Bruce’s

Retirement Planner

When can I retire? How much can I spend?

Your retirement will only happen once: one market, one lifespan, nobody knows which. The planner runs thousands of possible versions of it, taxes and healthcare included, and shows you where your plan holds up and where it breaks.

Download on the App Store See how it works

What it does

Your whole retirement, stress-tested

Answer five quick questions and you'll see your first number in under a minute. Then make the plan yours: every scenario gets stress-tested across thousands of futures and drawn out as a story you can actually read. No spreadsheets, and no pretending anyone can predict the market.

Run a thousand lifetimes

Monte Carlo puts your plan through thousands of market paths and lifespans. See your median net worth, your chance of staying solvent, and where the good and bad tails land.

See what moves the needle

Drag a lever (returns, inflation, how long you live, work ending early, a long-term care stay) and watch the plan react live. The tornado ranks every lever by impact, so you know what's worth worrying about.

Compare money moves

Line scenarios up side by side: "keep working" vs "retire now," this house vs that one. Flip between today's dollars and nominal in a single tap.

Every year, line by line

Open any year of the plan to see where the money comes from and where it goes: income, spending, taxes, required withdrawals, Roth conversions, and the balance in every account, in today's dollars or that year's.

Plan for family and charity

Switch a plan to Estate Planning to see what your family and your charities receive after taxes, and where your money goes over your lifetime. Give during life or through your estate, and the plan ranks the ways you could leave more.

The engine

What the model covers

Social Security

Claiming ages 62 to 70
Spousal and survivor benefits
Benefit taxation, federal and state
A benefit-cut what-if

Taxes

2026 federal, all 50 states, and NYC
Capital gains brackets, the 0% bracket included
Capital-loss carryforward
Payroll tax while you work
Filing status, including the survivor's switch to single
State-by-state rules for retirement income
State quirks, like NJ and CA taxing HSA contributions

Retirement moves

Roth conversions, filled to the bracket you choose
Required minimum distributions
Surplus income swept into your 401(k)
Dynamic spending guardrails that cut spending in downturns
SEPP 72(t) early withdrawals

Accounts

Brokerage, pre-tax, Roth, HSA, and cash
Roth basis tracked through every year
Pension handling, with survivor elections and cost of living increases
Lifetime annuities priced against mortality tables and market rates

Healthcare

Employer coverage, then the ACA bridge to 65
ACA subsidies and cost sharing from your simulated income
Medicare Parts B and D
IRMAA surcharges
State quirks, like the Medicaid coverage gap in the ten non-expansion states

Life and home

Couples modeled as two lives
Personalized longevity from your health profile
Buying, selling, and downsizing homes, mortgage included
The capital gains exclusion when you sell

Estate

What your family receives, measured at the end of your lifetimes in every future
Federal estate tax, plus state estate and inheritance taxes
The income tax your family owes on inherited pre-tax accounts
A share of the estate left to charity, paid from pre-tax accounts first

Charitable giving

Gifts of cash and appreciated shares
Qualified charitable distributions from IRAs after 70½
Donor-advised funds
The charitable deduction, with its income limits and carryforwards
State rules for deducting gifts

Markets and mortality

The two hardest things in a retirement model are the market and the lifespan, and this one treats both the way banking and insurance do. Returns come from a correlated multi-asset model with stochastic inflation, the machinery banks use to stress portfolios over decades. Lifespans are simulated from the Social Security Administration's life tables with mortality improvement, the machinery insurers use to price promises that have to hold for a lifetime. Our team built these models professionally before building this app.

Ask bigger questions

What can you actually ask it?

All that machinery exists so the plan can hold the messy questions real retirements are made of. A few it answers well:

Should I claim Social Security at 62 or 70?

It models the actuarial reduction and delayed credits, survivor benefits, and how much of your check actually gets taxed, then shows you the crossover.

What does retiring before 65 really cost?

Marketplace premiums bridge you to Medicare, and the plan estimates your ACA subsidy every year from your simulated income: the 400% cliff, your state's rules, cost sharing reductions, even your kids while they count. Then Part B, Part D, and IRMAA take over.

What should we do with the house?

Add your home and mortgage, then try selling, downsizing, buying, or paying the mortgage off early, with the capital gains exclusion and the carrying costs included, and compare your odds under each.

What happens to the one of us who's left?

Couples are modeled as two lives: survivor benefits, the switch to filing single, and the tax squeeze that follows. It's not a fun question, which is exactly why the plan should hold it.

How much will my family actually inherit?

Estate Planning measures it at the end of your lifetimes in every future, after estate taxes and the income tax due on inherited IRAs, and shows the likely range, not just one number.

Should we give now or leave it to charity in the will?

Set up gifts during life, a donor-advised fund, or a share of the estate, then compare what your family and your charities receive under each, with the deduction and estate taxes included.

The signature view

See the whole story unfold

Median liquid net worth, building through your working years and drawing down in retirement. Retire a little later and the line rides higher, longer; retire early and it cuts closer. Every lever you touch redraws it.

Net Worth

Median liquid net worth by age

Retire at 67 Retire at 62 Shaded: middle half of outcomes

SAMPLE PLAN · RETIRE AT 62

$925k

Median net worth at 80

71%

Chance solvent at 80

51%

Success over a random lifespan

87 / 90

Life expectancy (you / spouse)

Illustrative projection, not a forecast of your results. In the app these numbers are yours: every input, every lifetime, recalculated live.

Bruce’s blog

One question at a time, with receipts

On the blog we take a single retirement question, build a real household around it, and run it through the same engine that's in the app. Real projected numbers, no ten-tips listicles.

See your own odds

Bruce’s Retirement Planner is on the App Store for iPhone & iPad. Free, no account needed, and the financial data you enter never leaves your device.

Android coming soon. Drop your email and we'll send one note when it lands.

No spam, just one note when Android arrives. By signing up you agree to our Privacy Policy.