There are two major changes that Wealth Planner users who live outside the United States will make:

1. Adjusting the US tax table

2. Updating the currency to your currency of choice

   We strongly recommend users outside the US use the Excel version of the Wealth Planner, as it’s much easier to make updates to currency in Excel!

Updating the Tax Table

Since the US Tax Liability table feeds the tables to the right (your Estimated Monthly Breakdown and your Example Monthly Goal Breakdown), you’ll just need to clear out a few cells.

Users outside of the US:

1. Enter your Expected Gross Annual Income in cell I4.

2. Zero out the formulas in the tan cells (I11 through I19), shown to the right.

3. Manually enter your total tax liability (the total amount of your income you pay in taxes in your country) in cell I13.

This will manually override the US tax calculations and produce Monthly Breakdowns that are accurate to your situation.

Updating the Currency

This should take no more than five minutes, and involves selecting all cells in the worksheet and updating the currency at the spreadsheet level, then correcting the percentages that were changed.

Check out the video for full instructions.

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)

4. Looking for the full FAQ list? Check it out here.

This section is designed for US users to understand a high-level estimate of their tax liability based on…

1. Their chosen filing status. Single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, and head of household options are available.

2. Their non-taxable or self-employment income. While non-taxable income, like stipends or disability, won’t be taxed at all, some types of income (like 1099) will be taxed slightly more, for the self-employment tax.

3. Their deductions. If you make pre-tax contributions to employer-sponsored plans at work or use post-tax dollars to pay for other benefits, you can include those here.

This table will feed the tables to the right, your Estimated Monthly Breakdown and your Example Monthly Goal Breakdown.

Users outside of the US:

1. Enter your Expected Gross Annual Income in cell I4.

2. Zero out the formulas in the tan cells (I11 through I19).

3. Manually enter your total tax liability (the total amount of your income you pay in taxes in your country) in cell I13.

This will manually override the US tax calculations and produce Monthly Breakdowns that are accurate to your situation.

If you don’t know your gross income and tax liability but you do know your take-home pay, feel free to just input your annual net income and zero out formulas in the tan cells!

“I have an S Corp! How do I enter the self-employment/1099 portion of my income?”

For S Corp designations and other complex forms of business accounting, we recommend working with an accountant, as this table will overestimate your Estimated Payroll Tax Liability (W-2) if you enter all of your business’s revenue as your Expected Gross Annual Income.

If you would like to understand what your personal income tax liability will be: Enter only the salary you pay yourself as both the “Expected Gross Annual Income” and the“Self-Employment/1099 Portion?”

“I’m already retired and living off investment income. How should I use this tax table?”

Since this table is designed to estimate tax liability for people who are still working and earning primarily ordinary income, this table will not accurately estimate tax liability for income that comes primarily from investment accounts and Social Security. For example, any tax due on long-term capital gains would most likely be overestimated by this table.

If all of your investment income is coming from pre-tax accounts, the estimate will be much closer, but you can ignore (or delete) the Payroll Tax Liability in cell I16.

That said, if you’d still like to input all of your income so that you can use the Monthly Breakdown features on the right:

1. Enter your Expected Gross Annual Income in cell I4.

2. Zero out the formulas in the tan cells (I11 through I19).

3. Manually enter an estimate for your total tax liability (the total amount of your income you pay in taxes) in cell I13.

This will manually override the W-2/1099 income tax calculations and produce Monthly Breakdowns that are accurate to your situation.

For more information about how retired users can get the most out of their Wealth Planner, check out this special guide.

How to enter each section of your Estimated US Income Tax Liability

Filing Status

Choose Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, or Head of Household.

If you file your taxes jointly but manage your money separately and only intend to input your income, spending, and saving in this Planner, we recommend choosing “Single” for a more accurate representation of your personal tax burden (though of course it won’t be totally accurate).

Expected Gross Annual Income

Put in your best estimate for your household’s annual income except for dividend income from investments. People with salaried positions will find this easiest; people who work jobs that are heavily commission-based or have many sources of income may find this more challenging. Give it your best conservative estimate!

→ If you receive income that’s non-taxable, like disability income, please enter the portion of your overall income that’s non-taxable. For example, if you make $100,000 and $50,000 of it is non-taxable, you’d enter “$100,000” for Expected Gross Annual Income and “$50,000” for Non-Taxable Portion.

