Do you have a retirement plan? If not, you’re not alone. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, 40% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. And while it’s never too late to start saving, it can be hard to wrap your head around all the different options.
From 401(k) plans and Roth IRAs to life insurance policies and mutual funds, there are a lot of different ways to save for retirement. The good news is that there are also a lot of apps out there to help you make sense of it all. Keep reading to learn about some of our favorites.
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Best Apps For Retirement Planning
Developing a retirement strategy can be burdensome. Fortunately, however, in today’s hyper-connected world, there are many tools that make planning for retirement easier. Generally, these come with advice, goals, and progress reports at your fingertips.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The are many online tools and apps that can make planning for retirement easier.
Although all of these apps are designed with retirement planning in mind, each provides different services and methods for reaching that goal.
It is worth it to keep searching until you find the tool that meets your needs and makes retirement planning an easy and almost painless experience.
Here, we present an overview of some of the best retirement-planning apps that are available now.
- Retirement Planner App
This free Android app is a useful tool when you are in the midst of making choices about how to structure your retirement savings. This app allows you to compare projections for investing in a 401(k), Roth 401(k), Roth IRA, or traditional IRA.
The Retirement Planner App also shows how saving today will impact your retirement income in the future. Finally, it allows you to see if you are reaching your retirement goals or if you should reevaluate your long-term plan.
- Mint
This free popular financial tracking tool can be used online—or on iOS or Android devices—to help you set and track your retirement goals.1 Mint is commonly used to track spending and budgets, but it also shows your net worth and long-term trends and tracks your investments in one location.
Mint also makes it easy to set financial goals (including retirement savings goals) by giving you regular alerts about your savings each month and helping you visually track your progress with graphic images and other pictorial aides.
A retirement app can be useful but if you have questions about your retirement portfolio, it may be wise to consult an expert financial planner.
- Financial Engines Social Security Planner
This app is available for free online from Financial Engines. It requires you to enter a fairly simple set of information, then gives you recommendations for ways to maximize your Social Security benefits. The app uses mathematical algorithms to take some of the guesswork out of when to start claiming benefits.2
Deciding when to begin claiming benefits is often a balancing act between waiting to claim a higher benefit versus taking advantage of more years to receive Social Security income, and this app will help you make decisions to maximize your benefits. It’s especially useful if you or your spouse are flexible about when you can start drawing on Social Security benefits.
- Vanguard Retirement Nest Egg Calculator
This free online app is for people who are nearing or who have entered retirement, to help determine if their portfolio will cover expenditures for the number of years they expect to be retired. It is statistically rigorous and uses a Monte Carlo analysis to determine if the user’s retirement savings and portfolio will or will not be sufficient to last for the length of their retirement.3 - Retirement Goal Planning System
This free iPad app draws on behavioral economics to help you understand your own preferences when dealing with the complex problem of planning for retirement. It breaks down the problem into “thinking steps.” When you have gone through the program you will emerge with a personalized set of retirement goals, which you may use to craft your own retirement plan or share with a financial planner.4 - Retirement Outlook Estimator
This simple online or free iOS app adds a bit of charm to the retirement-planning process. Once basic information is entered, the app provides you with a “weather report” analysis of your savings plan—your outlook may be rainy, cloudy, partly cloudy, or sunny—along with expected dollar amounts for retirement income.5
This app also provides you with suggestions about how your outlook will change if you invest more or less per year.
- ING STRUCT® App (for U.K. Residents)
This app is unique because it is structured as a game rather than a tool. The goal of the STRUCT game is to learn the concepts of risk, diversification, goal setting, and long-term progress. The elements of the game represent investments in cash, bonds, and stocks, and the player can choose to play as a conservative, moderate, or risk-loving investor.
Although this app may not be useful for those looking to track their own retirement investments, it helps understand the concepts behind retirement planning and helps people to determine the types of investments and risks they are interested in making for their financial futures. This app is available for free for iOS systems but only in the U.K. app store.
The Bottom Line
There are many available apps to help you plan for retirement. From fun educational games to apps that help you determine your priorities, from rigorous statistics to simple graphs—there’s an app for everyone’s planning style. It is worth it to keep searching until you find the tool that meets your needs and makes retirement planning an easy and almost painless experience.
the complete retirement planner
TCRP 2022 is our most comprehensive planning tool to date, expanding on a long list of planning features not found in other planning tools, and includes
the most current tax laws, retirement account contribution limits, Medicare costs and I.R.S. divisors for Required Minimum Distributions (RMD’s).
Press – For the 2nd year in a row, TCRP has been selected as one of the “Best Retirement Planning Tools” by U.S. News & World Report!
New Customers – Please continue reading below to see a complete list of the unique features that TCRP has to offer.
Existing Customers – As always, you may upgrade to the most recent version of TCRP for only $12.99! Use Discount Code: TCRP2022 at checkout.
