Key Points
- There are some great free retirement planning and financial planning tools available to everybody today. We offer several of them.
- Using our free tools and calculators you can figure out the answers to a lot of personal finance questions you might have.
- By using our tools and planning software you can be your own financial planner
Retirement Planning Tools
We have written before about how, thanks to advances in technology, individuals of virtually all income and savings levels can get professional money management at a reasonable cost, and manage their own retirement plans as well.
Yes, you can do this! Our comprehensive retirement planning program, WealthTrace, can put it all together for you. But you will need a few critical bits of information along the way so that you can make reasonably accurate predictions. We've got you covered there as well. We have a whole set of free calculators to help out; here are some of the most useful ones.
Benefits From Contributing To A 401(k) We have written about the effect of increasing or maxing out your 401(k) contributions. Our calculator can give you some numbers to go off of, and also give you an idea about the power of contributing to your employer's defined-contribution plan.
Estimate Your Social Security Payments What can you expect to get back after paying into Social Security all those years? We can give you a quick estimate, which you can then use when tallying up your cash flows in retirement. (The Social Security Administration's site has some good information about this as well.)
When To Take Social Security A lot of people don't realize that they have a choice about when to take Social Security payments, or the pros and cons of delaying receipt of the benefit. With this calculator, you can run through a variety of scenarios to help determine when it makes the most sense to start taking the benefit.
How Inflation Impacts Your Retirement You may know of inflation as your nemesis at the gas pump or the grocery store, but did you know that it can really affect your retirement plans as well? Our calculator can show you how.
Compare Investment Fees Similar to inflation, investment fees--asset management fees, mutual fund expense fees, broker commissions--can take a bite out of your retirement assets, especially over time. Our calculator gives you a glimpse at how big that bite can be.
Pension Calculator & Spousal Survivor Options What kind of life insurance would you need to cover the difference between a single annuitant benefit (where the pension ends when the person who paid into the pension dies) and a joint survivorship benefit (where the pension goes to the end of the life of both people, but the payments are lower)? We can help with that calculation.
Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) Once you get to 70 1/2, you're required to take distributions from your traditional IRA. For planning purposes, it's good to know what that distribution might look like. (This calculator will give you a solid estimate, but only a full financial planning tool like WealthTrace will can factor in your changing tax rate and account balance every year and give you a more accurate number.)
Retirement Withdrawals Required minimums are one thing. But what's the maximum you can take out of your savings each year during retirement and not run out of money? Our calculator can help--though, as with the RMD calculator, you'll want a full run-through from a tool like WealthTrace that accounts for a number of factors to get it really accurate.
Roth Versus Traditional IRA You need an IRA; the question is what type will make the most sense for you based on income, age, tax rates, and other factors.
For a detailed, accurate look at your retirement situation, sign up for a free trial of WealthTrace.