Retirement tax alpha and optimal retirement drawdowns

Tax alpha refers to the additional rate of return generated by making tax-efficient investment decisions. For retirees, we provide an optimal retirement income calculator that models the U.S. tax code and determines an optimal drawdown strategy. Here, we discuss a recent upgrade to this calculator that quantifies your potential retirement tax alpha using an optimal drawdown strategy.

retirement tax alpha and your optimal retirement income strategy
Retirement tax alpha and your optimal retirement income strategy
Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich on Pexels.com

What is alpha?

In the investment world, the return not captured by the movement in the broad market is alpha. Thus, for many investors, it means a risk-less return. In fact, we’ve even talked about it before in the context of CAPM and its counterpart, beta. Alpha and beta provide portfolio statistics important for consideration by any investor.

What is tax alpha?

Tax alpha is a relatively new term and may differ based on the source. We like the following definition.

If “alpha” is the return generated by an advisor’s skill in picking and managing investments, then “tax alpha” protects that return and generates a boost by making sure that taxes don’t eat away more of a client’s wealth than absolutely necessary.”

Source: https://www.atstax.com/p/what-is-tax-alpha

What about in retirement?

In retirement, tax alpha focuses on tax-efficient drawdowns. In addition, the industry standard for retirement income drawdowns from taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-exempt accounts is the Common Rule. The image below shows a summary of the default case used in our optimal calculator, which compares its results with those from the Common Rule.

Summary of Optimal Retirement Calculator. Source: https://app.etfmathguy.com/

This last line (line 4) indicates the value of tax-alpha of 0.57%. That is, a retiree would need to generate pre-tax returns 0.57% higher using the Common Rule to generate the same after-tax inheritance for their heirs. Therefore, by making optimal drawdown decisions in retirement, a retiree can expect to increase their investment returns using the Common Rule. Interested in seeing the details of this example or inputting your own assumptions for retirement? If so, please try our free online calculator.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.

Upgrades to our Optimal Retirement Income Calculator

As promised, our free optimal retirement income calculator continues to improve based on your feedback. Thank you to everyone who has provided suggestions by contacting us! In this post, we highlight some of the most recent enhancements to this free online resource.

A Glide Path?

The term “Glide Path” is used to refer to shifting from one asset to another. Previously, our optimal retirement income calculator kept a retiree and their spouse’s asset allocation fixed. For example, our calculator previously maintained a fixed allocation (e.g. 60% stock and 40% bond) each year by drawing down accounts appropriately. Unfortunately, such an assumption is not entirely realistic. Instead, many retirees may wish to slowly reduce their “riskiness” in stocks and increase their “safety” of bonds during retirement.

A typical retirement glide path reduces portfolio risk each year. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
A typical retirement glide path reduces portfolio risk each year. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

One percent is a typical glide path, meaning that a retiree who is 60 years old starting with an asset allocation of 60/40 (stocks/bonds) will shift their asset allocation to 59/41 at 61 years old, 58/42 at 62 years old, and so forth.

Our optimal retirement income calculator now includes a glide path to transition from stocks to bonds during retirement.
Our optimal retirement income calculator now includes a glide path to transition from stocks to bonds during retirement.

Other updates to our optimal retirement income calculator

We also updated a number of the default values used to better reflect “typical” retiree demographics, as well as expected macroeconomics and capital market conditions. The list below summarizes these default changes.

  1. Retiree and spouse default ages changed to 65 and 62. This difference of three years is consistent with the average difference in retiree and spousal ages.
  2. The long-term rate of return of stocks and bonds set to 7.2% and 4%, based on the lifetime annualized returns for our stock and bond ETFs IVV and AGG.
  3. We set the retiree’s fraction of cost basis for stocks/bonds assuming a 10-year gain at their long-term rates. So, the cost basis for stocks stayed at 50%. But, the cost basis for bonds increased to 68%, since over 10 years, bond capital gains and reinvestment of dividends would yield a higher cost basis.
  4. Inflation rate set to 2.1%, based on an AR(1) stochastic process model and annual CPI (consumer price index) data from 1992-2020.