Thank You for your continued confidence in The Complete Retirement Planner!
TCRP Gift Cards are also available, and are the perfect way to help friends and family to plan for their financial future as well. How thoughtful!
The Complete Retirement Planner
Regardless of your net worth or stage of life, creating a written financial plan is a crucial step in achieving financial security. Any financial adviser, and every
respected source on financial planning best practices will tell you this. Yet, ~80% of households have no such plan and are unsure of how to create one that
will account for decades of financial variables. It’s also virtually impossible to find a financial planning tool thorough enough to do it with reasonable accuracy.
That’s why The Complete Retirement Planner (TCRP) was created.
TCRP allows anyone to easily create a comprehensive, individualized financial plan for both pre- and post-retirement. Based on the same financial planning
principles used by professional advisers, it accounts for important variables that other tools ignore. The result is a detailed year by year roadmap of your
financial future, eliminating the need to rely on guesses, assumptions, or generic benchmarks to determine how much to save for retirement, what your
savings withdrawal rate should be, or how long your savings may last. TCRP solves these riddles for you so that you can plan for retirement with confidence.
The Complete Retirement Planner – 80% Have No Plan
The Complete Retirement Planner – Middle Slideshow 2
The Complete Retirement Planner – Have a Light Bulb Moment
How Does It Work?
The Complete Retirement Planner asks the essential questions needed to generate a precise, year by year forecast of your actual need.
Relying only on your personal information (not generic assumptions), it provides the most individualized and accurate results possible.
Considerable flexibility allows you to model what-if scenarios, plan for one-time events, and make all desired adjustments quickly and easily.
All expenses can be itemized and adjusted for different time periods, with the resulting annual totals listed year by year. Multiple income sources,
Traditional and Roth 401k/IRA contributions and investment return rates, employer contributions, and HSA contributions can all be entered
by spouse, by year. Social Security income (by spouse), HSA balances and distributions (by spouse), non-retirement and retirement savings
balances and distributions (each by spouse), Federal tax deductions, and Federal/State tax liability are also calculated for each year.
The result is a detailed and eye-opening picture of your financial future showing how much you will be able to save before retirement, how your savings
and income compare to your actual need, and how long your savings will ultimately last during retirement.
It’s important to note that all of your information remains completely within your control. TCRP is a digital download that you save to your computer so that
only you have access to it. For ease of use, it operates using Microsoft Excel, for either PCs or Macs. Please note – a full version of Excel (2013 or later) is required.
TCRP will not work with iPads, free online versions of Excel, or other Excel “apps” (e.g., Numbers, Google Sheets) as they do not support all necessary Excel functions.
TCRP is updated annually with any tax law changes and feature improvements, and existing customers may purchase updated versions for only $12.99.
The Complete Retirement Planner – Last Slideshow 1
The Complete Retirement Planner – Last Slideshow 2
The Complete Retirement Planner – Plan/Retire
The Complete Retirement Planner – Are You Ready?
Why Is It Called The “Complete” Retirement Planner?
TCRP is a unique financial planning tool that incorporates technical and educational features that simply won’t be found elsewhere.
• Interview style questions, with explanatory notes, easily guide you through the set-up, providing an unparalleled ease of use.
• Clear educational notes on complex topics (e.g., Medicare costs, tax laws, Social Security) help to inform you.
• Flexibility in entering variable income, expenses, investment returns, savings, and one time events allows for individual needs.
• Critical variables that are often ignored by other planning tools, but have a big impact on results, are accounted for (listed below).
• A high level of clarity and detail in the results provides transparency into how it all works from start to finish, making it truly “complete”.
These are the features and capabilities that set TCRP apart from all other financial planning tools:
• Separate entries, by spouse if married, for: multiple sources of annual income (taxable and non-taxable), non-retirement cash and investment balances and
expected interest/return rates for before and after retirement, retirement savings balances/contributions/annual return rates, HSA balances and contributions,
retirement ages, and Social Security claiming ages. Being able to enter this information by spouse provides a great deal of flexibility and is essential for accuracy!
• The ability to itemize both current and future expenses, and to specify how those amounts may change over different time frames.
This determines actual need, by year. For greater accuracy, fixed expenses (e.g., mortgage principal, auto loans) are not inflation adjusted! This detail is significant.
• If you own a home (or two), annual tax deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes are calculated automatically. You can also specify if either mortgage
will be paid off early, or either house sold, automatically adjusting your total expenses and deductions from that year forward. You have the option to use the
net proceeds from a home sale to help pay future expenses. Mortgage information for future home purchases may also be entered.
