Edit Annual Spending

Annual Spending describes the lifestyle the plan must fund repeatedly

Use categories and items for costs that recur across one or more years: food, travel, support, transportation, rent, healthcare, and other living expenses. Use One-time & Periodic Goals & Expenses for a dated or periodic cash need, and use Property & Housing for costs attached to an owned property when that editor provides the supported field.

Priority separates non-discretionary spending that must continue from discretionary spending that could be reduced. That classification affects guardrail and stress analysis, so it should describe real flexibility rather than a desire to make the plan look safer.

Categories organize the plan; items carry the actual schedules

Create a category with a clear name, icon, priority, and optional description, then add annual spending items. Each item has an annual amount, optional growth override, and optional start and end calendar years. Blank start begins immediately; blank end continues through the plan.

Blank Annual growth uses scenario inflation. Zero keeps the item fixed in nominal dollars. Another rate creates a custom growth path. Enter amounts in annual dollars, even when the source bill is monthly.

Enter alimony, spousal support, or child support the household pays as a named annual spending item with the agreement’s start, end, growth, and real flexibility. Do not enter a payment as negative income. Received support belongs in Income & Benefits instead, with tax treatment based on the agreement and current law.

Choose how the item affects the spending estimate

When you delete an unallocated spending target, its remaining itemized expenses keep their amounts and schedules and become Additional spending. Only the unallocated remainder disappears. Review both priority groups before Save and return, especially after moving costs between non-discretionary and discretionary spending.

Additional spending adds the item beyond the estimate. Within the total budget reduces unallocated spending by the item’s actual amount each year, so another amount can offset a decline. Allocate part of the estimate reserves a fixed amount in today’s dollars from an unallocated target in the same priority group; actual spending can then rise or fall independently. The allocation follows scenario inflation and continues after the expense ends or its person dies. Deleting the item releases the allocation. Over-allocation makes remaining unallocated spending zero, with a warning.

Medical contains the main retirement premium and other-cost estimates for each person. Its Additional items always sit on top of that estimate. Other housing is for rent or unlinked housing costs; owned-property costs belong with Property & Housing and Debt & Loans.

Build a retirement spending smile with separate item milestones

Edit a Travel or Dining item and select Change gradually for straight lines between milestones, or Change in steps for amounts that hold until the next milestone. Use 2 to 32 milestones, each in a calendar year or a number of years after the selected person retires. For example, travel can decline from $20,000 at retirement to $5,000 ten years later; an additional medical item can rise from $2,000 in 2040 to $8,000 in 2055. These are illustrative inputs, not recommendations.

Calendar-year milestones stay fixed when a birth date or retirement date changes. Years after retirement follows the selected person’s retirement calendar year. Use Retirement and lifespan linked to to select that person. Milestone amounts are in today’s dollars. Scenario or sampled path inflation applies once. A timeline replaces annual growth overrides and year periods. Before the first milestone choose zero or the first amount. The last amount continues unless a final inclusive year or Stop when this person dies is selected. The default continues for the household. Milestones resolving to the same year are invalid, including after a retirement-date change.

Save and return, then choose View spending over time beside Spending & goals in Scenario Editor. The read-only chart includes total spending and category toggles; it is also available under Spending in Projection. Additional Medical items are HSA-qualified by default and always add to the main estimate. Avoid duplicating routine costs already entered as Other annual medical spending.

Preview year and dollar-display controls do not change the saved plan. Invalid saves retain the milestone rows so you can correct them. Date sweeps label milestone collisions as unavailable candidates; they are not simulated or offered for adoption. Dollar-based spending sweeps require positive retirement-year spending. If inherited Home dates conflict with a Linked What-if timeline, review the synchronization choices before saving or running it.

Reconcile the combined annual amount before trusting a result

After saving, review Spending over time and open Projection. Check the first plan year, every start or end year, retirement, Medicare transitions, and the survivor years. A detailed item should not appear both inside the remaining unallocated estimate and as additional spending.

Rerun Stochastic Analysis after a material spending change. Its spending responses and guardrails use the saved non-discretionary and discretionary amounts, so an older run no longer represents the edited plan.