→ If any of your gross income is self-employment or 1099 (and therefore subject to self-employment taxes), please enter the portion of your overall income that’s 1099. For example, if you make $75,000 and $20,000 of it is 1099, you’d enter “$75,000” for Expected Gross Annual Income and “$20,000” for Self-Employment/1099 Portion. If all of your income is self-employment income, you’d enter the same number twice.

Pre-Tax and Post-Tax Contributions and Deductions

1. Total Annual Pre-Tax Paycheck Investments. If you make any pre-tax contributions to investment accounts via paycheck deductions (e.g., 401(k), 403(b), HSA, FSA, etc.), put those here. Do not include employer matches yet.

2. Total Annual Roth/Post-Tax Paycheck Investments. If you make any Roth or post-tax contributions to investment accounts via paycheck deductions (e.g., 401(k), 403(b), ESPP, etc.), put those here. Do not include employer matches yet.

3. Other Annual Pre-Tax Deductions. Think expenses that you pay for with pre-tax paycheck deductions, like health insurance, vision, dental, etc. The purpose of entering these is to make our tax estimate more accurate, as well as to make sure our take-home pay number is close.

4. Other Annual Post-Tax Deductions. Think expenses that you pay for with post-tax paycheck deductions, like union dues, employer disability insurance, employer life insurance, etc. The purpose of entering these is to make sure our take-home pay number is close.

Effective State and/or Local Tax Rate

Because we have users in all 50 states, we don’t auto-populate state and local taxes—if you don’t know your state and local tax rates, we recommend using this resource to determine them, and then inputting the total percentage. For example, if your state tax rate is 5% and your local tax rate is 2.5%, you’d enter 7.5%.

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)

• “Overall,” which tells you what overall percentage of your post-tax income you saved

• “Long-Term,” which is specific to that which counts toward Financial Independence

Last year, we calculated savings rates in a more rudimentary way: By looking at how much take-home pay wasn’t spent.

This year, the calculation is more sophisticated, as it looks at actual contributions as a percentage of total income, including your paycheck contributions. This makes it more accurate.

How we calculate your Overall Save Rate

We look at:

• Your reported take-home pay for the month

• Your reported paycheck contributions

• Your reported contributions to any Saving & Investing accounts for the month

…and divide your contributions by your total post-tax income (inclusive of what would’ve been take-home pay, had you not contributed it to your employer-sponsored accounts).

How we calculate your Long-Term Save Rate

We look at:

• Your reported take-home pay for the month

• Your reported paycheck contributions

• Your reported contributions to Saving & Investing accounts with the “Long-Term (Financial Independence)” tag for the month

…and divide your Long-Term contributions by your total post-tax income (inclusive of what would’ve been take-home pay, had you not contributed it to your employer-sponsored accounts).

“My save rates aren’t calculating! What gives?”

If you haven’t entered any of these variables (income, contributions to savings and investments, etc.), it won’t have the data it needs to generate your save rates.

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)

How the Long-Term (Financial Independence) tag works

This is the only label you cannot change, since it’s used in the backend to signal to our calculation that something should be included.

In order to make the Financial Independence calculation as accurate as possible, the Long-Term (Financial Independence) tag is how you indicate to the Planner that the funds in a particular account will be used for your eventual financial freedom (as opposed to your kid’s college education, the down payment for a primary residence, or a blowout vacation).

You’ll see how your planned contributions will impact your estimated balance(s) in the Financial Independence tab in the two right-most light green columns, “Total Long-Term Contributions” and “Long-Term Invested (EOY).”

How Your “Long-Term Contributions” Change Over Time

• Your “Long-Term Contributions” will be assumed to shift up or down with the percentage you anticipate for your income. For example, if you project 3% income growth per year, the current year’s Long-Term Contributions total will be adjusted upward by 3% per year as well.

• If you’d like to manually overwrite future assumptions about Long-Term Contributions, un-hide the FI Backend hidden tab, scroll to column AV, and write new values in to reflect what you’d expect to save in a future year if it’s different from the projection!

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)

Updating the Tax Table

Since this table is designed to estimate tax liability for people who are still working and earning primarily ordinary income, this table will not accurately estimate tax liability for income that comes primarily from investment accounts and Social Security.

For example, any tax due on long-term capital gains would most likely be overestimated by this table.

If all of your investment income is coming from pre-tax accounts, the estimate will be much closer, but you can ignore (or delete) the Payroll Tax Liability in cell I16.

