Use the main plan and What-ifs

Stay in the creator and review only intended changes

When creating from another What-if, choose Create linked from main plan to use the maintained baseline instead. Recheck source holdings, accounts, and property assumptions against the main plan before reviewing. Choose Independent when you want a fixed copy of the current plan.

Treasury transition review shows the source holding value falling and the destination holding value rising by the same transition amount. A zero destination starting value means a new holding, not money missing from the source. Review the matched coupon rate, semiannual payment frequency, yield to maturity, price per $100 face value, maturity, CUSIP, and quote date. The auction observation is not a live broker quote.

For a manually valued cash holding, leave the ticker blank unless it has a real supported symbol. If an older What-if contains an unintended Cash ticker, clear it in Accounts & Holdings and save before running a new comparison. An existing comparison still represents the inputs used for its original run.

The main plan is the maintained plan; a What-if is a controlled experiment

The main plan represents the retirement plan you currently intend to maintain. It owns the continuing record of saved balances, check-ins, monitoring, and action decisions. A What-if is a separate plan for asking a specific question—retiring earlier, delaying Social Security, moving, changing spending, or trying another policy—without overwriting the main plan.

A useful comparison changes only what the question requires. If a retirement-date experiment also contains an accidental spending change and an older balance, the resulting difference cannot be attributed to retirement timing. The What-if name and its list of changed inputs should make the experiment understandable before any outcome is read.

Choose Linked or Independent based on what should happen when the main plan changes

A Linked What-if is appropriate when the alternative should continue receiving later committed changes from the main plan except for the inputs it deliberately overrides. It is useful for an ongoing decision such as “retire at 64” while account balances and unrelated household facts continue to be maintained in the main plan.

An Independent What-if is a complete fixed copy. Use it when the alternative must preserve a historical set of assumptions or should no longer follow the main plan. Link it to the main plan when matching values should begin inheriting, or choose Combine What-ifs to create a new Linked What-if from two compatible experiments. If both experiments change the same input differently, YARCalc lists the overlap and creates nothing until the source What-ifs agree.

In These changes overlap, each named What-if has its own column. Review the account or property name and distinguish recorded ownership from intended ownership. Trust names identify the recorded organization; an intended trust title does not confirm that legal retitling is complete. Edit the source What-if whose input should change, save it, then review the combination again.

Do not create a plan for every minor edit. Create one when preserving the baseline and comparing the tradeoff will improve the decision. The main plan should not be changed to an uncertain alternative merely because creating a What-if feels inconvenient.

Keep synchronization and overrides visible

Choose Create What-if from main plan and give the experiment a name that describes the decision. Make the smallest coherent set of changes. In a Linked What-if, your overrides remain different while unrelated main plan updates can flow through. Review those inherited changes before relying on an older experiment.

When a Linked What-if has Updates available, choose Sync from Manage Plans to review inherited changes before applying them. Cancel leaves the saved What-if unchanged. If either plan changes after review, review the latest changes before synchronizing. Synchronize it before comparing so unrelated old assumptions do not distort the result. Needs attention means the main plan and the experiment have overlapping changes that you must resolve.

When the main plan and the Linked What-if changed the same underlying item differently, YARCalc stops and asks you to review the conflict. Choose which value belongs in the experiment; do not treat the last writer as automatically correct. If the main plan removed a parent record such as an account that contains an overridden holding, resolve the structural conflict before continuing.

Detaching makes the What-if permanently independent. Link to main plan rebases an Independent What-if after review: matching inputs inherit from the main plan and remaining differences stay explicit overrides. The review summarizes complete records such as added or removed holdings by their visible name and security details. Adoption is a separate reviewed operation that creates a new main plan version; editing or analyzing a What-if never silently changes the main plan.

Start with What changes, and what you get on Plan tradeoffs. Each What-if places the main plan, What-if, and Change together for probability plan lasts and lower-range ending portfolio, followed by changed inputs. Matched spending milestones show annual amounts and differences for the spending item, not a household total. Several changes must be interpreted together. Probability includes enabled spending responses; lower-range means the 10th percentile in future dollars at the modeled end. Review different horizons, notices, and the full input differences before deciding.

Compare Plans uses one shared set of precision, path count, seed, and other analysis assumptions for the main plan and every selected What-if. Individual Stochastic settings can differ between plans without changing their household inputs. Choose the shared settings for the question you are comparing.

Before running Compare Plans, resolve any conflict between the main plan and a Linked What-if so the experiment preserves the choices you intended. You may leave while the comparison runs and return to Compare Plans to check progress or read the completed result. Choose New comparison when you want to test another selection or set of assumptions.

Know exactly what each built-in starting point changes

Blank copy changes no planning input. Use it when none of the narrower starters matches the question, then make the intended edits in Plan Editor. Adjust retirement timing lets you choose a household member and enter a signed whole-year change: positive is later and negative is earlier. Review every income, contribution, award, and healthcare rule tied to that date before interpreting the result.

