Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Financial Planning Software - how accurate are they?

I'm not the topic author and can't speak for him, but I think what I stated above is what he was asking: Do people who use these calculators and then retire find that they accurately predicted what really happens? Can a pre-retiree rely on the predictions made by the calculators?
If that is what he meant to ask, and I think it is, then that is a VERY REASONABLE thing to ask. There is nothing unreasonable about it. Did you use a calculator prior to retirement, and has your financial situation in retirement been accurately predicted by the pre-retirement results of the calculators?
Calls for a "yes", "nope", or "well, sort-of" answer. Doesn't call for derision.

As I also said above, the calculators can not predict the actual sequence of returns. No one can. So, does that weakness turn out to be not such a big deal after all, or is it really a big problem for anyone thinking of relying on these calculators?

For those of us who want to retire and have less than the $4-6 million+ that many members have, the results of an accurate calculator can help us make a decision about financial readiness to retire. For those with 4, 5, 6+ million you can retire whenever you feel like it, and spend whatever you want. For many of us with $1-2 million, maybe $2.5 million, however, we are looking for some way to have more concrete certainty that we will have enough. It's a simple question, and a fair one to ask: Are these calculators accurate? Do they actually tell you what really happens once you retire?

Statistics: Posted by smitcat — Thu May 30, 2024 7:32 pm — Replies 29 — Views 2006