Getting Started
The recommended sequence from a brand-new account to your first projection.
Create your account and verify
Sign up with your name, email, and mobile number, and choose whether you are an individual or a financial adviser (advisers can add an optional firm name). Your account starts in demo mode with realistic sample data so you can explore every feature immediately. Log in with email or SMS two-factor authentication.
Choose Single or Married Filing Jointly
Pick your filing status at the top of the app and click Select. You can switch between them at any time — each keeps its own saved inputs and results.
Fill in your numbers
Work through the cards top to bottom: your profile (or both spouses' profiles), household finances, investment income, other income and assets, and your Roth conversion preference. See the field references below for what each one controls.
Open the popups that apply to you (optional)
If you're still working and have earned income, set up Additional Earnings & 401(k). If you itemize deductions, use Estimate Deductions. To model pre-Medicare insurance and Medicare/IRMAA costs, use Medical Insurance. Skip any that don't apply — they default to zero.
Click Build Projection — or let AutoRun find your best strategy
Build Projection runs your numbers exactly as entered. AutoRun instead searches many combinations of Roth conversions, Social Security timing, and 401(k) pre-tax/after-tax splits, and shows you whichever combination best matches the objective you choose, next to your own numbers, so you decide whether to use it.
Review your results
Check the summary numbers in the bar at the bottom of the screen, use the Display values in toggle there to switch between Future Dollars and Today's Dollars, then click Show Details to open the year-by-year table in a floating window. Drag its title bar to move it, drag its bottom-right corner to resize it. Years highlighted in gold are years where itemizing beat the standard deduction.
Export or save
Click Convert to PDF for a printable report, or Save Parameters to store this exact scenario as a file you can reload later with Load Parameters — handy for comparing "what if" variations.
Single Filer Fields
Every input on the Single filer screen, grouped exactly as they appear on the form. Fields that are easy to misread — Retirement Balance, Liquid Assets, Roth Balance, Annual Expenses Growth Adjustment, the two pension fields, the Medical Insurance premiums, and the Save/Load Parameters buttons — also have a small ? icon on the screen: click it for a short explanation (click it again, or anywhere else, to close).
| Retirement Balance | Your current Traditional (pre-tax) retirement account balance. Drives your Required Minimum Distributions starting at age 73 (or 75, if you were born in 1960 or later), calculated from the official IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. |
| Age | Your current age — used for RMD timing, 401(k) catch-up eligibility, and early-withdrawal rules. |
| Maximize Tax-Free Withdrawals | In any year your taxable income would otherwise land at exactly $0 after deductions — and you're 60 or older — this looks for extra room to withdraw and convert to Roth while staying in the 0% bracket. It has no effect in years where you already owe some tax. |
| Social Security Income | Your estimated monthly-equivalent annual benefit at the age you enter below. |
| SS Start Age | The age you plan to start claiming. The app automatically applies the correct early/delayed retirement credit if you change this (claim at 62 for roughly 70% of your full benefit, wait until 70 for roughly 124%). |
| Retirement Income Taxed by State | Whether your state taxes retirement account distributions and pension income. Some states exempt some or all retirement income — check your state's rules. (This field stays editable even on a demo account.) |
| Liquid Assets | Cash and taxable brokerage balances outside your retirement accounts — your first source of funds each year before RMDs or other withdrawals are tapped. |
| Roth Balance | Your current Roth (after-tax) retirement balance — leave it at 0 if you have none. Withdrawals from it are tax-free: each year the projection spends liquid assets first, then this Roth money, and only then pre-tax money. It keeps growing and receives your Roth conversions and any after-tax 401(k) contributions. (Married Filing Jointly has one for each spouse, in the Spouse 1 and Spouse 2 cards.) |
| Annual Expenses | What you expect to spend per year in today's terms. |
| Annual Expenses Growth Adjustment | An extra growth rate added on top of general inflation for your expenses specifically — use a positive number for lifestyle creep, negative for planned downsizing. 0% means expenses simply track inflation. (In Today's Dollars view it is the real change in your expenses each year.) |
| Annual Growth Rate | Expected investment growth rate applied to your liquid assets and retirement balances each year. |
| Expected Inflation Rate | General inflation assumption, used throughout the 30-year projection. |
| Expected State Tax Rate | A flat percentage applied to your state-taxable income (see "Retirement Income Taxed by State" above for what counts). |
| Long Term Cap Gains | Annual long-term capital gains, taxed at the preferential federal rates (0%, 15% or 20%) and stacked on top of your ordinary income, so an amount that crosses a rate limit is taxed partly at each rate. When your income before deductions is above $200,000 ($250,000 married filing jointly), interest, dividends, gains and rental income also pay the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax. |
