Retirement Forecasting Tool

Your Complete Financial Forecast

A retirement forecast is the most comprehensive view of your financial future. It takes everything you know today — your savings, contributions, expected returns, Social Security, pensions, spending plans — and projects it forward year by year to show you exactly where you'll stand at 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, and beyond.

Evernest generates this forecast through three integrated projection tables. The Investment & Principal Projection shows your portfolio growth, withdrawals, and ending balance for every year. The Budget & Spending Projection shows your annual spending and how it's funded. The Income & Inflows Projection shows every income source — Social Security, pensions, part-time work — and when each starts and stops.

Together, these three views give you a complete picture of how money moves through your retirement. You can see the years when your portfolio is under the most pressure, when income sources start relieving that pressure, and whether your money ultimately lasts through your planning horizon.

Understand Your Financial Trajectory

The most valuable insight from a forecast isn't any single year's number — it's the trajectory. Is your portfolio growing, stable, or declining? Is the decline accelerating or decelerating? Is there a specific year where the trajectory shifts from sustainable to concerning?

Evernest's year-by-year format makes trajectories immediately visible. You can trace your portfolio balance from $600,000 at retirement to $450,000 at 70 (heavy withdrawal years before Social Security) to $380,000 at 75 (stabilizing as Social Security covers more spending) to $280,000 at 85 (slowly declining but still healthy). That trajectory tells a story: the early years are the hardest, but once Social Security kicks in, the portfolio stabilizes and lasts well into the 90s.

The income shortfall metric tracks how much of your spending your portfolio must cover each year. Before Social Security, the shortfall might be $50,000+ per year. After Social Security at 67, it might drop to $20,000. After a delayed Social Security benefit at 70, it might drop to $12,000. Watching this metric decline over time is one of the most reassuring signals in retirement planning.

Test Assumptions and Refine Your Plan

Every forecast is built on assumptions — investment returns, inflation rates, spending levels, longevity. The value of a forecasting tool is that you can test what happens when those assumptions change. What if returns average 5% instead of 7%? What if inflation runs hot for a decade? What if you live to 98 instead of 90?

Evernest makes this kind of stress-testing instant. Change any input and 30+ years of projections recalculate immediately. You can quickly identify which assumptions your plan is most sensitive to — for some people it's spending, for others it's returns, and for others it's longevity. Knowing your sensitivity points helps you build appropriate margins into your plan.

A good forecast isn't one that perfectly predicts the future — it's one that shows you the range of likely outcomes and helps you build a plan that works across most of them. If your money lasts to 92 under pessimistic assumptions and indefinitely under optimistic ones, you have a robust plan. If it runs out at 80 under pessimistic assumptions, you know you need to adjust.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Resources