← Help Center

What moves your result most

Last updated October 20, 2026

Each main input to your plan is changed a little, up and then down, and the tool shows what that does to your monthly paycheck and to your chance of success. The input at the top is the one your plan leans on most.

The changes: retiring a year later or earlier; returns 1% higher or lower every year; inflation 1% higher or lower; claiming Social Security a year later or earlier; saving 10% more or less before you retire; 10% more or less in stocks after you retire; and spending 10% more or less. Where one direction is not possible, such as claiming before 62, only the other is shown.

The monthly paycheck is the most you could spend each month, after tax, with housing, healthcare and debt payments already paid. Changing your spending cannot change that figure, so for spending the tool shows only the chance of success: how likely your money is to last at the spending you entered.

The two directions are often not the same size. Retiring a year early usually costs more than retiring a year late gains, because it is a year less of saving and a year more of drawing.

Every change is run on your whole plan against the same simulated markets as your plan itself, so a difference comes from the change and not from a different set of simulations.