Scenarios

A plan is a set of scenarios: parallel versions of the same household, compared side by side. For example, “retire at 62” against “retire at 67”, or “stay put” against “downsize”. Each scenario is projected independently and produces its own detailed projection and Monte Carlo. The first scenario is the baseline. The rest are read against it.

What is shared and what is not

Almost nothing is shared. The entire financial picture lives on each scenario on its own. That includes accounts, income, expenses, debts, properties, actions, Social Security, state of residence, and even marital status and life expectancy.

A small set of inputs is plan-wide, shared by every scenario at once:

• the two people’s birth dates and the plan start date
• the simulation settings, meaning the return source behind the detailed projection and the Monte Carlo trial settings (Projections & Monte Carlo)
• the estimated Heir tax rate that discounts traditional (pre-tax) balances to their after-tax estate value

Change one of these and every scenario sees it at once. Change anything else and only the scenario you edited moves.

Keeping scenarios aligned

Because everything else is per scenario, an edit does not carry over. Raise a salary or add an account in one scenario and the others still hold the old values. That is the difference you want when it is the variable you are testing, and one to fix when it is not.

The Compare scenarios view exists for this. It sets two scenarios side by side, lists every field that differs, and lets you copy a value from one into the other, one field at a time or all at once. Use it to realign scenarios after changing something meant to be held constant.