Why plan? 60-second tour Your plan vs. optimized Make money last Pay less tax Social Security Leave a legacy Retire earlier Market crash Long-term care Check readiness Get more help Why plan at all? Fits anyone who wants a plan more concrete than "I worked hard, I hope it's enough."
A good retirement plan buys you four specific things:
Money that lasts. A plan that survives bad markets, not just good ones — see Make your money last below.A lower lifetime tax bill. Converting to Roth in the right years and drawing accounts in a smart order can save real money without spending a dollar less — see Pay less tax below.Medicare premiums that don't jump for no reason. IRMAA surcharges work as a cliff, not a slope — also covered in Pay less tax .Confidence about what you leave behind — whether that's a specific number for heirs, or the confidence to spend it all yourself. See Leave more to your heirs .What good looks like: you can say, in one sentence each, where your plan stands on all four — not just "probably fine."
A 60-second tour of NestVida Where to look, roughly in the order you'll use it.
Enter your details in the left rail. Under Your plan , each section — About you, Savings & contributions, Retirement income, Spending, Taxes & Roth, Assumptions & scenarios — opens to show the essentials, with a More options link for the finer controls. Everything updates your plan live as you type. Review inputs (top-right) shows all your entries at a glance.Your KPIs and insights, atop the Dashboard. Four key numbers sit beside your plan's insights.The chart card, on the Explore tab. A live chart of your plan's balance over time — two after-tax lines, Your plan and the Optimized plan (teal). Drag the Desired monthly spend , Taxable savings and Target retirement age levers under the chart and both lines redraw instantly.Explore, Strategy, and Pro Analytics. Explore (the default tab) leads with three numbers — Solvent until (the age your money could run out at your planned spending, at your chosen confidence), Safe to spend (the most you can spend at that same confidence), and Plan health (the share of simulated markets your plan survives) — above three chart views of the same plan, each comparing Your plan and the Optimized plan (see next ). Strategy holds the funding badge (Fully funded or Underfunded , naming the age it would run out), the optimizer's read-only recommendation chips (hover any chip for the reason), and Apply optimized plan , which adopts the whole recommendation as your plan. Pro Analytics has the deeper stress-test charts. Results & charts in the rail jumps here. A Today's $ / Future $ toggle on the right of the tab row changes the yardstick , never the plan.Check readiness (left rail) scores eleven honest questions about your plan; Learn (top bar) is the glossary every linked term opens into; Print / Save PDF (left rail) turns your plan into a shareable report; and the top-bar search jumps to Your answers for any question about your plan.What good looks like: you can enter your details, find your safe-spend number, see whether you're on pace, and get to "why" for any term or chart, all in about a minute.
Your plan vs. the Optimized plan The two terms you'll see on every chart in this app — worth locking in before anything else below.
Your plan is exactly what you've entered — your spending, ages, Roth choices, everything. It only changes when you change an input.Optimized plan is this tool's full recommendation: it retimes your Social Security claim age(s), Roth conversions, and withdrawal order together to make your money last longer and leave more.Optimized is advice, not an obligation . Adopt all of it, some of it, or none — steer toward your own goals instead. Whatever you land on stays Your plan . When the two already match — including right after you apply the recommendation — comparison charts stop drawing two lines and collapse to one, labeled Your plan · $X/mo (optimized ✓) . There's nothing left to apply. What good looks like: you can look at any chart's legend and know, without re-reading this section, which line is which and whether "optimized" means "recommended" or "already done."
Charts to watch: Net Worth chart
Make your money last Typical fit: any household worried their savings might not outlive them — common when spending is in the $4,000–$8,000/mo range against $500k–$2M saved, but the steps below work at any level.
Running out of money is the #1 retirement fear — and it's also the most fixable. Here's how to check it, and three free ways to fix it if you're not there yet.