We hope you find these updates helpful as you plan for your financial future! Please stay tuned as there are still several suggestions we are still working on that will appear in the coming months.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.

Three Tips on Your Retirement Drawdown Strategy

Below are a few excerpts from my recent article published on the Pepperdine Business Blog. I hope you find these tips helpful when developing your retirement drawdown strategy, whether you are nearing or already in retirement.

Sources of Retirement Income

Your retirement income will differ in several ways from your working income. For many retirees in the U.S., social security will provide a “base” of income, and starts between ages 62 and 70.  Since the U.S. government keeps track of life expectancy, it is not surprising that retirees will receive smaller monthly social security payments if they begin drawing down social security at a younger age.  So, one drawn strategy could be to delaying social security until age 70, which can provide more income if the retiree expects to significantly outlive their peers.

Retirees often have many sources available to meet their retirement income needs.
Retirees often have many sources available to meet their retirement income needs.

To supplement social security, many retirees also employ a drawdown strategy to their taxable, tax-deferred (e.g. 401(k)s) and tax-exempt accounts (e.g. Roth IRAs). The Common Rule is the most common strategy, that begins by taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). Then, the Common Rule draws funds from one account until no assets remain. This strategy then moves to the next account

Your heir’s tax rate

Extending portfolio longevity or increasing your heir’s inheritance requires some thought to your heir’s tax rate. Why? Tax-deferred accounts are more valuable when drawdowns occur at lower tax rates. So, if your heirs expect to have a high amount of taxable income, then it is usually more tax-efficient for you, the retiree, to draw down the tax-deferred account each year up to, but not exceeding, your heir’s tax rate. This drawdown strategy, which includes an assumption of your heir’s tax rate, is embodied in our free online calculator.

Click here to launch the Optimal Retirement Income Calculator by ETFMathGuy.
Click here to launch the Optimal Retirement Income Calculator by ETFMathGuy.

June 2021 ETFMathGuy Portfolios

As a final note, thank you to all of our premium subscribers! You can now access the June optimal portfolios, based on data through May 28th, 2021. Please note we built these ETF portfolios using our latest backtesting results.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.

Step-up in cost basis on inherited ETFs may soon change

The new proposal called the “American Families Plan” could end the step-up in cost basis for inherited assets. But, what does this mean for ETF investors? In this post, we discuss some of the key details of this proposed plan. This post is also a reminder to our premium subscribers that the May portfolios are now available.

How have inherited ETFs been taxed up to now?

ETFs owned by retirees typically reside in one of three different kinds of accounts. The Secure Act changed the rules for assets in retirement accounts, like IRAs. I published an article about the reduced benefit of the stretch provision in IRAs recently. In summary, non-spouse beneficiaries must now draw down their IRA assets within 10 years. Previously, beneficiaries could limit their withdrawals to Required Minimum Distributions.

However, the American Families Plan proposes new rules on ETFs inherited from a retiree’s taxable account. Currently, an heir enjoys a full step-up in cost basis on inherited ETFs residing in a taxable account, meaning the heir could immediately sell the ETF and not owe any capital gains tax. For example, suppose a retiree purchased $100,000 of SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (ticker: SPY) on April 30, 2001, and reinvested all dividends for the next 20 years. On April 30, 2021, the investment would be worth approximately $484,000, not including any taxes due on the dividends generated by holding this ETF.

