Meanwhile we recently asked for any questions people had about our software, whether you are a current client, past client, or potential client.... and we got a lot of questions. See below for ANSWERS!
I decided just to put them in this email because I didn't have time to email each person individually and some were duplicates. So here goes...
Question: Wells Fargo stated on Yahoo that after the age of 85 medical cost is estimated for $35,000 for each person for each year. Do you share the same opinion or have a different amount? For married couples, Wells Fargo estimates for a women 95 and a men 93 as the longevity factor. Do you have a different age group for retirement estimate?
Answer: I readily admit we do not try to tell you what inputs to put into the RetirementView. I think it's great that you are researching reasonable values. If I were wanting to enter medical costs, I'd probably do the same. Would it make sense to have some sort of "medical costs estimator" and use some sort of data we find on the internet?
Question: An expense planning tool built into or as a companion to the Retirement Program. To enable you to plan for varied expenses and be able to confirm that you will be able to meet the anticipated costs.
Answer: The program is not designed for "current expenses" unless you are retired. So it's not meant as a budget tool for cash flow except retirement. All that being said you can put an entire budget on the Special Expenses grid.
Question: I tried your software several years ago, but was not satisfied on how it handled taxes. I understand it now takes into account taxes from various taxable accounts so I'd like to try a free sample again.
Answer: The program does various tax calculations depending on the "source" of the income. It does juice up qualified withdrawals to cover taxes due based on the effective tax rate in retirement. It also calculates the real IRS algorithm for the taxability of Social Security. There are a number of tax calculations in there. Refer to this page and this page in our knowledge base for more details.
Question: If you can import stock prices, it will be a super plus. Excel's stock import no longer works with my spreadsheet.
Answer: Sorry we don't currently import stock prices. We may be adding this but right now the original intent was just to put in your account statement summary and not every individual investment, although you can certainly can go into that detail using the Investments button
Question: I am an x-customer. How much are you asking for purchase?
Answer: The prices are always listed on our order forms. You can check it out here.
Question: No questions specifically. I am an insurance agent and interested in your pro version of your program.
Answer: You can find out more about the pro version here and read testimonials here.
Question: What are reasonable variables to enter into your software? Example: inflation rate now & after retirement (in 6 years+)
Answer: This is not an easy question to answer. There are various government declarations of cost of living and inflation. For example the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment which is more based on how much the government can afford rather than actual inflation. The formal government version of inflation comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics at this page. If you search Google you will find many unofficial sites regurgitating data just to get traffic to ads on their website, so be careful of where you go.
Question: I need a better understanding of how the tax calculations work in Retirement View. I'm asked to put in marginal tax rate and another tax rate, but it is unclear to me how the tax impact is actually figured.
The rate used in the calculations is the "Total Effective Tax Rate". We ask for Federal Marginal and State/Local so that people with zero knowledge of taxes can fill something in and get something going. If you are a CPA or want more accurate estimate, calculate your own effective tax rate and just enter it into the Total Effective Tax Rate box. If that's not clear, read this page.
Question: I still would like to see a version that lets me do two scenarios. I am getting close to moving into a retirement community and a couples, 2 scenario option would be nice. Now, tell me, is it really that difficult??? I doubt it. So why not ? ? ? ?
Answer: It's not hugely difficult it's just that our programmers are STILL trying to finish a mobile cloud version of the software, as well as a brand new desktop version. Until those versions exactly match the current version... it does not make sense to add a bunch of new features to the old code base that we are getting ready to drop. Sooo.... anyway this is something we will be adding in the new version most likely. Sorry it has taken so long.
I hope that answers everyone's questions. If it doesn't feel free to email us.
If you need to get the latest version of RetirementView, you can download the Windows or the Mac version.
Thanks and Happy Planning!
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