Getting started
Gather information and start a plan
Build a useful first plan, then add detail without losing your starting work.
When this applies
Use this before Plan Setup or when deciding whether your plan has enough detail to run.
What to gather
- Birth, planned retirement, planning-end, and Social Security dates for each person.
- Current annual spending and gross earned income.
- Latest balances for retirement, brokerage, Roth, cash, HSA, and 529 accounts.
- Social Security full-retirement-age monthly estimates and any pension or benefit statements.
Where to enter it
Plan Setup, then Portfolio > Scenario Editor
How to enter it
- Complete the guided starting questions. Quick estimate creates broad tax-bucket accounts; detailed setup records actual accounts.
- Review the starting plan, create it, then use Scenario Editor to add holdings, benefits, healthcare, spending schedules, and planning policy.
- Update prices with a consistent balance date before treating results as current.
How YARCalc uses it
- Plan Setup saves the first Home-plan version.
- Every later save creates a scenario version used by projections and analyses.
Check your work
- Open Dashboard and review Scenario Highlights for missing or implausible inputs.
- Run Projection after the core dates, spending, income, and balances are present.