If you’d still like to input all of your income so that you can use the Monthly Breakdown features on the right:

1. Enter your Expected Gross Annual Income in cell I4.

2. Zero out the formulas in the tan cells (I11 through I19).

3. Manually enter an estimate for your total tax liability (the total amount of your income you pay in taxes) in cell I13.

This will manually override the W-2/1099 income tax calculations and produce Monthly Breakdowns that are accurate to your take-home pay.

Using your financial independence timeline

If you’re already retired, your financial independence timeline should let you know that you’ve reached FI!

Make sure you:

1. Enter all the information in your Dashboard tab, including your accounts and their balances.

2. Fill out accurate information about any pension or Social Security income in the Financial Independence tab.

From there, if you’re already retired, you can select “2025” as your retirement year (assuming your Planner is set to begin in 2025) and choose your safe withdrawal rate.

The Planner will automatically assume you are living off pension and Social Security income first, then drawing the rest from your investments, and demonstrate how your timeline will play out with your assumptions about returns, inflation, etc.

On a monthly basis…

While the “Saving & Investing” section may be less relevant to you on a monthly basis, you can still use the monthly tabs to track your take-home pay and spending.

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)

Financial independence is the point at which your investments will safely produce enough investment income to support your living expenses.

The Financial Independence tab is designed to help you identify your “crossover point,” or the point at which you can withdraw enough from your investments every year (using the 4% rule) to support your lifestyle.

In order to calculate this directionally, we have to make a few assumptions about the future:

1. How you’re going to earn. We recommend increasing income by 3% per year, but you can adjust this.

2. Your average annual rate of investment return. We recommend using a 9% nominal rate of return, but you can adjust this.

3. Your annual inflation rate. We recommend using 3%, but you can adjust this.

4. Your preferred safe withdrawal rate. We recommend using 4%, but if you’re retiring early, consider using 3.5% instead.

5. How much you plan to contribute to long-term invested assets. In order to do this, we look at the balances and planned contributions for accounts with the “Long-Term (Financial Independence)” tag.

By looking at your current invested long-term assets, income, spending, long-term savings, and tax rate, we can begin to project how your financial future will play out over the next 40 years. Learn more about which accounts and contributions are being used to feed this calculation.

How to enter each section of your Financial Independence data

Your Current Numbers Summary

The Wealth Planner will automatically populate most of this section for you.

1. “Current Long-Term Invested Assets” is referencing the current balances of your accounts tagged as “Long-Term (Financial Independence).”

2. “Current Income” is using your current gross annual income.

3. “Current Monthly Spending” is totaling your monthly expenses and debt payments (the monthly expenses amount will lower in the data when it projects the debt is paid off).

4. “Estimated Effective Tax Rate” is totaling your federal, FICA, state, and local tax rates.

5. “Estimated Monthly Employer Match Contributions” is where you’ll enter an estimate for the amount your employer(s) is adding to your long-term investment contributions each month. For example, if you get a 10% match that usually equals around $250 per month, you’d enter $250 in this cell. This will factor those employer contributions into your investment growth.

Temporary Major Monthly Expenses

If you currently (or expect to) pay a large, ongoing monthly expense (e.g., childcare) that your investments will not have to support in the future, you can enter the amount, start year, and expected end year. You can overwrite the “Temporary Major Monthly Expense [Name It Here]” with the actual name of the expense, if you’d like to label it!

How Temporary Major Monthly Expenses alter your financial independence timeline:

1. If the expense is current (that is, the start year is 2025) and the expense is already included in your budget, assumptions about your expenses and long-term investment contributions will not be affected for the duration of your temporary expense—however, when it ends, that amount will be (a) removed from your expenses and (b) added to your long-term contributions in the future.

2. If the expense begins in the future, the expense will be (a) added to your expenses and (b) removed from your long-term contributions for the duration of the expense, because we’ll assume your savings will go down temporarily to accommodate it.

Future Assumptions

1. Annual Income Increase. We like to use around 3%, but if you’d like to be more conservative, you can estimate 0% (or a decreasing rate, if you expect to earn less in the future).

2. Average Annual Rate of Investment Return. We typically recommend using something between 7% and 9%, but if you’re invested primarily in bonds or other fixed income instruments, you might want to use 5%. This is the nominal—or before inflation—return, not the “real” return.

3. Annual Inflation. We usually use around 3% to account for how your spending will rise each year, but feel free to adjust if you know your personal inflation rate.

