Cash flow modelling tools for during retiement?

GazzaBloom

The cash flow modelling, retirement planning tools I have come across all seem to be designed for forward planning during accumulation for retirement. As I am now just months away from retiring are there any better tools that are designed specifically for a forward look once into retirement? To use these tools once in retirement I guess it's pretty much the same but you just set the retirement date as on the first year of the plan?

Scarum

I still use Microsoft Money (v2001).  I find the budgeting, bills and cashflow features very powerful.  The three all combine so you know where your account balance(s) will forecast days, month or years in to the future.

On top of the budget planner and cash flow forecast it also has a lifetime planner which looks at all your investments and savings and when you plan to access them, whilst taking in to account your budget as above.  I use this to test my own spreadsheet calculations; it fits rather well and gives me reassurance on my retirement plan that start years in to the future.

This is the best budgeting software I've used and have no plan to change but if others have any recommendations I'd be interested to hear.

Obviously to use Microsoft Money you need (ideally) Windows 98, (or, I'm fairly certain Windows 2000) operating systems to run it.  I use a virtual machine (Oracle Virtual Box) that loads my old Windows 98 software and it runs happily as a VM.  You can find legitimate copies of MS Money and Windows 98 on eBay, you used to be able to download MS Money from Microsoft but I believe that support has gone.  If you fancy this route, make sure you disable the virtual network adapter on your VM as you don't want that connecting to the Internet (security reasons).

sfry

MS Money works perfectly on my latest W11 computers.

Scarum

sfry said:

MS Money works perfectly on my latest W11 computers.

I haven't tried W11 yet, only use W10 at work.  Perhaps Microsoft have improved backward compatibility of older software nowadays?

I use an iMac at home now so need to use a VM.

MK62

MS Money 2005 works fine in Win10.......can't comment on other versions (or their compatibility with Win11, as I don't have that)
There's also Money Plus Sunset Deluxe, which was a final hurrah from Microsoft.......apparently still downloadable online (but be careful to use a reputable location)........never used this myself though.
That said, personally I find Money a bit too cumbersome for this, and prefer to use a spreadsheet........if you don't fancy creating your own (which isn't to difficult tbh), there are hundreds of personal cashflow templates available online.
There are also plenty of online tools you can google for - I've only tried a few, but there are loads available.......but I guess I'm OK with a speadsheet, as all I really want is a cashflow "statement".......I don't really need any modelling tools as such.

Edited......typo, it's actually MS Money 2005 I have (version 14)

GazzaBloom

MK62 said:

MS Money 2004 works fine in Win10.......can't comment on other versions (or their compatibility with Win11, as I don't have that)
There's also Money Plus Sunset Deluxe, which was a final hurrah from Microsoft.......apparently still downloadable online (but be careful to use a reputable location)........never used this myself though.
That said, personally I find Money a bit too cumbersome for this, and prefer to use a spreadsheet........if you don't fancy creating your own (which isn't to difficult tbh), there are hundreds of personal cashflow templates available online.
There are also plenty of online tools you can google for - I've only tried a few, but there are loads available.......but I guess I'm OK with a speadsheet, as all I really want is a cashflow "statement".......I don't really need any modelling tools as such.

I guess that works for retirement fixed income but if your retirement portfolio is subject to market fluctuations you need some form of scenario stress testing to make sure things are still on track don't you?

MK62

That's done in the withdrawal plan.......the cashflow plan only runs a few years, since the withdrawal plan dictates the income each year. By cashflow I'm talking about the daily cash balance in our main account  - so in effect the withdrawal plan covers the annual totals etc, the cashflow plan covers the daily.

westv

I use a Chromebook for my laptop so I can't use MS Money (I did in the past but a long time ago).
Currently I use Buxfer which suits my purposes but it isn't free. When i retire I will probably carry on using it for day to day cash flow.

LHW99

I did try MS Money many years ago and couldn't get on with it, so I have an array of spreadsheets because I enjoy them (should get out more, I know).

bownyboy

I built a simple google sheet showing withdrawal amounts over 12 months based on assumptions of growth for cash and equities along with expected withdrawals (expenses) per month.

The sheet listed out all our cash accounts, ISAs and SIPPs.

On the 1st of each month I updated with the actual numbers.

The rest of the year is forecasted based on the numbers I entered for cash and equities growth.

It takes about 15 mins to updated each month and gives a pretty good idea of where we are for rest of the year.

The ISA and SIPPs numbers are actually updated automatically using google formulas for VWRP.

Has worked for the last five years or so and is forecasted for the following five years.