Adjust discretionary spending accepts a signed percentage: enter −10 to reduce it by ten percent or +10 to increase it. Non-discretionary recurring spending stays unchanged, as do one-time goals, property costs, debt payments, and spending classified as non-discretionary. Set Social Security claiming age accepts a whole age from 62 through 70 for each configured household member; it does not estimate a new statement benefit, so confirm the saved Full Retirement Age benefit and the modeled claiming adjustment.

Set a fixed-income glide path turns on that planning policy with the start year, end year, starting safe percentage, target safe percentage, and maximum annual move you enter. It changes planning-policy targets rather than trading the current holdings.

Use distinct names that identify the choices, such as “Retire one year later” or “Downsize in 2030.” If the plan you need is absent from the profile menu, use Manage all plans to find the complete list.

Translate FIRE labels into plan inputs you can test

FIRE means Financial Independence, Retire Early. Lean FIRE, Chubby FIRE, and Fat FIRE are informal descriptions of different spending levels, but there are no stable universal dollar thresholds. YARCalc therefore does not classify a household with one of those labels. Compare lower, current, and higher spending What-ifs or run an Annual spending sweep against the planning target you saved.

Barista FIRE commonly describes continuing some part-time earned income before full retirement. Slow FI and Flamingo FI describe other gradual routes toward financial independence, and their definitions vary. Model the actual work income, contributions, employer benefits, healthcare, spending, and retirement dates instead of relying on the nickname. A Blank What-if keeps those coordinated changes separate from the main plan.

An earlier retirement also creates more years before Medicare, Social Security, and required distributions. Review accessible taxable and cash resources alongside retirement accounts. YARCalc does not calculate every early-distribution penalty, Rule of 55, 72(t)/SEPP rule, Roth ordering rule, or five-year access rule, so confirm any access strategy independently.

Review the asset and housing starters before creation

Move and downsize sells one current property at the plan start, pays linked debts, and adds a replacement property using the sale value, destination state, purchase price, moving costs, and annual ownership costs you enter. It is not a generic “housing costs fall” shortcut. Review the sale and replacement assumptions, linked loans, timing, and any rent or spending that could otherwise be counted twice.

Explore an annuity records a proposed premium and source account. In the new What-if, use Accounts & Holdings > Add annuity to enter the contract terms or insurer-quoted payment and exclusion terms before comparing with the main plan. Contract purchases reduce their funding source on the purchase date; linked payments do not need a separate income stream.

These starters prepare visible input changes for review; none recommends the choice or performs a transaction. A starter is offered only when the current plan has the required spending, benefit, account, holding, or property input. If a starter is absent, correct the prerequisite in the main plan or use Blank copy for a different supported experiment.

Test moving part of one holding into a Treasury

Choose Transition a holding to Treasuries when the question is how the plan changes after moving a dollar amount from one current holding into fixed income. Select the source holding, enter the amount, and choose a 2-, 5-, 10-, 20-, or 30-year term. The destination must be a Treasury holding in the same account, or YARCalc can add a new Treasury holding there.

The transition amount must be greater than zero and cannot exceed the displayed market value of the selected source holding. If it does, review stops with that amount error and leaves the source holding unchanged.

YARCalc looks through the latest official Treasury auction data for the fixed-rate nominal note or bond whose remaining maturity most closely matches the selected term. The selected term is therefore a target remaining maturity, not a promise that the security was originally issued with that exact term. The review identifies the matched CUSIP, coupon, maturity, price, yield, auction date, and source before the What-if is created. If no usable official security and price are available for that term, creation stops instead of inventing one.

In Plan Editor, a Treasury without a ticker shows its CUSIP. The source position is reduced by the entered market value and the matched Treasury face value is calculated from its price, leaving the account total unchanged at the transition date. This is a planning allocation change, not a brokerage order, recommendation, or live executable quote. It does not select TIPS, bills, floating-rate notes, or STRIPS. Confirm availability, permitted investments, current trading price, accrued interest, fees, and settlement with the account provider before acting.

Compare inputs before outcomes

In YARCalc, a comparison can continue after an interruption using its original plan versions, strategy definitions, and assumptions. Automatic recovery does not use another analysis allowance. Return to the comparison to check progress or open its saved result. Later plan edits do not change that run; review any historical-result notice before using it for current decisions.

Before comparing charts or success percentages, review the input differences, balance dates, strategies, horizons, and analysis settings. Resolve stale or synchronization warnings first. Linked What-ifs inherit current prices from the main plan so a routine price refresh does not become an apparent planning choice. Check quantity and security changes separately: moving money into a Treasury is a different investment decision, even when the total account value stays the same.

If changed inputs produce identical displayed outcomes, read Modeling notices before treating the plans as equivalent. A cash-reserve target needs a Cash or interest-bearing cash account, and a fixed-income glide path needs a compatible bond- or cash-oriented target in each affected tax-treatment bucket. YARCalc reports a blocked or partial policy instead of inventing an account, security, or cross-tax transfer.

Then compare the measures relevant to the question: transition-year cash flow, taxes, withdrawals, downside outcomes, spending flexibility, inheritance, and practical constraints. A larger ending balance does not automatically make the life choice better.