Future Net Income from Other Sources

1. Pensions. Enter your estimated monthly pension payment (make a conservative post-tax estimate, preferably), if you have one, and the year you expect it to start. If your pension has a cost-of-living adjustment and will be increased with inflation, check the “Cost-of-Living Adjusted?” box. There’s room for two pensions.

2. Social Security. Enter your estimated monthly Social Security benefit (make a conservative post-tax estimate, preferably), and the year you expect to begin taking it. There’s room for two Social Security checks that begin in different years.

Debt, Future Large Purchases, Inheritances

1. Debt. If you currently have debt, some of your monthly expenses are being used to service that debt. At some point in your Financial Independence timeline, your debt will be paid off, and your expenses will lower by the corresponding amount. If you’d like for us to take that into account, keep the box checked. (Recommended!)

2. Major One-Time Expense from Investments. If you plan to use a large portion of your “Long-Term” invested assets for a one-time purchase (e.g., draining your financial independence brokerage account to buy a house), enter the estimated amount and expected year. This will allow us to lower your invested balance accordingly and adjust your timeline. There’s room for two major one-time expenses.

   1. If you’re planning to make a one-time major purchase with money that you’ve already set aside in “short-term” or “medium-term” savings or investments, like a house fund or 529 plan, you do not need to input the expense here, because that money is already excluded. Only include major one-time expenses that will use your long-term investments.

3. Major Future Inheritance. If you know you’ll be receiving a big inheritance that you intend to invest for the long-term, enter the estimated amount and expected year. This will be added to your invested balance.

Financial Independence and Retirement Assumptions

1. Preferred Safe Withdrawal Rate. Research indicates 4% is the sweet spot for traditional retirements, but if you plan to be retired for more than 30 years, we recommend using 3.5%.

2. Year You Plan to Stop Working. If you learn that you’re financially independent in 2050 and you’d like to see how your timeline would change if you quit working and began living off your investments in 2050, you’d select “2050” from the dropdown. Your income column will zero out, and you’ll see how your invested balance will change as you withdraw your annual expenses from it each year.

   1. Be sure not to select a year that occurs before you reach Financial Independence. For example, if you’re set to reach FI in 2042 but you say you’re going to stop working in 2037, you’re going to run out of money. The earliest year you could safely quit work (per these assumptions, of course) is the first year you’re set to be financially independent.

How to read your Financial Independence results

1. “Years Until Financial Independence” describes how many more years you’d need to execute the inflation-adjusted version of your current plan in order to reach financial independence.

2. “Projected FI Year (EOY)” is the calendar year in which you’re projected to reach financial independence, by December 31.

3. “Safe Withdrawal Amount This Year (Gross)” tells you how much income your long-term investments can currently produce each year.

4. “Projected FI Number” is the nominal value of your investments in the year you’re anticipated to hit financial independence. Because this number is typically impacted by a decade or more of inflation, it usually looks quite large.

“Oh, no! Why does my “Years Until Financial Independence” say ‘Over 40 Years’?”

If your Wealth Planner is returning “Over 40 Years,” that means that your current plan does not produce an outcome in which your investments can support your expenses in the next 40 years. A few things to check:

1. Did you fill out your Long-Term (Financial Independence) contributions on the Dashboard tab to tell the Wealth Planner how much you intend to save for financial independence? (Learn more.)

2. Have you filled out your Long-Term (Financial Independence) investment balances in the Dashboard tab?

3. Do you need to double-check that your assumptions for things like rates of return and inflation are accurate? If you’re estimating a return that’s too low or an inflation rate that’s too high, that can throw off this calculation.

4. Do you have a Major One-Time Expense from Investments that’s eating up too much of your balance too late in the game? For example, if you’re FI once you hit $2 million but you plan to quit working for an income then spend $1.5 million of your long-term investments on a house, you might become “un-FI” and not reach it again without more income.

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)

We improved the accuracy of the 2025 Financial Independence tab by fine-tuning two important variables:

In 2024, we looked at the difference between your post-tax income and your planned spending, and assumed you were saving the rest for retirement.

Why this wasn’t ideal: This estimate was a good rough projection, but many users save income for other medium-term goals (like college, down payments, etc.) that aren’t going to be used for financial independence. Because of this, some users’ expected annual long-term savings were inflated.

