Income, insurance and plan settings

Everything on Plan settings belongs to the open scenario, except the Social Security records, pension and insurance policies, which are shared.

Bradley’s consulting

Until Bradley’s first retired year, his consulting income pays into the plan. Under Work and saving:

• Bradley’s consulting until then: the yearly amount before tax, and the share lost to taxes and business costs. The line under it shows what goes into the plan each year.
• SEP-IRA contribution each consulting year: what Bradley puts into his SEP-IRA each year until he retires. It comes off the top before tax and goes into the SEP-IRA, not the spending money.
• Living expenses count from today and come out of what’s left; anything left over after that is invested in the taxable account.
• Old MoneyGuide setting brings back MoneyGuide’s assumption that a salary covers every living cost until retirement. Leave it off.

Social Security

Each of you has a record from your own Social Security statement. Social Security’s estimates assume you keep earning until you claim; the planner recalculates Bradley’s for the last year he actually pays in, so a plan where he stops early shows the lower amount he’d really get.

Consulting pays into Social Security only through self-employment tax. His consulting pays into Social Security (self-employment tax), under Bradley’s name, says whether it does from now on. Off, his benefit counts only the years already on his statement. At 67, last year paying in shows the year being used.

What you do to bring in a new statement (once a year is plenty):

1. Sign in at ssa.gov to my Social Security and download your statement data. It’s an .xml file.
2. On Plan settings, under your name, choose Import statement (XML) and pick the file.
3. Check the message that confirms the date and your amount at 67.

Only the benefit summary is kept, not your earnings history.

To choose when to claim, move the slider under your name (62 to 70). The amount beside it updates. To use a figure of your own instead of the statement’s, type it in Override; clear it to go back. The spousal benefit setting gives the lower earner at least half the other’s amount once the other has claimed.

Reynald’s pension

Choose how it’s paid: lifetime only, 50%, 75% or 100% joint and survivor, or the lump sum. Each option shows its monthly amount and, for the joint forms, what Bradley would keep.

Choose when it starts with the Starts at age slider, from now to 65. Starting before 65 pays less every month for life. The statement only quotes the age-65 amounts, so for an earlier start the planner estimates the reduction the way the pension plan itself works it out, and marks the amount (est.).

What you do to replace the estimate with the exact figure:

1. Sign in to BluePlanning and run an estimate for the start date and payment form you chose.
2. On Plan settings, type the monthly amount into Exact monthly quote from BluePlanning.

Changing the start age or the payment form clears the quote, since it no longer matches.

The start age moves the score very little, because an earlier, smaller pension and a later, larger one are worth about the same overall. That’s by design: the plan sets its reductions so that neither choice is a bargain. The joint forms matter most if one of you dies first, which the planner doesn’t model yet.

Reynald’s French retirement

Reynald also has a small retirement from his years working in France, paid in euros. The planner uses the amounts from his Info Retraite estimate.

• The start-age slider goes from 64 to 70. Before 67 the amount is reduced; 67 is the full rate. Starting later than 67 pays no more, because the extra the estimate shows assumes more years of French work.
• Exchange rate: dollars per euro turns the euros into dollars. It’s shared by every scenario and updates itself once a day from market data (the line under it says when). A rate you type lasts until the next daily update. Refresh the rate now fetches it straight away.

The amounts are before French deductions. For a new estimate, download it from info-retraite.fr and send it to Claude; there’s no import button yet.

Long-term care

Both of your CNA policies are listed with today’s daily benefit, how it grows, how long it lasts and the premium. Tick Stress test: a long-term-care event to see what a stretch of care would do to the plan: choose who, from what age, for how many years, and the daily cost. The policy pays its share and the planner adds the rest to spending.

Markets

• Expected returns: MoneyGuide’s figures (based on 1995–2025), a more cautious setting, or your own. The overview always shows what the cautious setting would give, because this one number moves the score more than anything else.
• Spending guardrails: when withdrawals run well above plan after bad markets, flexible spending is trimmed by the percentage you choose, and restored when markets recover.

Taxes

Federal and California income tax are worked out year by year from what comes out of which kind of account. The settings are explained in the guide Cash flow and taxes:

• Calculate federal and California tax: leave it on. Off, the scenario takes a flat percentage of withdrawals instead.
• Spend from: the order the accounts are drawn on.
• Convert IRAs to Roth each retired year, and the bracket to fill.
• Dividends and interest, % a year.

Advisor’s fee

• Take the advisor’s fee off each year: on unless you turn it off. Underneath, what the fee comes to on today’s balances. Schedule and accounts opens Net worth & accounts, where the schedule and the billed accounts are set.

Homes and the plan

• Sell the SF home: the year and selling costs. The proceeds go to your investments after the mortgage is paid off, and the SF-home lines in Living expenses stop. Add any new rent as a goal.
• Sale price, today’s dollars: the price the plan uses. Until you type one, it’s the home’s value from Net worth & accounts grown to the sale year; the note under it also shows the price in that year’s dollars. Underneath, the selling costs, the mortgage still owed and what goes into your investments.

What you do to use your own sale price:

1. Open Plan settings.
2. Under Homes and the plan, type the price in Sale price, today’s dollars (what the home would sell for in today’s market).
3. Click outside the box. The lines underneath update.

To go back to the estimate, click Use the estimate under the price.

Under the SF home, each other property that can be sold (a home or land) has the same choices: Sell the property, the year, the selling costs and the Sale price, in its own currency. Change the year to move the sale. When it’s checked, what the sale brings in, less the selling costs, goes into your investments that year.

• Plan ends: the last year the money has to last.
• Target success %: what the overview’s “earliest year” and “how much more you could spend” aim for.
• Notes: anything you want to remember about the scenario.