Application 1 may show a bias towards the purchase of fixed income annuities, delayed Social Security benefit commencement,
and conservative investments since it is focused on attaining a secure income amount through your expected lifetime.
Some retirees may not be comfortable with this strategy.
Application 2 is designed to allow modifications to the following:
(these are the 5 elements previously discussed)
The monthly income
The annual percentage increase in income
The asset allocation between stocks and bonds
The Social Security payment start age (if not yet being paid)
The fixed income annuity purchase amount (if any)
Note that the input for Application 2 has been prepopulated with results from Application 1.
There should be no reason to change any of the basic input items
(Date of birth, health, Social Security information, retirement savings, or other incomes).
However you can change them if you feel it is appropriate.
We recommend that you first run Application 2 with the results from Application 1.
This will be a good starting point for comparison to your customized income amounts and strategies.
Then test different strategies (alter one or more of the five elements).
Print out your results so that you compare the alternatives you have considered.
Each strategy will be rated from 1 to 10 for both income security and retirement savings balance maintenance.
The monthly income amount will not change automatically if you change the other strategy elements.
What will change is the two ratings.
The results of each alternative will be presented in graphical form.
An explanation of how to read the graph and results is provided.
Once you have decided on a strategy you should move on to Application 3.