• Easily model Sequence of Returns Risk for retirement savings by entering varying investment return rates, by year, by spouse. Most planning tools use the same
rate of return for every year, which can easily produce unrealistic and misleading results. Please see our Blog posts, Why “Sequence Of Returns” Matters, and,
Using The Same Return Rate For All Years Of A Financial Plan May Inflate Your Results By 30%, to better understand why using varying return rates is so important.
• Social Security benefits, including spousal benefits (if married), survivor benefits (if desired), and annual Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA’s) are calculated
automatically for each year starting with your chosen claiming age(s). Enter different claiming ages, by spouse, to instantly see the long-term impact on your
total retirement results, and to optimize your Social Security income!
• To assist with understanding Social Security claiming options, there’s a built in Social Security calculator. Educational notes provide an overview of common
benefit options, and the calculator quickly models monthly and lifetime benefit results, by spouse, by claiming age.
• If married, a life expectancy age may be entered for either spouse, with the surviving spouse’s Social Security income and Federal tax filing status automatically
recalculating as of that age. It is important to be aware of the impact these changes may have on the surviving spouse’s long-term results.
• Federal taxes on ordinary income, taxable distributions, and Social Security (different tax laws) are calculated separately for each year (not just an estimated rate
for all years/income types), and include any repeatable tax deductions for mortgage interest, real estate taxes, State income/sales tax, charity, and medical costs.
An effective rate for State income tax may also be entered, completing the picture of total tax liability. This is crucial, as taxes can have a significant impact on how
long your savings may last.
• Help with estimating health care costs in retirement, with those costs automatically adjusting at a yearly inflation rate unique to health care.
(Projections are from the U.S. Department Of The Actuary). No other planning tool does this, and it has a huge effect on results.
• Required Minimum Distributions (RMD’s) are calculated automatically, year by year, by spouse, using the I.R.S. divisor schedule.
• In any year that net income is greater than expenses 25% of the excess is saved and applied to future expenses. If desired, this % may be increased to
help regulate any potential “lost” income. In any year that RMD’s are greater than actual need, 85% of the excess is saved and applied to future expenses.
These “automatic savings” help to delay Roth IRA/401k distributions, increasing those savings over time.
• Distributions from retirement savings are specified by spouse and are based on actual need. Each spouse may specify the age to start distributions
(between ages 55 and 72) to help with early retirement or to lower taxes by using more cash before using retirement savings. All distributions account for
any expenses not paid by income, as well as the tax liability on the distribution. This is essential, but it’s a point that other planning tools ignore.
• Roth Conversions can easily be entered for either spouse, by year, with the tax liability automatically accounted for.
• Order Of Funds Used – Expenses are paid from income first, then from a proportional mix of available non-retirement savings and Traditional 401k/IRA’s,
and, finally, from Roth 401k/IRA’s. Cash equal to 2 years future expenses (minus income for those years) is held in reserve to protect against having to sell investments
at an inopportune time, or during a market downturn. This hybrid approach helps to maintain liquidity, reduce RMD’s and their tax liability, and allow Roth IRA’s
more time to grow. Savings last longer and tax liability is less than if only one fund type was exhausted at a time.
• The ability to enter expected/unexpected one-time events (additions or subtractions) that significantly impact retirement savings. Positive amounts may be
assigned to either spouse’s non-retirement cash or investment savings to take advantage of those respective interest or investment return rates.
• Results for each spouse are shown, by year, for: taxable income, non-taxable income, Social Security income, non-retirement savings balance/distribution,
401k/IRA savings balance/contribution/distribution/investment return rate, Roth 401k/IRA savings balance/contribution/distribution, and HSA balance/contribution.
• Total combined results (single or married) are shown, by year, for: gross taxable income, Federal/State tax liability, Federal tax deductions, income available to
pay expenses, total expenses, non-retirement savings balance and distribution, retirement savings balance and distribution, 401k/IRA distribution % of total savings,
and HSA balance and distribution.
How’s that for complete? There’s simply no other financial planning tool like The Complete Retirement Planner!
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide a comprehensive financial planning tool that allows anyone to easily create a detailed, thorough, and reliable
financial plan for pre- and/or post-retirement. While no plan can account for every possibility, or accurately predict the future, we believe
that the need-based philosophy and individualized detail incorporated into this planning tool will come as close as possible to that goal.
In addition, the cost of TCRP must be affordable for everyone and represent an exceptional value. Priced at only $89.99, we’re confident
that this represents an unparalleled value for a professionally designed financial planning tool with such advanced capabilities.
We encourage you to compare its extensive features to any other planning tool that you can find at double, or even triple, the cost.
You can even compare the information this planner provides to financial plans costing thousands of dollars from professional advisers.
We are committed to providing the best possible retirement planning tool, at the best possible price. It’s that simple.
With The Complete Retirement Planner, there’s no need to be a part of “the 80%” any longer!
Stop guessing, start planning, and retire with confidence!
Conclusion
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