Look at your funding badge , on the Strategy tab. Fully funded (teal) means your planned spending is at or under what your plan can safely support. Underfunded (amber) means it's above that line — and it names the age your goal would run out (the Explore tab's Solvent until number tells you the same age) — worth a look below.Check your odds , not just one guess. Open the Monte Carlo chart — it runs your plan through 1,000 different simulated markets, including bad ones, and reports the share that still fund your full spending. 85% or higher is on track. Below that, one of the three moves below will move the needle.Pick your fix. You have four real levers, and you can use any mix of them — whichever fits your life stays Your plan :Spend a little less. If you're Underfunded, the Strategy tab shows a one-click "Trim spending to $X/mo (safe)" chip — click it to drop spending right to your safe line (and a "Restore to $<prior>/mo" chip appears if you change your mind).Save a bit more. If you're still working and Underfunded, the Strategy tab also offers a one-click "Save $X/yr more to fully fund (est.)" chip (or a one-time "Add $X in savings" version) — it bumps your savings just enough to close the gap, again with a Restore chip if you change your mind.Add flexibility instead of a flat cut. Turning on spending guardrails (Spending strategy → "Flexible (adjusts up/down)") lets you spend more in good years and trims a bit after a bad one, instead of locking in one number for life. This alone typically supports a safe withdrawal rate around 5% , versus about 4% for a fixed budget.Delay Social Security. Every year you wait to claim (up to 70) permanently raises a guaranteed paycheck the market can't touch — see Get the most from Social Security below for the details and the exact break-even age.Watch what moves. After any change, re-check the Net Worth chart — the age your line would hit zero (if it ever does) is your plan's honest depletion age; watching it move later as you adjust spending or claim age is the whole game.What good looks like: your Strategy tab's funding badge reads Fully funded , your Monte Carlo success rate is 85%+, and the Net Worth chart's "Your plan" line never touches zero before your planned age (even in the worst-10% simulated markets).
Charts to watch: Monte Carlo chart Net Worth chart Safe Spending & Legacy chart Sequence-of-returns chart (the last one shows what an early crash, specifically, would do)
Dials to try: Monthly spending Spending strategy Your claim age
Key thresholds: 85%+ simulated-market success is on track; a long-term withdrawal rate of ~4% (fixed) or ~5% (guardrails) over a 30-year retirement is considered safe.
Want the full picture? Open Spending is sustainable or Sequence-of-returns risk in the Learn panel — or click Check readiness any time to see your Will your money last at your planned spending? and Spending is sustainable checkpoints.
Pay less tax (and dodge Medicare surcharges) Typical fit: a household with a large pre-tax (401(k)/Traditional IRA) balance — often $800k–$3M+ — especially one retiring before Social Security and required withdrawals begin.
Paying less lifetime tax rarely means spending less. It means moving money between account types and years — the same dollars, taxed on better terms.
Find your gap years. After you retire but before Social Security and RMDs start, your taxable income often dips — a cheap window to act in.Set a Roth conversion target. The Roth conversion target dial fills that window: it moves money from pre-tax to Roth, paying tax now at a low rate instead of later at a higher one via forced RMDs. Prefer to cap it precisely at a Medicare threshold instead of a flat bracket? Use IRMAA cliff to fill to instead — it targets the cliff itself, not just taxable income.Watch what it buys. The Roth conversion: lifetime taxes chart shows the "convert" line start above "no conversion" — you're prepaying tax — then drop below it as future RMDs shrink. The Tax valley & brackets chart shows the actual low-income years being filled.Don't cross a Medicare cliff by accident. IRMAA surcharges on Medicare Part B and D work as a cliff — one dollar over a threshold adds the whole surcharge for the year, based on MAGI from two years back. The IRMAA Medicare cliffs chart and Medicare Premiums chart show whether you're near one.Check the bill twice. The Required Withdrawals (RMDs) chart shows how much smaller — often zero — your forced withdrawals become once conversions have drained the pre-tax balance; the Annual Taxes chart shows the year-by-year bill, Your plan vs Optimized plan.Moving in retirement? Set State in retirement different from your current state to model relocating — several states charge no income tax at all, and many exempt Social Security or pensions.What good looks like: your Tax & Medicare efficiency checkpoint reads green — little further Roth-conversion benefit is left on the table, and any avoidable IRMAA surcharges are gone.
Charts to watch: Roth conversion: lifetime taxes chart Annual Taxes chart Medicare Premiums chart Required Withdrawals chart Tax valley & brackets chart IRMAA Medicare cliffs chart Roth conversion break-even chart
Dials to try: Roth conversion target IRMAA cliff to fill to State in retirement
Key break-even points: IRMAA is a true cliff, not a slope — filling to just under one (via "IRMAA cliff to fill to") avoids the whole jump rather than a fraction of it. RMDs start at 73 (75 if you were born in 1960 or later) — conversions before then are what shrink them.
Selling from a regular brokerage account along the way? Only the growth is taxed — see Capital gains & your taxable account . Full picture: Why convert to Roth? , Smoothing your tax bill , Required withdrawals (RMDs) , IRMAA cliffs & Medicare , or State taxes & relocating in the Learn panel.
Get the most from Social Security Fits anyone who hasn't claimed yet — this decision is worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime, regardless of how much you've saved.
