Create, compare, score, and apply strategies

A strategy changes how the same retirement facts are handled

Strategy Comparison evaluates alternative planning rules—such as withdrawal order, Roth conversions, Social Security timing or allocation changes—against the same saved household. It is designed to answer whether a different approach improves the outcomes the household cares about, not to invent a different set of facts for each candidate.

A strategy is not a transaction. Applying one saves a planning choice to the scenario so its modeled effects can be inspected. It does not trade securities, move money, file an election, claim a benefit, or contact an institution.

Compare only strategies connected to a real choice

Begin with a small group that addresses the decision at hand. Comparing every available strategy can turn the result into a ranking contest whose winner has little connection to the household’s actual options.

Do not assume the highest score is the best personal choice. The score ranks candidates within that comparison using the selected measures and weights. It can change when the candidate set, plan, or household priorities change, and it cannot capture every implementation burden or personal preference.

A strategy that produces no modeled difference should not receive credit. Determine whether the required accounts, income, dates, or policy conditions exist before interpreting its place in the ranking.

Hold the plan constant and make the tradeoff visible

Confirm the baseline scenario, version, balance date, horizon, and analysis assumptions. Select strategies that can be compared on those same facts. Read each strategy’s description and prerequisites before running so a label such as “tax efficient” is not mistaken for a universal recommendation.

A Roth conversion ladder is a planned series of conversions, usually during selected lower-income years. Compare the whole window rather than one conversion amount: current tax, tax-payment liquidity, Medicare-related costs, later required distributions, survivor tax compression, and after-tax financial-account value can move in different directions. YARCalc does not validate every five-year access rule or unsupported IRA basis situation.

Review deterministic cash flow. Compare Strategies does not run stochastic paths; use Stochastic Analysis separately to assess uncertainty and allocation risk. Compare taxes, shortfalls, liquidity, downside outcomes, spending changes, ending resources, and the account-only legacy estimate—not just the composite score.

If a strategy looks promising, apply it only to the appropriate What-if first when the implementation is consequential. That preserves Home and makes the input and policy changes available for direct review.

Understand what the winner gives up

Identify the measure that improved and the years in which the change occurred. A Roth strategy may reduce later required distributions while increasing current tax; a withdrawal-order change may preserve one account while consuming liquidity elsewhere; a delayed benefit may improve later income while requiring larger early withdrawals.

Read warnings and unsupported details. A modeled improvement can depend on transaction availability, tax treatment, benefit eligibility, or spending behavior that YARCalc does not determine. If the improvement is small, compare it with implementation cost, uncertainty, and the risk of acting on stale assumptions.

After applying a strategy, rerun Projection and inspect the resulting account flows. The saved strategy name is not proof that every intended mechanism actually changed the plan.

Comparison is guidance, not complete optimization

YARCalc does not search every possible multi-year transaction sequence or determine the personally best tax, benefit, investment, or estate decision. Strategy results are planning comparisons under simplified rules.

Verify real actions with current account, agency, tax, and legal information. A ranking should help frame the decision and its tradeoffs; it should not replace them.

Keep the test conditions separate from the strategy

A selected planning age asks whether a plan supports a longer life. It is an assumption shared by the strategies being tested. New what-if includes parameterized longevity, fixed-return, inflation, healthcare-spending, discretionary-spending, and bad-early-market tests. Review and create that What-If, then compare policies within it or compare its outcomes with Home.

Use Scenario Editor > Planning Policy to set a shared estate goal. Allocation strategies target cash and bonds; a funded cash-buffer strategy with automatic replenishment is not offered here. Stochastic Analysis remains the separate workflow for uncertain outcomes.

Without an estate target, balance scores reward wealth preservation. A legacy target caps the balance reward once met; a spend-down goal rewards smaller balances. Plans without shortfalls rank first. The remaining score components assess taxes and policy compliance.

Should I do Roth conversions?

Open Simulation > Compare Strategies, choose Manage strategies, and select Add strategy. Choose Fixed Roth conversion when the same dollar amount should be converted in every calendar year from Start year through End year. Choose Tax-bracket Roth conversion when the annual amount should adapt to projected income and stop at policy limits; this is the calculation formerly labeled only as Golden-window Roth conversion.

Source account must be a supported pre-tax account and Target account must be a supported Roth account for the intended owner. Owner controls the retirement, Social Security, and required-distribution dates used by automatic timing triggers. A specific-year trigger uses the entered calendar year; a retirement or benefit trigger stays linked to that person if the underlying date changes.

Target federal bracket fills taxable ordinary income only through the top of that selected bracket; it does not convert the bracket percentage of the account. Maximum annual conversion is an additional dollar ceiling. The conversion is the smallest amount allowed by bracket room, the IRMAA setting, source balance, annual maximum, and optional tax-cash limit.

Avoid first surcharge keeps projected MAGI at or below the first modeled IRMAA threshold. Stay in current band allows room through the top of the band occupied before conversion. None applies no IRMAA cap. Because MAGI can affect later Medicare premiums, inspect both the conversion year and the corresponding Medicare year in Projection.

Reserve cash for taxes limits the conversion so its additional modeled tax does not exceed the selected percentage of cash-account balances. It does not earmark cash or make a payment. Save definitions, run the comparison, and inspect annual conversions and taxes in Projection before applying anything.

The currently applied strategy is locked. To revise it without silently changing the active plan, add a newly named strategy, compare it, and apply it when ready. Editing another saved candidate does not change the active plan.

Read lifetime taxes together with liquid balances, required distributions, Medicare-related costs, spending shortfalls, survivor taxes, and after-tax legacy. A higher Roth balance can be offset by taxes paid earlier or by depleted taxable cash.

The model helps compare policies; it does not supply a transaction amount for a tax return. Verify current tax law, account eligibility, withholding, estimated payments, and the household’s actual income before converting.