What-if levers and Social Security timing

Two of the stress-test lenses let you compare choices side by side without touching your real plan. Both live under Stress-test your plan on the Forecast tab and are premium features. Both are estimates for comparison, not advice.

What-if levers

A lever is a one-click preview of a single change. You don't edit anything — the app runs your forecast again with that one change applied to a copy, then shows you the result next to your current plan. For each lever you see two things: its run-out date (when the money runs out) and how it moves your ending balance compared to your plan today.

The levers are:

• Spend 10% less — trims every expense by 10%. The single most reliable way to

extend a plan.

• Spend 10% more — the flip side: what if costs run 10% hotter than you

assumed?

• Delay Social Security 2 years — claims your Social Security two years later,

with the larger benefit that delay earns (using the official SSA schedule, so delaying from 68 to 70 is worth more than 62 to 64).

• Work 2 more years — keeps your wage income going another 24 months.
• Returns 2% lower — every account earns two percentage points less per year.

A quick gut-check on optimistic return assumptions.

• Inflation 1% higher — prices rise a point faster than you assumed.

Levers you can't use won't appear. "Delay Social Security" only shows if you have a Social Security stream; "Work 2 more years" only shows if you have wage income with an end date. If a lever doesn't apply to your plan, it's hidden.

Think of levers as a menu of directions: run them, notice which ones move your ending balance and run-out date the most, then decide which real changes are worth making. These are previews only — your saved plan is never changed.

Social Security timing

Social Security lets you start your benefit anytime from age 62 to 70, and the age you choose changes the size of every check for the rest of your life. This lens compares four common ages side by side — 62, 65, 67, and 70 — showing for each:

• the monthly benefit you'd receive, and
• the effect on your plan: its run-out date and how the ending balance

compares to your plan today.

The core trade-off: fewer but larger checks. Claim early (62) and you get smaller checks, but more of them. Wait until 70 and each check is substantially larger — but you collect for fewer years. Which wins depends on your other income, your savings, and how long you live. This lens lets you *see* it against your own numbers instead of guessing.

How the estimate works. The app takes the benefit amount already in your plan, works backward to your full-benefit amount, then applies the SSA's reduction and delayed-credit schedule to each age. It assumes a Full Retirement Age (FRA) of 67, which is correct for everyone born in 1960 or later — essentially everyone retiring now. If you have more than one Social Security stream, only the first is adjusted here. Definitions for Full Retirement Age and COLA are in the glossary.

This is an educational estimate. Your actual benefit comes from the Social Security Administration based on your full earnings record — check your statement at ssa.gov for the exact figures.

Want a written recommendation across all of this? See AI review.