Scenarios: compare changes to your plan

The baseline is your plan as it stands today: your assumptions, contributions, debt payoff plan, and expected money. A scenario is the baseline with some things changed. The Reyes household keeps three: Grandma's estate, $25k in December, $400 more to the mortgage, and Maya part-time from 2027. Each one is a question they have asked out loud, saved so they can look at the answer whenever they like.

A scenario can change the growth rate, the age you retire, inflation, or any goal's monthly contribution, and it can add changes: money that arrives once, money that arrives every month, or a sale. Maya part-time is three contributions halved from a certain month. That is all it takes: retirement moves from March 2048 to April 2050, the roof is pushed back from December 2029 to February 2033, and the month the money runs out comes forward from April 2073 to April 2069.

A change adds money in a particular month. Money that arrives once is a single payment, like a bonus, an inheritance, or a tax refund, split between investing, cash savings, spending, your goals, or a debt. Money that arrives every month comes in each month between two dates, like a side income. Sell something you own is a sale in a certain month at a certain price; any loans on it are paid off first, and the rest goes where you say. A sale is how “we'll move somewhere smaller at 70” becomes something you can calculate.

Every scenario runs through the same projection and reports the same milestones, so comparing them is just reading a table: net worth at retirement, whether it is enough to retire, when savings run out, when you are debt free, and the month each goal is reached. The baseline is the first row and each scenario is a row below it. With $400 more a month to the mortgage, they would own the house outright in February 2042 instead of April 2051. The projection at the top is redrawn for whichever scenario you pick under Show the plan for. When you decide one should be your plan, make the same changes to your plan yourself, or ask your agent to. Until then it is a question with its answer saved beside it.