Is It the Right Time to Retire?

Tools for tracking expenses

There are numerous apps available for tracking expenses. These two useful reviews may help you choose one that will be a good fit for you:

• https://bit.ly/NerdBudgetApps
• https://bit.ly/NYTimesFinApps  You may land in the middle of the page on the Mint review. Scroll to the top to see reviews of additional apps.

Envelop budgeting can be a useful approach. Wikihow has a good explanation.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration – part of the US Department of Labor – has an excellent publication called Savings Fitness that you can download as a PDF. In the appendix, you’ll find several great worksheets to print and fill out. Worksheet #5 is the Cash Flow Spending Plan. There’s also an interactive version of the worksheets. If you register (scroll to the bottom of the page), you can save your work to update or review later.

Social Security Benefits

Set up a mySocialSecurity account at www.ssa.gov/myaccount/.

Social Security fact sheets for specific situations:

• SSA Publication 05-10069, How Work Affects Your Benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10069.pdf)
• Social Security Administration. Windfall Elimination Provision, SSA Publication No. 05-10045. Available at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10045.html or 1-800-772-1213.
• Social Security Administration.  Government Pension Offset, SSA Publication No. 05-10007. Available at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10007.html or 1-800-772-1213.

Social Security benefit calculators: See a complete list of the available calculators at http://bit.ly/SocSecCalc.

• Use your actual earnings history already on file with Social Security http://www.ssa.gov/estimator/.
• Enter your earnings information manually http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/AnypiaApplet.html
• Government pension – WEP version: http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/anyPiaWepjs04.htm

To evaluate different claiming strategies:

• http://www.maximizemysocialsecurity.com/ ($40 fee/year)
• opensocialsecurity.com/ Free

Net worth calculators and forms.

• The Employee Benefits Security Administration’s Savings Fitness publication also has a form to fill calculate your net worth. Look for Balance Sheet in the appendix of the PDF version, or use the  interactive version. If you register (scroll to the bottom of the page), you can save your work to update or review later.
• Quicken and some of the more sophisticated budgeting/money management apps will calculate your net worth.
• Financial planning tools provided by the custodian of your retirement plan, IRA, or other investment account will likely have a way to do this, too.

Retirement income calculators:

• https://www3.troweprice.com/ric/ricweb/public/ric.do Often cited by popular press.
• https://digital.fidelity.com/stgw/digital/planning/retirement/retirement-income-calculator/ Start with the basic calculator. You can also access more advanced options by registering for a guest account if you aren’t a Fidelity customer already.
• http://bit.ly/Vanguard_How_Long This tool is for retirees or near-retirees. Use sliders to see the impact of reducing spending, delaying retirement (reducing the # of years your money needs to last), or changing your asset allocation.

Retirement Cash Flow projection

Use the Retirement Cash Flow Projection spreadsheet to see how your income and expenses will compare over the first ten years of retirement. The first sheet is an Example, and it is locked so that you cannot edit it. Go to the second sheet, Create Your Own Spreadsheet, to edit the sheet as you wish, Scroll down to create a second scenario, to test how changing your retirement date, the amount of savings or expenses, or other changes will impact the amount of money you need to pull from savings.