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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Aruna on December 29, 2014, 12:35:30 AM

Title: Help with Retirement Calculator
Post by: Aruna on December 29, 2014, 12:35:30 AM

Hi I used an online retirement calculator http://goo.gl/RNhOq7 . I want to know if these calculations are accurate or they are just assumption...

Title: Re: Help with Retirement Calculator
Post by: Monkey Uncle on December 29, 2014, 06:58:46 AM

Quote from: Aruna on December 29, 2014, 12:35:30 AM

Hi I used an online retirement calculator http://goo.gl/RNhOq7 . I want to know if these calculations are accurate or they are just assumption...

I didn't see anything on the web page explaining how the calculator works, so it looks like there's no way to know about assumptions or accuracy.

However, there are plenty of other calculators out there that do explain how they work.  Here are two that are popular with people on this forum:

http://www.cfiresim.com/input.php (http://www.cfiresim.com/input.php)

http://www.firecalc.com/ (http://www.firecalc.com/)

You also might want to try a calculator that uses Monte Carlo simulation, which tends to give somewhat more conservative results.  Here's an example; I'm sure there are many others out there:

http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/retirement_and_planning/retirement/retirement_calculator (http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/retirement_and_planning/retirement/retirement_calculator)

Title: Re: Help with Retirement Calculator
Post by: arebelspy on January 01, 2015, 12:27:19 PM

Yeah, that's a pretty poor calculator.

Check out www.cfiresim.com or the myriad of other ones available, which range from simple to complex.  Some examples:
http://www.calcxml.com/calculators/retirement-calculator?skn=#results
https://secure.marketwatch.com/retirement/tools/planner
http://heliosophiclabs.com/~mad/RetCalc/html/retsim.html
http://www.dinkytown.net/java/RetirementPlan.html