Try Your claim age and, if married, Spouse claim age . Claiming at 62 locks in a smaller check for life; waiting to 70 locks in a bigger one — permanently.See the payoff. The Social Security break-even chart totals dollars collected by each age at 62, 67, and 70 — delaying overtakes claiming early around age 78–82; live past that crossover and delaying wins over your lifetime.It's survivor insurance too. If you're married, the survivor keeps only the larger of your two benefits. Delaying the higher earner's claim toward 70 permanently raises the income floor your spouse lives on after you're gone — this is exactly what the Survivor protected checkpoint checks.Let the optimizer weigh in. The Action Timeline lists the claim age(s) that maximize lifetime net worth, factoring in your other income and taxes — not Social Security in isolation.Watch your income floor. The Monthly Income by Year chart shows how much of your spending Social Security alone covers, in good markets and bad.What good looks like: your Social Security optimized and Guaranteed income covers a floor checkpoints both read green — or you've knowingly traded one of them for something else (see How to check your readiness ).
Charts to watch: Monthly Income by Year chart Action Timeline Social Security break-even chart
Dials to try: Your claim age Spouse claim age
Key break-even points: delaying overtakes early claiming around age 78–82 in the break-even chart; Full Retirement Age is the 100% baseline every earlier or later claim moves from.
Full picture: When to claim Social Security and The widow(er)'s tax trap in the Learn panel, or check your Guaranteed income covers a floor checkpoint any time.
Leave more to your heirs Fits anyone who wants their money to outlive them on purpose — from "leave the kids something" to a specific number.
Set a real number. Legacy goal (leave to heirs, after tax) — $0 if you plan to spend it all; otherwise the amount you want guaranteed, after tax, when your plan ends.Turn on the lever that grows it. Roth conversions move money from a pre-tax account (still owed tax) into a tax-free Roth account. Heirs inherit a Roth completely tax-free, and it carries no lifetime RMDs to force money out early.Watch the gap. The Net Worth chart compares Your plan against the Optimized plan — the wider the gap, the more the strategy is worth. The Accounts by Tax Type chart shows the pre-tax balance shrinking and the tax-free Roth balance growing as conversions run.Know what "after tax" means. The number that matters to heirs is after-tax net worth — what's left once the deferred tax still owed on Traditional balances is subtracted. The Optimized plan's edge here is paying some of that tax on your terms, not the IRS's, at death.What good looks like: your Legacy on track checkpoint reads green — your plan leaves at least your goal amount, after tax.
Charts to watch: Net Worth chart Accounts by Tax Type chart
Dials to try: Legacy goal Roth conversion target
Key break-even points: the Legacy on track checkpoint reads green at or above your full goal, amber down to 90% of it, and red below that.
Full picture: Your plan vs. the optimized plan and Why convert to Roth? in the Learn panel.
Retire earlier Fits anyone eyeing an age well before "normal" — from a two-year head start to a full decade.
Pull Retirement age back and watch two things move at once: fewer years of Contributions piling up, and more years your savings alone must cover before Social Security starts.Check the odds honestly. The Monte Carlo chart — retiring earlier means more years exposed to bad markets. 85%+ success is on track; below that, one of your usual three levers (save more, spend a little less, or add guardrails/delay Social Security) will help.Find out what matters most. The What moves your plan most chart swings one assumption at a time — return, retirement age, inflation, life expectancy , savings, and Social Security age — and ranks them by impact, so you know which one to revisit first if your success rate is short.Mind the bridge years. Retiring before 59½ (penalty-free withdrawals), before Social Security, and before 65 (Medicare) means a stretch you fund entirely yourself — keep it liquid and tax-smart.If you're already retired, On track to save enough doesn't apply to you (it's a pre-retirement check) — your Realistic plan horizon and Monte Carlo checkpoints carry the weight instead. What good looks like: On track to save enough and Realistic plan horizon both read green at your chosen retirement age.
Charts to watch: Monte Carlo chart Net Worth chart Safe Spending & Legacy chart What moves your plan most chart
Dials to try: Retirement age Contributions Spending
Key break-even points: 85%+ simulated-market success is on track — the same bar as Make your money last . The earlier your bridge years start, the more of your plan leans on taxable and Roth balances rather than Social Security.
Full picture: How your assumptions shape the results and Bridging to Social Security, 59½ and Medicare in the Learn panel.
Weather a market crash Fits anyone who's ever thought "what if the market crashes right when I retire" — this section is exactly that stress test.
