Glossary

Every term Retirement Forecast uses, defined plainly. Where a term has its own help page, there's a link. Nothing here is financial or tax advice.

COLA (cost-of-living adjustment)

A yearly bump to an income stream to keep up with rising prices. Social Security and many pensions apply one. In the app, income amounts grow forward by their COLA rate from the month the stream starts. Compare with inflation, which grows your expenses.

Category

A bucket you sort spending into on the Budget tab — groceries, utilities, car loan, and so on. Categorizing your imported transactions is what lets the app tell you what you spend, and where.

Duplicate detection

When you import transactions, the app recognizes rows it has already seen (same date, amount, and merchant) and won't add them twice — so re-importing an overlapping file is safe. Manually-added entries are never treated as duplicates.

Excluded / transfer

A mark you put on a transaction to leave it out of all budget math. Use it for things that aren't real spending — a credit-card payment (moving money you already counted when you bought things), or a transfer between your own accounts. Excluding these prevents double-counting. See the FAQ on doubled spending.

Filing status

Your tax category — for example, *single* or *married filing jointly*. It affects your standard deduction and tax brackets. In the app, taxes are currently informational unless you turn tax modeling on.

Free / Premium / Trial

Free features work forever with an account: the forecast, run-out date, charts, month detail, and cloud save. Premium unlocks the stress-test tools and the budget import. Trial is the free premium period every new account gets before dropping to the free plan. See Accounts and billing.

Full Retirement Age (FRA)

The age at which you get your full Social Security benefit — 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Claim before FRA and each check is reduced; wait past it (up to 70) and each check is increased. See Social Security timing.

Inflation

The general rise in prices over time, so a dollar buys a little less each year. The app grows your expenses forward by an inflation rate from the plan's start. It's why a future month's costs look bigger than today's.

Local mode

Running the app without an account, saving your plan only in your browser on one device. Private and quick, but not synced and erasable if you clear your browser. See Accounts and billing.

Merchant

The store or biller on a transaction — "Safeway," "PG&E." The app tidies up the raw text so the same merchant is recognized across imports, which powers duplicate detection and category rules.

Monte Carlo

A method that runs your plan hundreds of times with random year-by-year investment returns, to see how often it succeeds. See Odds of success.

Plan vs Actual

The app's central distinction. Plan is forward-looking, in today's dollars — what you *expect*. Actual is backward-looking, from your imported transactions — what *happened*. Never compare one to the other without noticing which is which. See Understanding your numbers.

Probability of success

The headline number from Monte Carlo: the share of randomized runs in which your money never runs out. 85% means 85 of every 100 runs lasted the whole plan. See Odds of success.

Projected

A Plan figure grown forward by inflation (expenses) or COLA (income) to a future month, so it's in future dollars and looks bigger than today's. You see Projected figures in the month-by-month detail.

Provisional income

A special income total the IRS uses to decide how much of your Social Security is taxable. It's roughly your other income plus half your Social Security. Relevant only if you turn on tax modeling.

RMD (Required Minimum Distribution)

The amount the IRS requires you to withdraw each year from tax-deferred accounts (like a traditional 401k or IRA) once you reach the required age, so those savings don't grow untaxed forever. Roth accounts have no RMD for the original owner.

Roth account

A retirement account funded with money you've already paid tax on, so qualified withdrawals in retirement are tax-free and it has no Required Minimum Distribution. Compare tax-deferred and taxable.

Run-out / depletion date

The first month your plan can't cover its expenses from income plus savings — the month the money runs out. Pushing this date later (or off the chart entirely) is the goal of most planning changes.

Sequence-of-returns risk

The danger that a stretch of bad market years early in retirement — while you're withdrawing — does lasting damage, even if your *average* return over the years is fine. Selling investments at low prices to cover expenses locks in the loss. It's the main risk Monte Carlo reveals.

Social Security

The federal retirement benefit paid monthly, based on your earnings record and the age you claim (62 to 70). Claiming later means fewer but larger checks. See Social Security timing.

Standard deduction

A flat amount you can subtract from your income before figuring tax, instead of itemizing. It depends on your filing status. Used only when tax modeling is on.

Target

Your budget goal for a category — a ceiling you set on the Budget tab, like "keep groceries under $700." It's an aspiration you choose, not a measurement of what you actually spent.

Tax-deferred account

A retirement account (traditional 401k or IRA) funded with money you haven't paid tax on yet; you pay tax when you withdraw, and Required Minimum Distributions eventually apply. Compare Roth (already taxed) and taxable.

Taxable account

A regular (non-retirement) investment or savings account, like a brokerage account. No special tax shelter — you may owe tax on interest, dividends, and gains as they occur.

Today's dollars vs future dollars

Today's dollars state an amount in what money is worth *now*, so you can reason about it. Future dollars state the same amount at a future date, inflated, so it looks bigger. The app shows headline numbers in today's dollars and switches to future dollars inside a future month's detail. See Understanding your numbers.

Trailing average

Your real spending over the last 12 complete calendar months, divided by 12. The current, still-running month is left out on purpose so a bill that hasn't posted yet doesn't drag the number down. It's the figure that can be dropped into your Plan.

What-if lever

A one-click preview of a single change to your plan — spend less, work longer, lower returns — shown next to your current plan without saving anything. See What-if levers.

Withdrawal order

The sequence the app draws from your savings to cover a shortfall. By default: cash first, then brokerage, 401k, IRA, Roth, and other. The order can affect how long your money lasts and how it's taxed.

Still stuck on a term? The FAQ answers the most common real-world questions.