Flexible Retirement Planner Support Forum

Jim,

I am unclear as to how the calculator would work for future income (or expense) which does not start today.

For example, if I anticipate receiving a one time payment of $ 10,000 (in future dollars) 10 years from now and want to add this one time event on the additional inputs page as “Misc Income” applicable 10 years from now, do I simply add the $ 10,000 or do I have to discount it back to today’s dollars before entering it?

Thanks for clarifying this.

Thanks for trying out the planner and for the question.

Your assumption about the need to discount the future payment seems correct for the scenario you've described. It may be a little counter intuitive, but all simulation inputs need to be given in today's dollars. I probably could have done the discounting internally, but because it's easier to think about things like expenses and social security in present-value dollars, I made everything work that way. Internally, I reduce the portfolio value and any non-cola'd payments by the inflation rate at the end of each simulation year in order to account for inflation.

I hope that explain things clearly enough, but please don't hesitate to contact me again if you have additional questions.

Regards,

Jim