goes
Per month at retirement age
Income and savings neededDetails
Monthly Spending
$0
Annual Spending
$0
Reliable Income
$0/mo
Savings Need to Provide
$0/mo
Rule-of-thumb estimate — not a simulation result
$0
This is the annual gap divided by your Withdrawal Rate — a starting checkpoint, not a promise a portfolio will last. Run the full simulation below for the real answer.
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Your budget, line by line
For each line: what you need to spend (the minimum), what you’d prefer, how often, and when it starts and ends. At the bottom, choose which the plan uses: Prefer, Need, or Flex (Prefer, dropping to Need in years your investments are down).
More ways to add:
How to export ⓘ
Irregular & One-Time Costs
A single inheritance, home sale, new roof, or other one-time windfall or expense at a specific age — applied directly to your portfolio balance that year, not modeled as taxable income. Positive = money in, negative = money out.
None
Irregular & One-Time Costs
A single inheritance, home sale, new roof, or other one-time windfall or expense at a specific age — applied directly to your portfolio balance that year, not modeled as taxable income. Positive = money in, negative = money out.
Your itemized total sets your spending goal on Plan Details. Results update as you edit.
Average monthly budget at retirement
Need $0/moPrefer $0/mo
Drop to Need in years your investments are down or more from their high.Your withdrawal rule sets spending; a year counts as funded when it pays at least Need.
Plan uses
Roth Conversions
Pay tax now on pre-tax money so you owe less later: smaller RMDs, less IRMAA, tax-free growth.
Your Conversions
Off: no conversions in the plan.
No
Yes
Fixed amount
Fill a bracket
Yours first
Spouse’s first
Only yours
Only spouse’s
The converted money
Cash or brokerage
Is Converting Worth It?
The tax rate a conversion costs now vs the rate your plan pays on pre-tax money later. Converting pays when later is higher.
Try your own numbers
Try other choices
Each choice runs your whole plan on the same futures, so the numbers compare fairly.
Each option converted every year in your ages: a yearly amount, or a bracket filled each year (type 12%). Include 0 for no conversions. Chance of success, lifetime tax (with IRMAA) and what heirs keep, today’s dollars.
Find Your Best Strategy
Searches the choices that work together — Roth conversions (and how their tax is paid), the order your accounts are spent, capital-gains harvesting and your Social Security age — on the same market futures, and finds the combination that works best for your plan. Only combinations that keep your chance of success are shown.
Cash Flow
Each retirement year’s money in and money out — the Year-by-Year table as pictures.
No simulation run yet
Run your numbers on Plan Details first — this view is built from that result, so there's nothing to show until then.
Year by Year
Money in (above the line) vs. money out (below the line)
One Year, Traced
Age —
Money pools together before it's spent, so every source flows into the year's total and every use flows out of it. Drag the slider or press Play to watch the flow change year by year; hover or tap any bar or band for its numbers. Bar heights are to scale across years, so a year with less money moving looks smaller.
Taxes
What you’ll pay each year, your bracket, and tested ways to pay less.
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Run your plan first — this page is built from that result.
Dashboard
Your plan at a glance: will your money last, what you can spend, and what could go wrong.
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Fill in your plan first — the dashboard comes from its result.
Health Before 65
Your health insurance until Medicare, the ACA subsidy, and how to keep it.
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Fill in your plan first — this page comes from its result.
Stress Tests
Your plan against real market history, and what a bad start to retirement does.
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Fill in your plan first — the tests use its result.
Real Market History, 1928–2025
If you had retired in any year since 1928 — into the 1929 crash, 1966 stagflation, 2000 or 2008 — would your plan have lasted?
How this historical test works
Each run is named by the year you retire in it: “retire in 1966” means 1966 is your first year of retirement, and every later year of your retirement follows the real history in order. It uses the real returns of 1928–2025 for a stock/bond mix like yours (S&P 500 with dividends; 10-year US Treasury bonds), after your funds’ yearly fees, and each year’s actual inflation; amounts are in today’s dollars. Until you retire, every run grows at the long-run average, so every run retires with the same savings and only the retirement years differ. A recent retirement whose years run past 2025 continues at the long-run average; those are shown paler and aren’t counted in “Lasts in”. Sources: Damodaran, NYU Stern (returns); Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis / BLS (inflation). Today’s tax, Social Security and RMD rules apply throughout, a planning simplification.
⚠ You've changed an input since this ran — click "Run Historical Stress Test" above to update it.
Every retirement year as a table
| Retire in | Left at the end (today’s $) | Outcome | Lowest (today’s $) | Biggest market drop |
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Bad Timing Risk
The same 30 real market years (1995–2024), starting the year you retire: once in the order they happened, once reversed. Only the order changes.
What is sequence-of-returns risk?
The order of market returns can matter as much as the average return once you are withdrawing money. This test runs the same real 1995–2024 returns, for a stock/bond mix like yours and after your funds’ fees, forward and backward from the year you retire, keeping the average return the same while changing when the difficult years occur. Before you retire, both grow at the same average, so both start retirement with the same savings.
⚠ You've changed an input since this ran — click "Check Bad Timing Risk" above to update it.
Retire into 1995 → 2024, as it happened
The same years reversed (2024 → 1995)
Scenarios
Save versions of your plan and compare them side by side.
Save different retirement choices so you can compare them side by side.
Saved portfolio: an investment mix you can reuse.
Saved scenario: a version of your retirement plan and its projection for comparison.
Back up or move your saved plans
Saved scenarios stay in this browser. Use Export Full Plan for a permanent file you can back up or move to another device. Print/PDF creates a one-time copy.
Choose a name that describes the decision you are testing.
Comparing Your Saved Scenarios
Median projected balance, side by side — how each scenario actually gets there, not just where it ends up.
No scenarios saved yet.
Retirement Paycheck
What you can spend each month after taxes, how much is safe, and where it comes from.
No simulation run yet
Fill in your plan first — the paycheck comes from its result.
Net Worth
What you own minus what you owe, year by year — with your actual net worth logged against it.
No simulation run yet
Run your plan first — the forecast follows your savings from that result.
PLAN SUMMARY REPORT
Your Retirement Plan, Explained
A plain-language write-up of your last simulation run — what you're assuming, what could happen, and what's worth a second look. Meant to be read start to finish, shared, or printed.
No simulation run yet
Run your numbers on Plan Details first — this report is built from that result, so there's nothing to summarize until then.
Retirement Plan Summary
How Compass Works
Every page and option explained in plain language — what it does, how to use it, and what the numbers mean. Search it, or pick a topic below.
Compass is for education and planning. It isn’t investment, tax or legal advice, and its projections are estimates, not guarantees.
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