wellyes
12-21-2009, 07:10 PM
I've been spending hours looking at the analysis from this FREE online tool - it's really impressive.
https://basic.esplanner.com/
The purpose is to help you plan your lifetime savings to maintain a decent standard of living. You put in your numbers for everything - income, housing, college, social security expectations, etc. and it will tell you in detail if you're saving too little (and will thus be unprepared for retirement) or if you're saving too much.
I was shocked to learn that we were saving too aggressively by maxing our Roth IRAs every year. I'm a huge believer in savings. But looking at the numbers, it does make sense.
Anyway, it's a neat tool, very comprehensive, and it gives you a spreadsheet "plan" in the end which shows you all the math and lets you make adjustments if you'd like. It's probably way too much for some people, but spreadsheet & budget loving mavens (I know we have a few around here) might LOVE it, so I thought I'd share.
https://basic.esplanner.com/
The purpose is to help you plan your lifetime savings to maintain a decent standard of living. You put in your numbers for everything - income, housing, college, social security expectations, etc. and it will tell you in detail if you're saving too little (and will thus be unprepared for retirement) or if you're saving too much.
I was shocked to learn that we were saving too aggressively by maxing our Roth IRAs every year. I'm a huge believer in savings. But looking at the numbers, it does make sense.
Anyway, it's a neat tool, very comprehensive, and it gives you a spreadsheet "plan" in the end which shows you all the math and lets you make adjustments if you'd like. It's probably way too much for some people, but spreadsheet & budget loving mavens (I know we have a few around here) might LOVE it, so I thought I'd share.