How we improved this: In the 2025 Wealth Planner, you tell us when you fill out your Dashboard tab exactly how much money you intend to contribute to your long-term savings each month by selecting “Long-Term (Financial Independence)” from the timeline dropdown. This way, only savings contributions you intend to use for long-term investments will count toward your FI goal.

In 2024, we always referenced your most recent current invested assets and added 12 months of your projected savings for the current year.

Why this wasn’t ideal: Once most of the year had already passed, the estimated end-of-year invested balance was inflated by expected contributions that had already happened.

How we improved this: In the 2025 Wealth Planner, only your first month’s invested assets will be used as the base—and the rest of the year’s savings contributions will be assumed based on your goals.

If things still look really different, be sure to check…

1. That your spending hasn’t changed. Even a $1,000 increase in monthly spending can dramatically affect a financial independence timeline.

2. That your invested assets are correct. Remember that only assets marked “Long-Term (Financial Independence)” will be counted toward your balance.

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)

Here’s how the number you see in this box is calculated:

1. First, it looks at your post-tax income, including your paycheck contributions to investments.

2. Then, it subtracts any spending you’re planning on doing.

3. The number that’s left is (a) your paycheck contributions to investments, that you’ll enter as “goals” in the table below, and (b) any take-home pay that’s available to save because you haven’t spent it or used it to pay off debt.

Creating Saving & Investments Goals

As you create Monthly Contribution Goals in the “Load Your Accounts, Assets, Liabilities, and Goals” table, the number in the green box will change dynamically. This is intended to help guide you so you know how much left you have to allocate to savings and investments!

If you have an account that you’re actively planning on making more contributions to, check the “Actively Contributing” checkbox so the Planner knows to include it in your monthly tabs.

For example, if you contribute $200 per month to your 401(k), shown on the right, $200 will be removed from the “Amount Left for Savings & Investments” calculation.

Once it goes to $0, you’ve allocated all of your money to spending, saving, or debt payoff.

Note: Your debt payments are accounted for in the “Plan Your Monthly Spending” section. The Debt section in the Liabilities table is intended to help you strategize your payoff (by showing you total interest paid and payoff time, based on payment), as well as so you can enter more information about the debt, like your interest rate and balance owed.

“Wait, why is my number going negative?”

There are a few reasons why the number in the “Amount Left for Savings & Investments” box could be negative:

You’ve planned to spend more than your available post-tax income. Try revisiting your spending plan to make sure there aren’t any errors, or your income, to make sure you haven’t forgotten to include anything.

You’ve created contribution goals that total more than your remaining income. For example, if you only have $1,000 available to allocate to savings and investments but you create goals that equal $1,500 per month, you’ll see -$500 in the box. Sometimes this happens because people are contributing to investments each month with money they already have in savings; e.g., the contributions are not coming from new monthly income. If that’s the case, ignore the negative number and carry on!

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)

This feature is intended to help you determine the scaffolding of your budget, based on your desired savings rate.

Its calculations are based on your Post-Tax Income in your Estimated Monthly Breakdown table, and it takes into account what you’ve already saved via paycheck contributions to employer-sponsored accounts.

1. Select your Goal Overall Savings Rate—what percentage of your post-tax income do you want to aim to save? The table will calculate the savings goal for you.

2. Next, it’ll subtract anything you’ve already saved, and tell you how much of your take-home pay you should aim to save each month to hit your goal.

3. The guideline figures provided for Housing, Transportation, Living Expenses, and Discretionary Spending are generated based on a dynamic version of personal finance best practices that proportionally reallocates money away from these categories as you save more.

“How is this table used in the rest of the Planner?”

It’s not! This table is solely intended to help you determine the big picture of your budget based on your ideal savings rate, but it’s not connected to your Spending or Saving Plans below, so you’re still free to enter whatever you’d like.

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)

“I don’t want to include my rental property income and expenses in this Planner that I’m using for personal purposes. Can I just ignore them?”

Yes. While the Planner is intended to accommodate the existence of rental property assets, liabilities, and rental incomes, if you’d prefer to keep your rental property investing separate from your personal budgeting, you can absolutely ignore it. Some people prefer to make a copy of the Wealth Planner and use one for personal and adapt the other for business income and expenses, to keep things separated.

Other Useful Reminders

1. Be careful not to cut & pasting cells. This can create #REF errors. (Copy & paste is fine.)

2. Only change data in the white cells. Colored cells have formulas in them to make the Planner work!

3. Avoid adding or deleting rows & columns. (Hiding rows and columns is fine.)