Growth of a $100,000 investment in the SPDR S*P 500 Index ETF (ticker SPY). Source: www.etfreplay.com
20 years of growth of a $100,000 investment in the SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (ticker SPY). Source: www.etfreplay.com

Selling appreciated ETFs under this new plan

If the retiree sells this ETF investment prior this his or her death, capital gains would be owed on it up to 20% of the $384,000 gain, or $76,800. However, if the retiree passes away, an heir could sell it immediately and not pay any capital gains taxes. The heir received a step-up in cost basis. The new basis is assigned to the day the retiree passed away. However, under the new plan, this stepup is removed, and replaced by a $1,000,000 exemption. So, in the previous example, the heir would not owe any additional taxes. However, as larger sums of ETFs assets are bequeathed, an heir may owe taxes up to the 39.6% rate. And, there is still the estate tax that may apply if the retiree has more than $11.7 million of assets at death for 2021.

Will this plan pass congress?

No one knows yet what will eventually be passed by congress, so it is likely too early to start making any changes to a retiree’s estate. Time will tell how this may or may not impact your ETF assets passed to your heirs.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.

Future tax uncertainty

The economic stimulus signed this past week by President Biden has many investors wondering if taxes may change in the future. So here, we discuss the possibility of future tax uncertainty. We also show you how to assess this uncertainty in your retirement income plan using an upgrade to our optimal retirement calculator.

$1.9T of economic stimulus

On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the $1.9T stimulus package. There are many elements to this aid package, including how it will be paid. However, the level of debt held by the U.S. government continues to grow relative to total economic output, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). One simple solution to reducing this debt burden is to increase individual and/or corporate taxes. And, in 2026, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) expires. So, what plans should an individual investor be making today if tax rates change significantly in the coming years?

Our optimal retirement income calculator now models tax uncertainty

Since we don’t know what the U.S. Congress will decide in 2026, nor what a future president may sign into law, future tax uncertainty is important for retirement planning. To this end, we recently upgraded our optimal retirement calculator to include this future uncertainty.

Now, under section “Other tax-related information“, you will see two inputs to model this uncertainty. First, there is new input for a percent increase or decrease of future income and capital gains tax rates after the TCJA expires. The 2nd entry is the year this higher or lower rate will occur. The default input values assume that the TCJA will be extended throughout your retirement horizon.

Future tax uncertainty inputs for optimal retirement income planning. Source: app.etfmathguy.com
Future tax uncertainty inputs for optimal retirement income planning. Source: app.etfmathguy.com

A simple example of rising tax rates on a retirement income plan

So, what happens if tax rates increase by 20% in 2026? A retiree using the Common Rule strategy can expect their bequest to shrink by about $92,000, from $1.227M to $1.135M. However, the Optimal Rule only expects to shrink the inheritance by about $36,000, from $1.638M to 1.602M.

What can we conclude from this? First, and most obviously, higher tax rates will reduce an heir’s inheritance. But, more importantly, optimal drawdown strategies become even more important when tax rates rise, since there is more of an opportunity for tax efficiencies.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mr. Phil DeMuth at Conservative Wealth Management LLC for suggesting upgrading our calculator to include future tax uncertainty. Additionally, we wish to thank Mr. Noah Beecher at Cipolla Financial & Insurance Services for noting a discrepancy in our calculator’s pension income, which has now been corrected. For the many others who have sent us suggestions on other improvements to our online calculator, please stand by. More enhancements will be appearing in the coming months. Thank you for your suggestions and your patience!

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.

Presentation to over 1,800 financial advisors on retirement drawdown strategies

A webinar attended by over 1,800 financial advisors recently featured ETFMathGuy to discuss retirement drawdown strategies. Subsequently, the Retirement Income Journal wrote about this event. In this posting, we will discuss some of the highlights of this webinar. Please click the image below to view the 60-minute webcast. Or, you can browse the slides.

Webcast recording: A Deep Dive Into Retirement Drawdown Strategies.