| Short Term Cap Gains | Annual short-term gains, taxed as ordinary income. |
| Qualified Dividends | Taxed at the same preferential rates as long-term capital gains. Counted as cash you receive and can spend, like other dividends and interest. |
| Non-Qualified Dividends | Taxed as ordinary income. |
| Investment Interest | Interest income (bonds, savings, CDs), taxed as ordinary income. |
| Fixed Pension | A flat annual pension amount that does not adjust for inflation. |
| COLA Pension | A pension with a cost-of-living adjustment — grows with inflation each year. |
| Real Estate Value | Current value of rental property you plan to eventually sell. |
| Rental Income | Annual rental income, received only while the property is held (see Years Before Sale). |
| Years Before Sale | How many years rental income continues. In the year equal to this number, rental income stops and the inflation-adjusted Real Estate Value is added to your liquid balance as a one-time sale proceed. |
| Enable Roth Conversions | When on, NestEgg Planner converts Traditional retirement dollars to Roth every eligible year, up to the top of your chosen tax bracket (after deductions, other income, and that year's RMD) — never more than your available Traditional balance. |
| Conversion Years | Which projection years conversions are allowed — a single number (e.g. 5) or a range (e.g. 4-25). Year 1 is your first projected year. |
| Conversion Bracket | The federal tax bracket ceiling to convert up to: 12%, 22%, or 24%. A higher bracket converts more per year but costs more tax today. |
Married Filing Jointly Fields
The MFJ screen adds per-spouse cards for the two of you, plus a shared Joint card — everything else (Household Finances, Investment Income, Other Income & Assets, Roth Conversions) works exactly as described above for Single, just applied to your combined household.
| Retirement Balance | Each spouse's own Traditional retirement balance — RMDs and Roth conversions are calculated independently per spouse based on each one's age and balance. |
| Roth Balance | Each spouse's own current Roth (after-tax) balance — 0 if none. Roth money is spent after liquid assets and before pre-tax money, shared between the two Roth balances in proportion to what each holds. |
| Age | Each spouse's current age. |
| Social Security Income | Each spouse's own estimated benefit. |
| SS Start Age | Each spouse can start Social Security at a different age — the early/delayed credit is applied independently to each. |
| Maximize Tax-Free Withdrawals | Same mechanic as Single — applies to your joint household tax situation. See the Single Filer reference above for exactly when it kicks in. |
| Retirement Income Taxed by State | Whether your state taxes retirement distributions and pension income for your household. |
Popups & Tools
Three optional popups let you add detail beyond the main form. All default to zero/off, so skipping any of them is always safe.
Additional Earnings & 401(k)
| Additional Earnings | Salary or other earned income you expect to receive while still working, in addition to the retirement income above. |
| Years of Additional Earnings | How many projection years this income continues before you fully retire. |
| 401(k) Contribution | Total percentage of that salary you contribute to your 401(k) — combined pre-tax and after-tax/Roth. |
| 401(k) Pre-tax Portion | How much of that total contribution goes in pre-tax (Traditional); the remainder goes in after-tax (Roth). Your contribution is automatically capped at the IRS annual limit for your age — any amount only eligible because of the age-50+ (or enhanced age 60-63) catch-up allowance is always treated as after-tax/Roth, matching the real IRS rule for high earners. |
| Company Match | Your employer's matching percentage. Match dollars are always pre-tax and are capped at your own actual contribution — your employer never matches more than you put in yourself. |
Estimate Deductions
| Real Estate Taxes | Annual property taxes, subject to the SALT deduction cap. |
| Charitable Deductions | Annual charitable giving you plan to deduct. In years you itemize, the full amount counts. In years you take the standard deduction, only a small capped amount (currently about $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for married couples) is deductible. |
| Mortgage Interest | Annual mortgage interest paid. |
| Years to Pay Off | How many more years you'll be paying — and deducting — mortgage interest. |
Medical Insurance
| Monthly Premium & Years (two rows) | Two separate pre-Medicare insurance periods, each with its own monthly premium and year range — useful for modeling a premium that changes, like COBRA transitioning to a Marketplace plan. Enter each period as a non-overlapping year range (e.g. 1-2, then 3-5). Enter premiums you pay with after-tax money: premiums taken from your paycheck before tax are not deductible. These costs, and Medicare, count toward your itemized deductions for the part above 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. |
| Include Medicare & Years | The year range you'll be on Medicare. Once that range starts, NestEgg Planner switches from your flat premiums to real, income-adjusted Medicare Part B and Part D costs — including IRMAA surcharges for higher-income years, using current IRMAA bracket thresholds. As with the real rules, the surcharge is based on your income before deductions (adjusted gross income, capital gains and dividends included). |
Running a Projection
Runs your 30-year projection using exactly what's in the form right now. This is the button to use once you know the numbers you want to test.
