Retirement Toolkit FAQ's

• How can I project the impact of withdrawing money before retirement in Retirement Planning?
• Where does my Lump Sum go after my age passes the start age?
• Why does the system change my savings start ages for me?
• Why is the Tax Status not shown on the worksheet? (Update!)
• Why do earnings and contributions projections change through the year?
• Is there a difference between projections done before and during retirement?
• Why is the Total Retirement Savings in Retirement Savings different from the Total Savings Available in Retirement Spending?

How can I project the impact of withdrawing money before retirement in Retirement Planning?

The retirement toolkit only projects based on the planned consumption of funds during retirement, it does not account for withdrawals of retirement money made before either income earner is retired. However, if you want to withdraw money before either income earner is retired and see the impact of the withdrawal in Retirement Planning projections, you can adjust the Total Saved field in Retirement Planning for the specific investment you want to make an early withdrawal from and your projections will reflect the impact of withdrawing that money.

Note: Make sure you account for taxes and early withdrawal penalties from your investment.

Where does my Lump Sum go after my age passes the start age?

Lump Sum Income is always a future projection. Once you have received the money in order for the toolkits to account for that money in projections, the amount received needs to be entered into a Retirement Savings and Contributions Investment in Retirement Planning. This is handled this way because lump sums are not always certain both in the amount that will be received or when the amount will be received. Therefore once you do receive a lump sum enter it into one of your investments in Retirement Savings and Contributions and your projections forward will account for that added income in your savings.

Note: Remember to delete your lump sum information once you have added it as savings.

Why does the system change my savings start ages for me?

The retirement toolkit provides a great deal of flexibility by allowing you to adjust withdrawal start ages for all investments, but this also means our toolkits must perform validations that will keep your projections consistent. When you change your retirement age for either income earner the system will automatically change investment withdrawal ages to match each income earners retirement age. This is done to keep gaps from forming between when you retire and when you start funding your retirement.

Why is the Tax Status not shown on the worksheet? (Update!)

Tax Status is now made visible on Retirement Planning and the Retirement Report by using colors. On the Retirement Report the State Age cells are colored Red for Taxed, Orange for Tax Deferred and Green for Tax Free. On the Retirement Report the Account cells are colored coded the same way. In this way you can always know the current tax status of your investments, income, lump sum income and work in retirement.

Why do earnings and contributions projections change through the year?

In Retirement Savings we calculate contributions and earnings, in the current year, based on changes you make to a Retirement Contributions and Savings investment in Retirement Planning. The toolkit accounts for changes made to the amount you save per month and the total saved amount. Each time you change the total saved amount we begin projecting earnings forward from the month that change was made. If you change a contribution amount we account for each contribution amount separately so if you had one amount for 2 months and then changed it to another amount for 3 months we project and add each of those totals together to determine your total contributions. This is done in an effort to project earnings and contributions as accurately as we can.

Is there a difference between projections done before and during retirement?

Any savings projected in Retirement Savings is projected using monthly earnings this includes all savings before retirement and untapped savings during retirement. In Retirement Spending savings are projected using annual earnings this includes those investments that you have started to consume in retirement.

Also we require the user to define separate return rates for pre-retirement and post-retirement and we also provide the ability to set a separate return rate for each investment. Depending on what is setup these rates will impact projections both in Retirement Savings and Retirement Spending.

Why is the Total Retirement Savings in Retirement Savings different from the Total Savings Available in Retirement Spending?

Retirement Savings is designed to accumulate and project your Retirement Savings from all your investments plus the Lump Sum income you believe you will receive. Retirement Savings also adds in the projected earnings you will receive. In contrast Retirement Spending is accounting for only those investments and Lump Sums you have decided to consume at retirement. Let's say you have 4 investments and 2 Lump Sums accounted for in Retirement Savings. In planning the funding of your retirement you decide to start by consuming from 2 investments and 1 Lump Sum in your first retirement year. All 4 investments and 2 Lump Sums would be accounted for in your Retirement Savings available at retirement but your Retirement Spending will show the available savings only from the 2 investments and 1 lump sum you have set to consume at the beginning of your retirement.