Turn on the stress test. Return scenario → "Early market crash" runs a −18% then −10% start to retirement instead of steady returns — a worst-case timing test, not a worst-case average.See why timing beats averages. Sequence-of-returns risk means the same crash does far more damage in year 1 of retirement than at 85, because you're selling shares while they're down. The Sequence-of-returns chart shows both paths side by side.Add flexibility. Switch Spending strategy to guardrails — trimming spending a bit after a big drop (and raising it after a strong run) is what keeps a plan bendable instead of brittle.Check your odds under stress, not just on average. The Monte Carlo chart's shaded band is the 10th–90th percentile range of outcomes; the Net Worth chart shows what actually happens to your balance under the crash scenario.What good looks like: Will your money last at your planned spending? and Resilient if you flex your spending both read green — cuts under guardrails would be rare and shallow.
Charts to watch: Monte Carlo chart Net Worth chart Sequence-of-returns chart
Dials to try: Return scenario Spending strategy
Key break-even points: a resilient guardrails plan keeps cuts rare (fewer than 25% of simulated lifetimes ever need one) and shallow (a typical worst cut under 10%); frequent (60%+) or deep (20%+) cuts are the red zone.
Full picture: Sequence-of-returns risk in the Learn panel.
Plan for long-term care Fits everyone, honestly — about 70% of 65-year-olds will need some care, and Medicare doesn't cover most of it.
Turn on a realistic cost. Long-term care cost (monthly, 0 = off) — try $6,000–$9,000/mo, a common range from an in-home aide through nursing care.Set when and how long. Care starts at age and Care duration (years) — a 2–3 year stretch is typical.Watch what breaks. The Monte Carlo chart and Net Worth chart show whether your plan still holds — or exactly when it would run out — with the cost turned on.Decide how to cover it: a dedicated cash reserve, long-term-care insurance, or confirming your plan already has enough cushion without either.What good looks like: your Covered for long-term care checkpoint reads green — your plan survives a realistic care event, or any shortfall lands late enough (within the last few years of your horizon) to be a minor strain rather than a break.
Charts to watch: Monte Carlo chart Net Worth chart
Dials to try: Long-term care cost Care starts at age Care duration
Key break-even points: a shortfall inside the last 3 years of your plan horizon reads amber (a late strain); any earlier reads red (a break); never insolvent reads green.
Full picture: Long-term care: the big what-if and What retirement healthcare really costs in the Learn panel.
How to check your readiness — and when "good enough" is okay Eleven checkpoints, one honest question each. Not every one needs to be green to retire well.
Click Check readiness in the left rail to open Checkpoints — up to eleven cards, worst-first, each scored green / amber / red / not applicable. Each card names one honest question ("Will your money last at your planned spending?", "Is your legacy on track?", …), a plain-English finding, a "Why this matters →" link into Learn, and — where one exists — a "Fix it →" shortcut straight to the input that moves it. Not every checkpoint has to be green — some trade off against each other, on purpose: Retiring earlier can pull down On track to save enough simply because there are fewer working years to save — that's the honest cost of the earlier date, not a mistake to fix. Choosing a smaller Legacy on track number can be the deliberate price of retiring sooner or spending more comfortably now — money you don't leave behind is money you got to use. Claiming Social Security earlier than Survivor protected recommends can be the right call if you need the income sooner, or simply prefer certainty over a longer wait. Read the pattern, not just the colors. A plan that's green on Will your money last but red on Legacy on track is "spend it, don't leave it" — a valid choice, not a failing plan.What good looks like: for every amber or red checkpoint, you can say whether it's a gap worth closing or a trade-off you're choosing on purpose.
Full picture: Are you on track? in the Learn panel.
When to get more help Most people can plan their own retirement here. A few situations are worth an hour with a professional.
This tool is good at what it models: taxes, Social Security timing, Roth conversions, Medicare/IRMAA, market risk, and long-term care — change an assumption and watch the outcome, as many times as you like. A handful of situations add real complexity this model leaves out on purpose: owning a business or self-employment income; a pension survivor-benefit election (a lump sum vs. a joint-and-survivor payout); a large concentrated stock position or RSUs/options; divorce or remarriage; special-needs or disability planning; an estate likely above the federal exemption; or a non-US/cross-border tax situation. Know the model's honest limits too: it doesn't link your accounts or use live market data; state tax is a single flat rate per state, not full brackets; there's no mortgage/debt balance sheet or detailed asset allocation; and it runs one set of return assumptions, stress-tested across 1,000 simulated markets — a guardrail, not a substitute for advice. If one of these fits your situation, a single session with a fee-only advisor or a CPA is usually enough — bring your NestVida numbers with you (Print / Save PDF, left rail). What good looks like: you know which of these, if any, apply to you — and you've either scheduled that one conversation or confirmed you don't need it.
Full picture: When to bring in a professional in the Learn panel.