Webinar highlights

As the title of the webinar indicated, its emphasis was on retirement drawdown strategies. Our host, Steve Parrish discussed some of the recent changes to Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) that resulted from the SECURE Act, as well as where tax law may go in the future. Steve also wrote a really nice article recently in Forbes entitled “Three Reasons to Take Your RMDs Now“. Joe Elsasser, Founder and President of Covisum, a FinTech company specializing in retirement drawdown strategies, also presented. Joe showed how his firm’s software can identify the so-called “tax torpedo“, and assist retirees on how to plan accordingly.

After that, I discussed two research articles on retirement drawdown strategies. To begin, I quantified the impact of eliminating the stretch IRA for non-spouse heirs, which I highlighted in a previous ETFMathGuy posting. The key takeaway from this peer-reviewed article was that there is still a benefit to an heir to stretch their IRA drawdowns over the 10-years permitted by the SECURE Act. Doing so can increase the heir’s inherited assets by 11-17%, depending on their specific situation.

Emerging Research

I also spent a portion of my presentation to this large group of financial advisors discussing some of my latest research. This recent work builds upon some of my previous publications with Dr. Dan Ostrov at Santa Clara University. In this latest research, I identified the use of the Common Rule as a diagnostic for the next stage of optimal decision making for retirement income. The image below summarizes the preliminary findings for three categories of retirees.

The sensitivity of optimal drawdown strategies for three categories of retirees. Forthcoming research by DiLellio and Simon (2021)

Thank you for your feedback

I would like to thank the many financial advisors who recently tried out my retirement calculator. So, I am logging all these helpful suggestions for improvements. I hope to have this free calculator updated shortly that begins to incorporate many of these suggestions. I will discuss some of the calculator enhancements in a future post.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETF efficient portfolios.

Retirement taxes under Biden or Trump

With the U.S. presidential election less than three weeks away, now is a good time to consider how your retirement taxes may change. In this post, we highlight the differences in Biden Vs. Trump plans for retirees.

The 2020 Presidential Election may change your retirement tax planning.
The 2020 Presidential Election may change your retirement tax planning.
Note:  This post has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

Income Taxes in Retirement

Most retirees face some amount of income tax. Social security benefits, pensions, interest on CDs, and bond coupon payments are just a few sources of that can produce retirement income tax. Any voluntary withdrawals from and IRA or 401(k)s, or taking required minimum distributions (RMDs) can also trigger income tax.

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 established the current seven income tax brackets, with the lowest at 10% and highest at 37%. Both candidates wish to keep these tax cuts in place, which currently plan to lapse after 2025. But, Biden wishes to alter it so that households making more than $400,000 would pay higher taxes by limiting the value of itemized deductions. He also proposes to increase the top tax rate from 37% to 39.6%. For household making less than $400,000, Biden hopes to increase the standard deduction. Doing so should decrease taxable income and, subsequently, decrease taxes owed.

Capital Gains Taxes in Retirement

Current U.S. tax law states that qualified dividends and long-term capital gains from investments held for more than one year are taxed at a lower rate. Excluding the net investment income tax, the maximum rate is 20%. Trump has suggested lowering this rate to 15%. Biden wishes to tax long-term capital gains at income tax rates for households with over $1,000,000 in taxable income. He also plans to eliminate the step-up in cost basis realized by retirees wishing to pass highly appreciated assets to their heirs.

The SECURE Act and your retirement objectives, by DiLellio and Kinsman (2020), Vol 23, Issue 2, The Graziadio Business Review

What doesn’t appear likely to change

There are several areas of retirement taxation that likely won’t change. For instance, I recently published a peer-reviewed article about the SECURE Act. This law passed with broad bipartisan support, delays the onset of RMDs for younger retirees and changes rules for inherited IRAs.

For now, we encourage you to seek out a retirement calculator, like ours at ETFMathGuy, and we wrote about recently, to see what current U.S. tax law means to your retirement plans. We will update our calculator as tax law for retirement income changes.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.

