Will my money last?

Not a rule of thumb. A year-by-year look at your own money.

Online calculators ask for one savings number and one rate of return, then hand you an answer. Your life has more moving parts than that: two incomes that stop at different times, Social Security for each of you, a home you might sell, and the possibility that one of you lives much longer than the other. Your Checkup puts all of them in one forecast.

What your Checkup looks at

Your income, your spending, your accounts

We follow your money year by year: the income you expect, the spending you plan, and the savings you can actually reach. Money locked in retirement accounts until a certain age isn't counted as available before then.

Your Social Security

We use the age each of you plans to start, and check whether you have the 40 work credits you need. If you don't, we explain what a spouse's or survivor's benefit could mean for you.

Three ways you could spend

Your preferred budget sits next to spending 10% less and spending more, so you can see what each choice does to the years ahead and to what you leave behind.

A market downturn at the worst time

We test what happens if markets fall sharply just as you retire, the stretch that does the most damage, and show whether your plan still holds.

If one of you dies first

We show both cases side by side: what income stops, what continues, whether life insurance pays, and whether the money lasts for whoever is left.

What you hope to leave

If you have an inheritance goal, we show whether you're on track, and how much more you could spend and still meet it.

What you’d see · Sample

Will your money last?

Linda, 62, and Ray, 64, in Ohio. About $780,000 saved; Ray plans to stop working next year.

At your preferred spending of $72,000 a year, your savings last until Linda is 96, a year past the planning age you chose. Ray's Social Security at 67 and Linda's at 65 cover a little more than half of your spending once both have started.

The years to watch are the first five. If markets fell sharply just as Ray retires, your savings would run out when Linda is 89. Spending 10% less in those early years, about $64,800, would carry the plan to 95 even in that downturn.

If Ray died first, Linda would keep the larger of your two Social Security checks, not both. Your forecast for that case still lasts to 92, mainly because Ray's life insurance would pay off the remaining mortgage.

From a sample Checkup for a fictional household. Your Checkup is written from your own answers.

How it ties into the rest of your plan

Money from a home or rental you plan to sell flows into the forecast, after selling costs, any mortgage and an estimate of the tax.
If help at home would cost more than your budget, or a return you entered looks unusually high, it's flagged on the first page.
Your planning ages come from your own answers, and you can use our life-expectancy estimate to set them.

Want a quick first look? Try the free calculator: How long will my money last? →