Retirement calculators

[SwirlyGates]

Hi all,

Does anyone know of a retirement calculator that allows you to enter changing needs? All the ones I have seen so far, like MoneyHelper, are basically variants on

• tell us your pension pot
• tell us your age
• tell us how much you want per year
• we will tell you if you can get that figure

But, I'd like something more sophisticated. If you retire before state pension age, that's 2 different requirements for a start - you would need more from your pension pot until the state pension age kicks in. MoneyHelper tells me I'd have a slight shortfall until 67, then a considerable surplus. I'd rather have a total that is adjusted to take the state pension into account.

Then, I envisage wanting more in the years up to say, 75, when I can travel and do things, then some cheaper years, and possibly a bit more after 85 if I need to buy in home help etc.

So I'd like to say, for instance, age 60-75 I want X amount, (with state pension automatically included from 67), then 75-85 Y amount, then Z amount.

Does such a thing exist?

AI frankly is great for this. Put it into gemini/chat gpt. It just goes on modelling endlessly whatever you throw at it.

I’m afraid we’re paying a chunky fee to a pension specialist advice company for this sort of thing. It’s taking ages to set up a meeting because we both have more than one pension. But I believe they will be able to run lots of different scenarios for us so we can look at the impact of different forms and timings of retirement.

I hate AI and refuse to use it.

Not really wanting to pay for advice on this, I'm just curious about ballpark estimates.

Guiide.co.uk is able to do this

This.

Tools used by advisers like Voyant are available, but costly.

This is an old video from 2021, but gives you an idea of what you can do with Voyant:

My pension advisor did all this , showing me graphs of how my money could pan out using different mixtures of savings, state and private pension over different time spans…as part of his pitch when I interviewed him ( I spoke to two who had been recommended to me before engaging him).

You don't want to pay for advice but won't ask for (free) help from ChatGPT? Not sure what to suggest, under those circumstances

I suppose you'll have to do the sums on paper, yourself

I built my own in excel.

it models retirement ages from 60-67
2 different interest rate growth models (more could be added)
ability to have a lower rate running up to retirement with the ability to adjust the time I want to apply that for and the rate used
ability to adjust the rate I earn on money remaining invested in retirement.

i then calculated my income needs - took today’s expenses, worked out what I would need if it was just me then increased it for inflation ever year for about 30 years. Decreased a few numbers at the higher ages. Uplifted for tax and then obviously netted off state pension when I get that (assumed number for that based on 3% increase a year)

worked out continuing pension payments increasing % every year with pay rises - these can also be adjusted if I decide I will put in more. I actually modelled two scenarios - one continuing as they are and one putting every payrise I get in the future in.

so now the tracker shows by month for the next 35 years

income coming into pension from new contributions
growth from existing pot
reduction in pot once I start drawing it based on the figures I calculated I needed
the shortfall in pot I need to pay off mortgage at retirement and then what age my money would run out based on all the assumptions.

all of this at two interest rates and 8 retirement ages…..

it took me quite a few hours over a couple of weekends but I’m quite pleased with it!

Not sure why you’re so against AI as it was brilliant for this. I told it to refer to the documents from my pension provider and gave it various scenarios. It really helped clarify things and posed lots of questions I hadn’t considered. I used CoPilot 365.

Any free resources you use or in fact any advice you pay for, will also use AI.

You no longer have a choice to “refuse”. Your option is to cut out the middleman and use it directly in a way that is tailored to your specific needs or have someone use it on your behalf

Thats an excellent point. Of course any software used by @SwirlyGates or a finance expert, will use AI.

@SwirlyGates AI is here to stay. I understand your antipathy but don't cut off your nose to spite your face

There is a really helpful FB group called Early Retirement UK. If you join check out the “files” folder which has some excellent calculators on there. Here’s a recent post.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1777292142611443/permalink/2957413371265975/?

Pretty much what you need right here, for free.

https://rebeldonegans.com/finance/fire/retirement-

It allows you to input and play about with all the variables to suit your circumstances.

Does this Rebel Finance School calculator help? https://rebeldonegans.com/finance/fire/retirement-calculator/

Spreadsheet?

I posted that calculator literally on the last post @Kirschcherries 🤣

Great minds think alike 😂

🤣, it’s good though isn’t it? Very useful to play around with the figures.

The Rebel one seems pretty basic - it doesn’t take into account whether they money it asks about is inside or outside a pension, and it appears to take no account of tax at all.

Open a spreadsheet and model it yourself then.

To say you despise AI so you want other people to put their time into developing a model you want, but are not willing to pay them for that time is a bit entitled actually.

GUIIDE is good 👍

Thanks everyone. Well, most of you .

AI - so many reasons why not. Data centres, job losses, outsourcing our brains, theft of copyright, so many reasons! It might be used in the back end of some applications, which is something I cannot control. I can control whether I knowingly ask ChatGPT or other AI engines. And you don't need AI to generate this. It's maths, algorithms and forecasts.

As for being "entitled" for asking about this, really @Pickledonions12 and @WheretheFishesareFrightening? FWIW I've written free software, and I don't consider the people who use it to be "entitled"; it's nice actually to have created something that people find useful and interesting. Maybe I will write my own - thanks for the pointers @snowymarbles. It might be a nice project.

@Icequeen01, @needastrongone and others, thanks for the links to Rebeldonegans, that's very helpful, As mentioned though, it doesn't do anything about tax, or pension vs non-pension funds.

@MumofCandR and others, thanks for the links to Guiide. This does have tax and varying income, and also splits pension funds and non-pension savings. It even does nice little graphs, yay. It's interesting that it says what you should take from each pot - I will take some time to look into that as some of the figures are counterintuitive. But maybe I don't need to write my own after all.

A quick update for anyone who is interested, with a couple more calculators. These are more complicated than Guiide, and their results show a range of probabilities for different scenarios rather than a single graph. They are also US-based, but you can put in your figures and they will do the work. I think these two use similar methodology.

https://www.cfiresim.com/

https://www.firecalc.com/

I was expecting that as I spend my way through retirement, the value of my pensions and investments would go down... however, all three of the calculators show my remaining pot increasing! I've tried various scenarios, but none result in my money decreasing.

That’s a shame, Chat GPT basically sorted out all my finances.