Opens the AutoRun Objective Selector. Choose one of three goals, then click Run:
| Minimize Total Taxes Paid | Finds the combination that leaves you with the lowest total taxes over the full 30 years. |
| Maximize Total Assets (Final Year) | Finds the combination that leaves you with the highest combined liquid, retirement, and Roth balance at the end. |
| Maximize Total Assets After Tax | Like the above, but accounts for the future tax bill still owed on whatever's left in your Traditional retirement accounts. |
AutoRun searches combinations of your Roth Conversion settings, each spouse's Social Security start age, and — if you've configured Additional Earnings & 401(k) — the pre-tax/after-tax split of your contribution, in 1% steps. Any combination that would leave you short on cash in any year is automatically excluded. While it runs you can click Stop and nothing changes. When it finishes, AutoRun shows the best combination side by side with your current inputs (total taxes, final-year assets, and assets after tax), and lists exactly which settings would change. Choose Apply these changes to load the winning combination into your form and results (a banner then tells you how many combinations were tested), or Keep my inputs to leave everything as you entered it. If your current inputs are already as good as anything AutoRun found, it says so.
Brings back whatever was in your form right before you most recently applied an AutoRun result — a one-level undo. Applying another AutoRun result overwrites this restore point with a fresh "before" snapshot.
Understanding Your Results
Summary Cards
In the bar docked at the bottom of the screen: Years Projected, Final Liquid Balance, Final Retirement Balance, Final Roth Balance, Total Assets (Final Year), Total Taxes Paid, and Total Medical Expenses — all as of the final projected year. (For MFJ, retirement and Roth balances are combined across both spouses.)
The Year-by-Year Table
| Retirement, Roth and Liquid Balance | The balance at the end of that year — after the year's spending, taxes, withdrawals, Roth conversions and contributions, and after that year's growth. The chart, the summary bar, the PDF and AutoRun all use these same year-end balances, so the numbers always agree. |
| RMD | Your Required Minimum Distribution that year, once you've reached RMD age — calculated automatically from the IRS divisor tables. |
| Conversion | The amount converted from Traditional to Roth that year, if Roth Conversions are enabled. |
| Additional Withdrawal | A last-resort withdrawal, used only after your liquid assets, RMD, and Roth balance are all exhausted for the year — and only available at age 60 or older. Below age 60, a shortfall instead shows up as Unmet Expenses. |
| Unmet Expenses | Shown in red when your expenses couldn't be fully covered that year — a signal your plan may need adjusting. |
| Highest Bracket | Your highest marginal federal tax bracket that year. |
| Grand Total Tax | A running cumulative total of every tax dollar paid so far across the whole projection. |
Show Details
The Show Details button at the right end of the summary bar opens the full year-by-year table in a floating window that stays open only until you close it (X or the Esc key). It has no dark backdrop, so you can drag it aside to look at or edit your inputs while keeping the table visible. If you build a new projection or run AutoRun while it's open, the table refreshes automatically. Switching between Single and Married Filing Jointly closes it and clears the summary bar until you build a projection for the new filing status.
At the top of the window an Assets over time chart plots Total assets, Liquid, Total retirement and Roth year by year (for a couple, retirement and Roth are both spouses added together), using exactly the figures in the table below it. Hover over it to see the values for any year. If money runs short in any year, a warning under the chart gives the first year and the amount left unfunded — for example Year 18: $24,000 unfunded — and the chart marks that year. Click the chart's title to collapse it and give the table more room; it opens expanded each time.
Display Values In
This toggle lives in the summary bar at the bottom of the screen and updates both the summary cards and the details table. Future Dollars shows every number as you'll actually see it in that future year, inflation included. Today's Dollars re-expresses everything in today's purchasing power, so you can compare a dollar in year 1 with a dollar in year 30 on equal footing.
Convert to PDF
Generates a clean, professional PDF of your inputs, the assets-over-time chart (with the first funding shortfall, if any, under it) and the full results table — ready to print, save, or bring to a conversation with your CPA or financial advisor.
Saving & Loading Scenarios
Downloads everything on your form — including your Additional Earnings & 401(k), Estimate Deductions, and Medical Insurance settings — as a single file. Great for keeping a record of a specific scenario, or for comparing variations (save one, change some numbers, save again under a different name).
Loads a previously saved file back into the form, restoring every value exactly as it was when you saved it.
For Financial Advisers
An adviser account works differently from an individual one: instead of one set of numbers, you keep a separate workspace for each client. Everything described above — the input forms, popups, AutoRun, results, Show Details, saved parameters and PDF — works exactly the same way, but inside whichever client you have selected. You enter and control the numbers; your clients do not log in.
Sign up as an adviser
Sign up and choose Financial adviser (a firm name is optional). We email you a temporary password; you set your own on first login and verify with two-factor authentication, exactly like any other user. You never need a client's email address. Signed up as an individual by mistake? While your account is still in demo mode you can switch the type yourself on My Profile.