Excess Retirement Income Now Included In Our Retirement Income Calculator

We just finished upgrades to our optimal retirement income calculator to include the possibility of having excess retirement income. This situation occurs when Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) + other non-discretionary sources of retirement income exceed the retiree’s needed income in current and future retirement years. Indeed, this is a good problem to have! It typically occurs when annual retirement income needs are small relative to all the retiree’s income sources. Retirees in this situation have an extremely low risk of outliving their assets.

For example, consider a retiree who needs $100,000 of income in their first year of retirement. What should a retiree do if their RMDs are $40,000, pension and social security benefits are $50,000, and interest + dividends in taxable accounts are $20,000, for a total of $110,000? Note: This $10,000 of excess retirement income occurs without taking voluntary withdrawals from any of their accounts. How should a retiree invest this money to maximize tax efficiency?

Retirement Income Sources

As we show on our updated FAQ page, we included many possible sources of retirement income. To help simplify the model, we previously required dividends and interest in taxable accounts to only satisfy immediate retirement income needs. We make a similar assumption of social security and any pension benefits. Put another way, we wouldn’t re-invest these funds for later use in retirement. Thus, the taxable account maintains a single cost basis from investments made prior to retirement.

What about Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)?

Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) complicate retirement income planning, and represent non-voluntary account withdrawals. They can also produce the unintended consequence of producing excess retirement income, like in the example above.

Tax Efficient Investing of Excess Retirement Income

We upgraded our model with a simple approach to reinvesting excess retirement income that would never be needed by a retiree. As previously advocated by DiLellio and Ostrov (2020) and DeMuth (2020), zero-dividend equity (e.g. stock) investments offer a solution. For example, the largest zero-dividend ETF is the First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index Fund (ticker: FDN). By reinvesting excess income into an ETF like this one, no gains during retirement would be realized. So, no taxes are due. Then, the total amount in this investment account can be passed to the retiree’s heirs tax-free thanks to a step-up in cost basis, but excluding estate taxes. Below is an image that shows the new black line to track the account holding the excess income that, in this example, starts in year 7.

In this example, excess retirement income starts in year 7, and is reinvested in a zero-dividend ETF for maximum tax efficiency.
In this example, excess retirement income starts in year 7, and is reinvested in a zero-dividend ETF for maximum tax efficiency.

We hope you find this new enhancement helpful in planning for your retirement! Please stay tuned for future enhancements to our web-based calculator, including evaluating the benefits of municipal bond ETFs, Roth conversions, and automating sensitivity analyses.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.

Retirement income tax

Anyone receiving a regular paycheck is familiar with income tax since it usually appears between the “gross” and “net” income of your pay stubs. In retirement, you will likely have many sources of “retirement income”, and consequently incur “retirement income tax”. In this post, we discuss some typical sources of retirement income tax, and how they interact with one another.

Note:  This post has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

Guaranteed Retirement Income

Social Security is one of the most common sources of retirement income. It adjusts for inflation each year, so this benefit rises with the cost of living. Another less common source of guaranteed retirement income is a pension. These guaranteed income sources often give the retiree the choice to decide when benefits begin. They also may allow a deferral of benefits until a later age.

Now, if your total income is sufficiently low, pension and social security income could yield no tax liability. Otherwise, retirees incur tax on this guaranteed income as ordinary income.

Retirement income often is the combination of a number of sources.
Retirement income often is the combination of a number of sources.

Dividends, Interest and Coupon Payments

If you have a savings or taxable brokerage account with stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds or other interest bearing investments, you may receive regular payments. As we discussed in our previous post on taxation, these payments are either taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.

Your “Nest Egg” Accounts

Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), 401(k)s, 403(b)s and 457 plans all provide tax-deferred growth. Since we usually fund these accounts with pre-tax money, the IRS taxes qualified distributions as ordinary income. Alternatively, we fund Roth IRAs, Roth 401(k)s and Roth 403(b)s with after-tax money, so we receive qualified distributions tax free. Lastly, if we sell stock or bond ETFs for a gain within a taxable brokerage account that were held for more than one year, taxes incurred are usually at the preferred capital gains rates.

