Here is what I find amazing...

[Old Mike]

The FRP software has been helpful to me beyond words. After several years of use, I can confidently say it is the best planning tool available and we're all incredibly lucky that Jim made it available to DIY guys and gals. And more so, that he supports it as wonderfully as he does.

I'm a reasonably active member of several retirement forums and when I mentioned FRP, few people have much to say about it. It's baffling because I just can't imagine better retirement planning software than this. I have literally dreamed about the day that I find a CFP or RICP who uses FRP. When I showed my retirement plan (running FRP) to my last CFP, he was clueless and his mega-corp software was sorely lacking. I'd gladly pay a handsome hourly fee for a retirement professional who understands and uses FRP, to look at my plan and discuss it with me. I just don't think that person exists. It would be great to post a list of CFP/RICP's who know FRP inside and out.

I find it amazing that it's not better recognized on the various online retirement forums. There are other planning tools that get far more attention online, and yet the pale in comparison to FRP. Why is that? It makes me worry there is something wrong with FRP that I'm not seeing. Hard to believe that though.

[redderhead]

I'm right there with you Mike.

Red Head

[target2019]

I have nothing but positive comments about Flexible Retirement Planner. I always mention FRP when I see comments on a certain board about planning software.

In social media forums a certain amount of group-think can develop. And of course if a board's overall theme is a specific planning tool, recommendations do skew that way. This isn't criticism about what people use, just an observation.

I also have noticed that marketing does happen when the subject comes up. It could just be me, but when I see a user with a few posts mention specific products, alerts go off in my head. I don't think I've ever seen a post like that about FRP.

But back to the app--I use the Windows version and for me desktop apps are everything. It's pinned in my toolbar, and when a brilliant idea comes to mind, I can easily type in a new Additional Input, and find the probable outcome, which is usually minimal since my ideas are not so brilliant.

I think FRP is not mentioned more frequently because there is probably a small hump in the beginning for most newcomers. Most of those will not want to look further and RTFM. But what is beyond the home screen is where you input and capture more granularity if you need it.

FRP fits me like a glove. Having a true support forum with questions and answers has been incredibly helpful.

Thanks, Jim.

[neuroshere]

I'm a reasonably active member of several retirement forums and when I mentioned FRP, few people have much to say about it. It's baffling because I just can't imagine better retirement planning software than this. I have literally dreamed about the day that I find a CFP or RICP who uses FRP. When I showed my retirement plan (running FRP) to my last CFP, he was clueless and his mega-corp software was sorely lacking. I'd gladly pay a handsome hourly fee for a retirement professional who understands and uses FRP, to look at my plan and discuss it with me. I just don't think that person exists. It would be great to post a list of CFP/RICP's who know FRP inside and out.

You are not missing anything. Each tool has its pros/cons. In most cases I use FRP for my clients. I paid $3000+ one year to try the most popular financial planning software out there, and I really don't like it at all. It's designed as much for marketing as it is for planning and I doubt I'll renew.

The fancy software has features many don't need, such as account import and aggregation, fancier outputs (but not necessarily any more informative), SS estimates (which are usually far off from accurate), ability to model spouses of different ages and retirement dates, etc. But by trying to do everything, it does few things well.

[FRPNewb]

New user here, someone pointed me here from the Boglehead forums, and I must say I am very impressed, it is pretty straightforward but really easy to configure, for example, I quickly figured out how to change RMDs to 75 and how to plan for a one time larger expense to buy an RV.

I'm still not 100% sure how to deal with my house, so for now I am force-selling it at age 85 (similar to what i-ORP does, although I think it does it at age 80)

The sensitivity analysis is a great tool, and helped me confirm that 5 years out of retirement, the contributions I make now have little impact on when I will be able to retire or the success of the plan, so I can spend them on a few pre-retirement expenses.

As usual tax modeling is a bit of a crap shoot, it's complicated and there is no accounting for future changes anyway, so the current rough-estimate method is probably just as good as any, and doesn't create a false sense of precision.

I think the somewhat outdated UI may give people a bad opinion of the tool

If I had a feature request it would be to see an "income" view that would show where the money comes from over time (taxable, after tax, social security, etc...)

[jimr]

Thanks for the comment and for the feature suggestion. I haven't been doing very much new development on the software lately, but I did make a note of it just in case I decide to dig into that code again in the future.

Jim

[ochotona]

FRP just turned my plan on its head... it showed that if I lean hard on my IRA early in retirement, then I won't have an RMD and therefore an IRMAA problem... I don't have to do any additional Roth conversions, the IRA will just evaporate by itself as I eat off of it. It will be gone by my 80s, and I will have Roth and taxable at that point. I don't have to buy a QLAC. I don't need to do QCDs. I can just relax and not worry about tax and IRMAA so much.