Comments on: New Retirement Calculator

By: Cindi

Cindi — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:46:47 +0000

I’m not sure I buy it. It scored me at a 148 but I included social security because my husbands on disability retirement and already gets it. I have done the IRA but with the previous years experiences, it may be not worth near what I’ve put into it, let alone have appreciated much in value by the time I retire. And at my age (approaching 50) I know I should have saved more than I did.
It also didn’t ask about investment real estate, which we are using towards retirement. We bought smart, with properties we expect to hold for years and rent. Even if the market falls drastically, there is more than enough wiggle room in the cash flow that we would still be good.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:48:31 +0000

For anyone else that comes across this page in a search for retirement calculators…

This was the first one I had seen in a while that had a % for estimated raises in your lifetime, and that is what I was specifically looking for in a retirement calculator.

The “average for people like me” was 107. I suspect this is skewed by the fact that only people who are doing something towards retirement would take the time to plug numbers into this calculator.

I found the comparison tool at the end useful as well. To take a look at the picture of where others “like me” fall. I found I had more debt than most but also higher current retirement balances.

By: Shayan

Shayan — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 17:17:58 +0000

Grr… I have to pretend that I’m 35. Doing so, I get an estimated score of 118, which should be much higher in 10 years, when I am 35

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 07:19:56 +0000

Woohoo! I got a 148, which should be higher at the end of 2007 because I’ll be maxing 401k & ROTH’s for myself and my wife.

I liked the tool. It humanizes the typically bone-dry topic of retirement planning with commentary from real people. I expect computer interfaces will continue to use this model in the future. After all, we relate to human faces and personalities much better than taskbars.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 06:28:13 +0000

It won’t work without Flash, so I don’t have a neat little number to compare. I’m pretty confident, though.

FWIW, the “negative savings rate” is a statistical illusion, since its definition of “savings” doesn’t include a great number of things that make net worth increase. 401k and pre-tax IRA payments, for example, aren’t counted as “savings”.

By: Norm

Norm — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 14:29:16 +0000

I scored a 125 (like nickel, I didn’t count on Social Security). One of the things I don’t get about this is it didn’t ask me about my current savings rate or returns. So, is it just doing a percentage thing based off where I currently am for my age? I kinda started off slow in my retirement funding (hey, I was in my 20’s…I still had to work longer than I’d been alive , but I’m busting my butt now so my numbers are increasing at a more rapid rate than in the past. Doesn’t seem like it could take any of that into consideration. *shrug* Oh well, I’m doing ok for now it seems.