Quickly test different retirement ages

This article introduces the definable retirement date feature and shows several helpful applications.

Nancy Gates avatar
Written by Nancy Gates
Updated over a week ago

As of November 2021, the NewRetirement Planner has a definable retirement age variable that can be used in many start and end age inputs.

Deciding when the right time to retire is not only an incredibly personalized question but can at times be very daunting to answer. To make finding the right time to retire for you easier, you now can edit your retirement date in one place and have it change the start and end age inputs across your entire plan. For plans that have a spouse, spousal retirement age is also available.


Table of Contents

Right now, the retirement age feature has the following applications within My Plan. Press on any of the following to quickly navigate to that section of this article:

Note: We have short-term plans on integrating retirement dates in other areas of My Plan, including contributions and future rate changes.

Assumptions (how to access retirement age)

You can find the retirement age input in two places, within the Ages section of My Plan > Assumptions and in the Assumptions tab at the top right corner. Mobile devices may not be able to access the latter.

To access it through My Plan > Assumptions:

To access it through the Assumptions tab:

You can use either of the two areas to change your (and your spouse's, if applicable) retirement age and see immediate changes to your plan. Using the Assumptions tab may be more readily accessible and is openable when looking at the various Insights pages. Good Insights pages to note retirement age change effects on are:

Income

Retiring from all work

If you would like to model retiring from all work using the retirement age variable, you can do so by setting the End Age to work income to "[Primary/Spouse] Retirement" depending on if the income is for the primary planner or the spouse. This can be found in the Work Income section of My Plan > Income

Press on the pencil (edit) icon of a work income stream to edit the work income, and then set the End Age:

Remember to always press "Save" to commit changes.

Retiring from your main job but continuing to work in some respect

Sometimes, it may be more fulfilling to continue working into retirement, but with fewer hours or in a different field that you are passionate about. To model this, you will first need to change the Stop Age of your primary job to "[Primary/Spouse] Retirement" (just as you would if you were to stop working), but also set the Start Age of your post-retirement work as "[Primary/Spouse] Retirement."


This will model working the primary job up until retirement, and then immediately continuing to work at a post-retirement job with no gaps nor double-income.

Expenses and Healthcare

Spending differently in retirement than when you were working

You may spend a different amount during your working years as you do once you retire. You may spend less, or, you may have some go-go years and spend more to enjoy your early retirement. To model this changing of budgets using the Basic Budgeter in My Plan > Expenses and Healthcare, you'll have to follow a similar logic to switching jobs at retirement.

Model your pre-retirement expenses as ending on "[Primary/Spouse] Retirement" depending on when the switch will be made, and then subsequently model your early retirement expenses as starting on "[Primary/Spouse] Retirement."

Modeling this is possible with the PlannerPlus Budgeter using the same logic, but requires a fair amount more effort to achieve as each applicable line-item would need to be modeled this way.

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