Most retirement calculators oversimplify. They ask how much you’ve saved, assume a fixed growth rate, and give you a single number. But retirement isn’t one number—it’s a lifetime of changing income, expenses, taxes, and decisions.
That’s why we created the Retirement Budget Calculator (RBC). It’s more than just a budgeting tool—it’s a retirement planning system that gives you clarity, confidence, and control over your financial future.
Unlike other calculators, RBC lets you model every detail of your retirement without linking accounts or sacrificing your privacy. It creates a year-by-year cash flow plan, runs powerful Monte Carlo simulations, and helps you optimize strategies like Roth conversions, Social Security timing, and withdrawal order.
Let’s explore all the features that make RBC one of the most powerful and complete retirement calculators available today.
1. Timeline Setup
Your plan begins with a personalized timeline:
- Enter your retirement date and watch the countdown timer tick down.
- Add your birthday and spouse’s birthday to align benefits and life expectancy.
- Adjust longevity assumptions to test how long your money could last.
🔎 Example: Retiring at 62 vs. 67 might add or subtract hundreds of thousands of dollars from your plan. RBC lets you see the impact instantly.
2. Assets and Liabilities
RBC captures your entire financial picture:
- Accounts: Brokerage, 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, HSA, and more.
- Custom Returns: Assign your own expected growth rate to each account.
- Real Estate: Include your primary residence, rentals, or vacation homes.
- Other Assets: Personal property, collectibles, and investments.
- Liabilities: Mortgages, credit cards, loans.
This creates a true balance sheet and projects how your net worth changes over time.
3. Budgeting Features
Budgeting in RBC is flexible and detailed:
- Enter current and future income (pensions, annuities, Social Security).
- Use the Social Security optimization tool to find the best claiming strategy.
- Add deductions, contributions, and tax withholdings (RBC automatically calculates federal taxes for you).
- Build your spending plan:
- Enter one simple monthly expense, OR create a detailed line-item budget.
- Plan for the “go-go, slow-go, and no-go” years by starting/stopping expenses.
- Mark expenses as essential vs. discretionary.
- Assign different inflation rates to each expense.
- Pay specific expenses from specific accounts.
✅ You can view your spending monthly, annually, or as printable reports. Snapshots let you compare how your plan evolves over time.
4. Tax Estimator
Taxes don’t stop in retirement. RBC’s federal tax estimator helps you:
- Project annual tax liability year by year.
- Compare lifetime taxes under different strategies.
- Evaluate how Roth conversions, QCDs, or withdrawals affect your taxes.
5. The Retirement Optimizer
This is where RBC shines—it builds a detailed, dynamic retirement plan:
- Shows year-by-year income, expenses, taxes, and portfolio withdrawals.
- Automatically calculates Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs).
- Displays withdrawal rates and portfolio balances through retirement.
- Highlights shortfalls and shows how withdrawals will fill the gap.
6. What-If Scenarios
The true power of RBC is in testing strategies:
- Roth Conversions – Compare keeping funds in traditional IRAs vs. converting to Roth.
- Downsizing Your Home – Model selling your home at a future date.
- Spending Reductions – See how cutting back to essential-only expenses impacts success.
- Market Returns – Test different assumptions: historical 70/30, 60/40, 50/50 portfolios, or poor-sequence outcomes.
- Monte Carlo Analysis – Run 1,000 simulations with 10th–90th percentile results.
- Inflation – Test higher or lower inflation assumptions (default 3%).
- Long-Term Care – Compare self-insuring vs. buying LTC insurance.
- QCDs – See how Qualified Charitable Distributions reduce RMDs and taxes.
- Social Security – Optimize claiming, model a 19% benefit cut, and see the impact on lifetime benefits.
- Timeline Strategy – Change retirement age or life expectancy.
- Withdrawal Order – Try conventional, proportional, custom, or bucket withdrawal strategies.
💡 The bucket strategy is especially powerful: it lets you align short-term needs with conservative investments while keeping long-term funds more aggressive.
7. Dashboard & Benchmarks
See your retirement plan at a glance:
- Retirement countdown timer.
- Secure Income Score (measuring guaranteed income vs. expenses).
- Withdrawal rate.
- Debt-to-asset ratio.
- Net worth over time.
- Asset allocation across conservative, moderate, and aggressive.
- Annual and lifetime taxes.
8. Community & AI Assistant
Retirement planning doesn’t have to be lonely:
- Access the private RBC community to share ideas and ask questions.
- Use built-in checklists and flowcharts for smarter decision-making.
- Get help from Finn, the AI financial assistant—who can explain how to use RBC and answer general financial questions (without giving personal advice).
9. Privacy & Control
Unlike many calculators, RBC doesn’t require you to link accounts. You control the data you enter—protecting your privacy while still giving you robust planning results.
10. Why RBC is Different
The Retirement Budget Calculator is not just another “rule of thumb” tool. It’s:
- A cash flow retirement planner that shows the year-by-year impact of your choices.
- A tax-aware calculator that accounts for withholdings, RMDs, and QCDs.
- A scenario tester that helps you prepare for both best- and worst-case outcomes.
- A community of support with built-in learning tools and AI guidance.
If you’re serious about retirement, RBC gives you more than numbers—it gives you a roadmap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Retirement Budget Calculator estimate taxes?
Yes. RBC calculates federal taxes year by year, incorporating income sources, RMDs, Roth conversions, and more.
Can it help me decide when to claim Social Security?
Yes. The built-in Social Security optimization tool helps you find the claiming age that maximizes lifetime benefits—and shows the impact on your overall plan.
Does RBC run Monte Carlo simulations?
Yes. RBC runs 1,000 simulations using historical data to give you a probability of success.
Do I need to link my accounts?
No. RBC protects your privacy by letting you manually enter information—without linking sensitive accounts.
Final Thoughts
Retirement is too important to leave to guesswork. The Retirement Budget Calculator gives you the tools, strategies, and confidence to create a secure financial future.
👉 Sign up today and try the Retirement Budget Calculator free »