Marking a plan Promising is only a bookmark that makes it easier to find in Plan Tradeoffs and Manage Plans. It does not change the main plan, adopt the plan, edit any input, rerun a calculation, or alter a recommendation.

Choose Apply changes to main plan for the What-if, then read the listed changes against the current main plan. The review preserves the main plan’s balance history, check-ins, reminders, and monitoring while adding only the planning changes you confirm.

A plan comparison cannot choose the life decision

YARCalc can compare modeled financial consequences. It cannot decide whether a move, retirement date, family commitment, tax election, or investment policy is personally acceptable, legally available, or operationally feasible.

The application does not automatically combine several What-ifs into an optimal plan. Adopt one coherent alternative at a time only after understanding its assumptions, conflicts, and tradeoffs.

Test lifespan, economic conditions, and healthcare spending

Choose New what-if to find six parameterized assumption starters: planning age, fixed-return change, inflation change, early-return stress, additional annual healthcare spending, and discretionary-spending change. Enter the value that matches the question, review the exact changes, create the plan, then use Compare Plans to compare it with the main plan. These are assumptions and lifestyle alternatives, not ranked strategies.

Planning age extends each person’s lifespan without shortening a longer saved lifespan. Fixed-return and inflation changes accept signed percentage points. Early-return stress accepts both the number of early years and their annual default return, then resumes the saved model. Contractual holdings retain their own return rules. Explicit spending growth rates retain their own rules. Additional healthcare spending is an expense, not a funded reserve.

The discretionary-spending starter accepts a signed percentage such as −10% or +10% and leaves non-discretionary spending unchanged. Edit Household, Assumptions, or Medical spending in the What-If for more involved customization. Use Variable Sweeps for a range of longevity values. Test Market Uncertainty has its own return, inflation, and lifespan settings; these deterministic starters do not change those settings.

Start with the decision you want to test

Test A Decision > Test a What-if offers three starting changes relevant to the saved plan. More ideas includes the other available starters and Blank copy for a change that needs coordinated edits. A direct link to a starter opens its choices for review. Name the question and verify the proposed differences before creating the alternative.

Choose whether the alternative should follow later main plan updates except for its changed inputs, or remain an independent fixed copy. Confirm the relationship and starting changes in Review what-if. Create and edit the alternative, test it with Projection and uncertainty analysis, compare with the main plan under matching assumptions, then adopt only the changes you intend to maintain.

What if I work longer?

Open New what-if and review Adjust retirement timing. Choose the person and enter a signed whole-year change, such as +1 for later or −2 for earlier. Confirm every input connected to the changed retirement date: work income, contributions, employer benefits, pensions, Social Security, Medicare, and retirement-relative expenses. Correct related dates when the real decision changes them.

Compare the What-if with the main plan and separate the sources of improvement. Another year can add earnings and contributions, postpone portfolio withdrawals, shorten retirement, and change benefit amounts or taxes. Projection shows the transition years; probability results show whether downside resilience materially improves.

The financial difference is only one part of the decision. Job availability, health, caregiving, and the value of retirement time remain personal constraints that the calculation cannot rank.

Can I ease into retirement part time?

Start a Blank What-if so the phased transition remains separate from the main plan. Enter the lower earned income with its real start and end dates, move the full-retirement date if appropriate, and review contributions, employer benefits, healthcare, taxes, and any spending that changes with the work schedule. This kind of part-time bridge is sometimes called Barista FIRE; YARCalc models the cash flows and dates, not the lifestyle label.

Use Projection to inspect the bridge years and confirm that part-time earnings and portfolio withdrawals do not overlap incorrectly. Then compare the What-if with the main plan for success measures, taxes, later balances, and the number of years the portfolio must support full spending.

Part-time work is modeled as annual cash flow. YARCalc does not decide whether a position will be available or reproduce paycheck timing, benefit eligibility, or an employer’s exact retirement-plan rules.

Can I spend more on travel early in retirement?

Create a Blank What-if and add travel as its own discretionary item in Annual Spending. Use calendar-year periods for fixed dates or Years after retirement milestones when the timing should follow retirement. Enter the annual amounts and an end boundary so the extra travel does not continue for life. Review the combined spending path to check whether the item adds spending or uses part of an existing budget.

Compare the What-if with the main plan. Review the early withdrawals and taxes, success probability, later spending flexibility, downside balances, and what remains for healthcare or legacy goals. A lower ending balance is not automatically a bad result when the purpose is intentional lifetime enjoyment.

The comparison is credible only if ordinary living costs remain complete and the later reduction is actually modeled. Test a range of travel budgets when the amount is flexible.

Keep a plan in YARCalc and use reports for sharing

YARCalc does not currently support downloading a complete plan and restoring it from a file. Use saved What-ifs to preserve alternatives inside YARCalc. A holdings import updates supported positions; it does not restore the household dates, spending, policies, and results of a complete plan.

Use the report exports offered on each planning page when you need a copy for review or discussion. For a broader copy of your account information, use the privacy contact in the Privacy Policy and specify the information you need.