Add a client
Click + New client in the Client bar at the top, enter the client's name and, if you like, your own ID or reference for them (for example a file number), then Save. The new client becomes the active workspace straight away.
Choose the filing status and enter their numbers
Pick Single or Married Filing Jointly and fill in the form, popups and Roth conversion settings as you would for yourself. Each client remembers their own filing status.
Sample data first, real numbers once activated
A new client starts in sample-data mode (a gold “Sample data” badge in the Client bar): every projection runs on a fixed example so you can explore freely. When a client is activated the badge changes to Full access and the fields accept that client's real figures.
Switch between clients
Pick another name from the Client dropdown. The page reloads with that client's own inputs, summary bar, details table and saved results — nothing carries over from the client you were just working on. The most recently used client opens automatically next time you log in.
Give the client their report
Convert to PDF produces a report headed “Prepared for [client name] by [your name]”, with your firm or practice name on the line below if you entered one on My Profile, ready to print, send, or bring to a client meeting.
The Client bar
| Client dropdown | Lists all of your clients by name (and reference, if you entered one). Choosing a name makes that client the active workspace. |
| Sample data / Full access badge | Shows whether the active client is in sample-data mode or activated for real numbers. “Sample data – payment overdue” means your last payment did not go through. |
| Activate | Switches the active client on for real numbers, using one of your paid client slots (or none, on the Unlimited license). If you have no free slot you are taken to the purchase page. |
| + New client | Creates a client workspace from a name and an optional reference. |
| Rename | Changes the active client's name or reference. Their data is untouched. |
| Billing | Opens your Adviser billing page: plan, paid-through date, clients switched on or off, upgrade and downgrade, and the secure Stripe page for your card and invoices. |
| Delete | Permanently deletes the active client and everything saved for them — inputs, popups, projections and results. You are asked to confirm, and it cannot be undone. |
Plans and billing
Pay only for the clients you switch on. Clients you have not activated stay on sample data at no charge. There are two plans:
| Per-client plan | A yearly price per client, lower as you add more: $300 each for clients 1–5, $250 each for clients 6–20, and $200 each from the 21st on. For example, 5 clients cost $1,500, 6 cost $1,750 and 20 cost $5,250. |
| Unlimited license | $10,000 a year for one adviser login and every client you need, up to 500 clients in total (clients on sample data count too). It becomes the cheaper choice from about 44 clients. For more than 500 clients, please contact support. |
Buy your first client or the license
Click Activate on a client (or Billing in the top bar). You choose the per-client plan or the Unlimited license, see the price, and pay by card on Stripe’s secure page. Whatever the purchase date, you pay the full yearly price and it covers you until the end of that calendar year (December 31).
Activate and deactivate clients
On the per-client plan each activated client uses one paid slot. Switch to sample data on the Billing page frees the slot for another client; a client you have switched off keeps all of their saved data. Need more clients than slots? The app shows the price of the extra slots (the difference in the yearly price for the larger number of clients) before you pay.
Renewal on January 1
Your plan renews every January 1 at the full yearly price for the clients you have switched on at that time (or the full license price). Clients whose access was granted to you by an administrator are included in the renewal and become regular paid clients when it is paid.
Move up to the Unlimited license
On the Billing page, Upgrade to Unlimited license shows your credit before you pay: everything you have paid for clients this year, in the app or outside it, is counted at the per-client prices, and you pay the difference. If the credit covers the license, the upgrade is free.
Go back to per-client pricing
Use Downgrade to per-client pricing on the Billing page. The change happens at the next renewal, so nothing changes until then. You tick the clients you want to keep paying for and see the renewal price update as you do; the other clients go to sample data at renewal (their data is kept). You must confirm, and you can cancel the downgrade any time before the renewal.
Card, invoices and cancelling
Manage billing opens Stripe’s secure portal, where you can update your card, see invoices, and cancel renewal. The number of clients is changed in NestEgg Planner, not in the portal.
Your Account
From My Profile you can update your User ID, email, mobile phone, and two-factor authentication method, or set a new password. Any change requires verifying a fresh code sent to your current registered email or phone first (the screen shows where the code went, partly hidden — for example m***os@yahoo.com) — your Full Name can only be changed by an administrator.
Remember this device
Each login asks for a verification code. On a computer you trust, tick Remember this device for 30 days on the verification page (it's unchecked by default) and you won't be asked for a code on that browser again as long as you keep logging in from the same network. Every login resets the 30 days, so it only lapses after 30 days without use. You'll still be asked for a code if you log in from a different network, if you clear your browser's cookies, or after changing your password, email, phone, or 2FA method. To make every remembered browser ask for a code again, use Forget all remembered devices on My Profile. Don't tick it on a shared or public computer.
Forgot your password? Use Forgot your password? from the login screen to receive a temporary password by email, then set a new one in a single step.