Spending, housing, and goals
View spending over time without editing
See total spending and named categories across the saved plan, with the same chart controls as Balance History.
Review the spending plan without entering an editor
Choose View spending over time beside Spending & goals in Scenario Editor. The large read-only dialog keeps your place in the plan while you examine how annual expenses change. You do not need to open Annual Spending or change an input to see the chart. Close or Escape returns to the overview.
In Projection, choose Spending beside Balances above the chart. These are two views of the same deterministic plan: Balances shows money remaining at the end of each year, while Spending shows the annual expenses the household is expected to cover. Separating the views avoids comparing accumulated wealth and yearly costs against different axes.
Start with Total spending, then inspect the categories behind it
Total spending is visible first. Turn on a named category to compare its timing with the total, or hide the total to inspect smaller categories more closely. Each switch changes visibility only. Hiding college or travel does not remove it from the plan or reduce Total spending. The vertical scale adjusts to the visible lines.
Hover over or focus a point to read its year, household ages, and exact dollar amount. Choose Expand chart when you need more room and Restore chart to return to the original layout. Annual values provides the complete category breakdown in a table, including categories that are currently hidden in the chart.
Today’s dollars is the starting display for spending. It removes general inflation so changes in planned purchasing power, such as declining travel and rising later-life expenses, are easier to see. Future dollars shows nominal amounts for comparison with Projection’s Summary table. The dollar switch changes neither the saved inflation assumption nor any expense.
Include household-funded college without counting its funding twice
Total spending follows Projection’s non-tax expense total: recurring categories, household-paid medical coverage, property costs, debt payments, one-time and periodic goals, and household-funded college. Every expense belongs to one category. Dedicated medical coverage is separate from additional medical spending items so the two sources remain identifiable.
College — household-funded means the portion charged to household spending after the modeled college coverage. Costs paid directly from linked 529 accounts remain in Projection’s college coverage breakdown and are not added again here. Medical costs paid directly by an HSA are also a separate funding flow. Taxes and account contributions are not part of this non-tax spending total.
In the Balances view, Total investable balance excludes dedicated 529 education savings. Add the separate 529 line when examining education resources. Balance History uses the same chart controls but describes actual recorded balances rather than predicted future values.
Reconcile a saved year before drawing conclusions
Switch spending to Future dollars and compare a selected year with Spending in Projection’s Summary table for the same saved version. Then examine retirement, major start and end years, college years, debt payoff, and the survivor years. A temporary spike may represent a planned purchase rather than an enduring lifestyle increase.
The dialog loads when opened and retains that view while the page remains open. It is tied to the saved version displayed in Scenario Editor. Save edits and reopen the overview to inspect a changed plan. Chart controls never save a version or start Stochastic Analysis.
An expense line is not a guarantee that it can be funded
The chart displays modeled expenses even when income and accounts cannot cover them. Review Projection’s shortfalls before treating the spending plan as affordable. This is a deterministic view, not a distribution of uncertain outcomes or a record of actual household purchases.