Big Picture

All these sources may sound confusing, and may not apply to all retirees. But, putting these retirement income sources into a conceptual model can help you better understand how they affect a retiree’s annual tax liability. In the model below, we assume that all taxable brokerage accounts have a mix of dividend paying stock and bond ETFs. We show capital gains and qualified dividends above sources of ordinary income, since more ordinary income can push capital gain tax rates to higher brackets.

Retirement Income Sources and Taxation Model by ETFMathGuy’s Optimal Retirement Income Calculator

Using your nest egg efficiently can significantly improve both portfolio longevity and funds bequeathed to your heirs. Based on award winning research, we implemented this model into a free web application. We update the model’s algorithms regularly, so please try out this tool and send us your feedback on features you may want included in the future!

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.

New Features in our Optimal Retirement Income Calculator

Recently, we discussed our free web-based calculator to help you better plan for your retirement. At that time, it offered answers to the many commonly posed questions for those nearing or currently in retirement.

  • How long will my portfolio support my discretionary and non-discretionary expenses?
  • How much will my heir or favorite charitable organization receive?
  • What will my future tax liabilities look like?

Now, our calculator includes many new features to address a broader group of retirees, especially those with a spouse or domestic partner with other sources of retirement assets or retirement income.

The Optimal Retirement Income Calculator by ETFMathGuy.com has many new features
The Optimal Retirement Income Calculator by ETFMathGuy.com has many new features

New Features

The newest version of our retirement calculator offers a better interface for inputs, by arranging them in logical groups. It also includes many new features relevant to many retirement plans.

  • A separate retirement horizon for a surviving spouse (or domestic partner) and their unique after-tax retirement income needs
  • New inputs for the spouse’s tax-deferred accounts, like Traditional IRAs, Rollover IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s and 457 plans
  • New inputs for the spouse’s tax-exempt accounts, like Roth IRAs, Roth 401(k)s and Roth 403(b)s
  • An option to select your state of residence, so that the taxable brokerage account can be properly taxed whether (or not) the surviving spouse resides in a community property state
  • Added a starting age for social security and pensions for the retiree, and if applicable, their spouse, to delay these other sources of retirement income.
  • Input to choose whether (or not) to value the heir’s assets based on using the new 10-year inherited IRA stretch rules due to the SECURE Act.

Optimizing Retirement Income Withdrawal Decisions with a Spouse’s Contribution

Like the previous version, the calculator provides results using the Common Rule and our Optimal Rule. To develop a plan for a hypothetical couple, we used the default values in the calculator, but switched the input labeled “Do you have a spouse or domestic partner?” to “yes”. In this case, you would received the following summary of your plan.

Plan summary example when a spouse or domestic partner is included in the Optimal Retirement Calculator from ETFMathGuy.com
Plan summary example when a spouse or domestic partner is included in the Optimal Retirement Calculator from ETFMathGuy.com

Scrolling down the page, you will see the a forecast of withdrawals to meet this hypothetical couple’s after-tax retirement income needs. In this case, we assumed a 20-year retirement horizon for the retiree. Then, the surviving spouse lives an additional five years after the retiree passes away. Consequently, in years 21-25 of retirement, the surviving spouse is no longer filing their taxes as “married filing jointly“. Instead, their tax brackets are significantly lower in these later years with a filing status of “single“.

Our updated optimal retirement income calculator now includes results for a surviving spouse (or domestic partner)
Our updated optimal retirement income calculator now includes results for a surviving spouse or domestic partner .

The updated retirement calculator also tracks account balances, and now includes the spouse (or domestic partner) accounts as dashed lines.

Account balances now include spouse or domestic partner accounts.
Account balances now include spouse or domestic partner accounts.

We hope you find these new features helpful as you plan for your retirement! This new calculator continues to improve, and we welcome your suggestions.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.