Where this is heading
Projections runs your numbers forward, shows the most likely path and the range around it, and lets you try any what-if without touching your saved numbers.
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Hi again. Today the screen people open first and understand last: Projections. By the end you will know what it is saying, what it is not saying, and how to ask it a what-if.
Before the years ahead can be drawn, Projections needs a few facts about you: th.
Click the Projections button at the top. The screen opens in a new tab, called Where this is heading, and the first line says what it is: an estimate from your own figures and your own growth rates, not advice and not a promise. The next line says: this is a sandbox, nothing here changes your saved numbers. Remember that line; it is what makes the screen safe to play with.
Your numbers. A short row of sliders, and each one starts at what your saved numbers say: what you save each month, the growth you expect, the age you stop. Drag a slider, or click its box and type, and the whole screen moves with it.
Where you land. One figure marked Most likely, and the year beside it. That is the middle of all the ways the years could go. Plan on this one.
The chart, in Where you land. It runs from today to age ninety, and a dashed line marks the year you stop working. The dark line is the most likely path; the lighter band around it is the spread.
Life events. Click Add a life event, and choose from the list: a home, a baby, a.
Your goals. Click Add a goal and give it a name and an amount: By sixty, five hundred thousand. A dashed line for it appears on the chart, and the screen tells you the year the most likely path reaches it.
Compare what-ifs. Click Add a what-if and change one thing: save two hundred more a month, say, or retire at sixty two instead of sixty. Then click Compare, and the screen shows your plan and the what-if side by side. When you want to keep one, click Save to my what-ifs, type a name in Call this version, and it waits for you under My saved what-ifs. Compare with my favourite puts the best one next to today.
Account by account. Further down, which accounts are driving the line: the savings doing the work, the debt holding it back.
Ask Clarity About This. Choose one of its starting questions, edit it if you like, and click Send. Clarity sees the changes you are trying on this screen, so you can ask about a what-if before you save it.
When you have tried enough, click Reset to my saved numbers to put everything ba.
Three ways people use this screen every month. First, the hundred dollar question: add a hundred a month to savings and read the new year; that number is what gets people to find the hundred. Second, the big decision: before the house, the car or the year off, add it as a life event and look at the line before you sign anything. Third, the retirement age: drag it three years either way and see what each year is worth. The screen is at its best when you ask it one question at a time.
Four things to carry away. A projection is a range, not a promise; plan on the most likely number and expect to land somewhere in the band. Small monthly changes matter more than anything else, because they compound for decades: fifty dollars a month is not fifty dollars, it is fifty dollars times every year left. A life event you already know is coming, the house, the baby, the year off, moves the line more than any growth rate, so write it down. And the screen is a sandbox: you can try anything, and nothing you try changes your saved numbers until you choose to save it.
A saved what-if survives. Save the version with the house, come back in six months when your balances have moved, and compare it against the new today in one click.
Type your settings once, write down the life events you already know about, and read the most likely line. That is Projections. See you in the next one.
Hi again. Today the screen people open first and understand last: Projections. By the end you will know what it is saying, what it is not saying, and how to ask it a what-if.
Step by step
-
Before the years ahead can be drawn, Projections needs a few facts about you: th
-
Click the Projections button at the topThe screen opens in a new tab, called Where this is heading, and the first line says what it is: an estimate from your own figures and your own growth rates, not advice and not a promise. The next line says: this is a sandbox, nothing here changes your saved numbers. Remember that line; it is what makes the screen safe to play with.
-
Your numbersA short row of sliders, and each one starts at what your saved numbers say: what you save each month, the growth you expect, the age you stop. Drag a slider, or click its box and type, and the whole screen moves with it.
-
Where you landOne figure marked Most likely, and the year beside it. That is the middle of all the ways the years could go. Plan on this one.
-
The chart, in Where you landIt runs from today to age ninety, and a dashed line marks the year you stop working. The dark line is the most likely path; the lighter band around it is the spread.
-
Life events. Click Add a life event, and choose from the list: a home, a baby, a
-
Your goals. Click Add a goal and give it a name and an amount: By sixty, five hundred thousandA dashed line for it appears on the chart, and the screen tells you the year the most likely path reaches it.
-
Compare what-ifsClick Add a what-if and change one thing: save two hundred more a month, say, or retire at sixty two instead of sixty. Then click Compare, and the screen shows your plan and the what-if side by side. When you want to keep one, click Save to my what-ifs, type a name in Call this version, and it waits for you under My saved what-ifs. Compare with my favourite puts the best one next to today.
-
Account by accountFurther down, which accounts are driving the line: the savings doing the work, the debt holding it back.
-
Ask Clarity About ThisChoose one of its starting questions, edit it if you like, and click Send. Clarity sees the changes you are trying on this screen, so you can ask about a what-if before you save it.
-
When you have tried enough, click Reset to my saved numbers to put everything ba
-
Three ways people use this screen every monthFirst, the hundred dollar question: add a hundred a month to savings and read the new year; that number is what gets people to find the hundred. Second, the big decision: before the house, the car or the year off, add it as a life event and look at the line before you sign anything. Third, the retirement age: drag it three years either way and see what each year is worth. The screen is at its best when you ask it one question at a time.