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I've looked at it a little bit, but as someone nearing retirement, it is lacking a number of features that I would like. There are some common tricks that I do
by fsflyer 4y ago
I've looked at it a little bit, but as someone nearing retirement, it is lacking a number of features that I would like.
There are some common tricks that I don't see how to model with ProjectionLab:
1. Do your tax-deferred 401k,403b,IRA saving in a high earning job, state, then move to a low or no income tax state to do the withdrawals in retirement.
2. Retire early so there is some time before taking social security payments to do Roth Conversions. I-ORP[0] turns this into a branch and cut linear optimization problem. User Indyhou at Bogleheads[1] has built a spreadsheet that uses a solver plugin. It may be possible to build a model in CBC[2] and compile it to WASM and run it in the browser.
3. After turning 63, watch the Roth Conversions to make sure you don't trigger IRRMA medicare surcharges.
4. Are you trying to stay under income limits for ACA subsidies? It's not quite the sharp cliff that it was, but can be important for some.
5. Are you trying to balance regular income and capital gains to take advantage of the 0% cap gains rates? You've got to plan ahead on your contributions to the taxable and tax deferred accounts for this to work. Jeremy at Go Curry Cracker has written about using this to pay $0 in US Federal Income taxes[3].
6. Paying full rate for health insurance will likely get you over the 7.5% limit for tax deductions.
7. Social Security claiming strategies can be complex for married couples.
A feature that would be useful during accumulation is life insurance planning for the death of a spouse.
The death of a spouse can throw a wrench in some of the strategies since the single tax bracket is much smaller. Tax law changes can also upset highly optimized strategies. So any highly optimized strategy should also have a monte carlo simulation around a spouse dying and tax law changes to understand what disruptions are possible and maybe accept a non-optimal strategy that is better in these adverse cases.
[0] https://i-orp.com https://i-orp.com
[1] https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=365518 https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=365518
[2] https://github.com/coin-or/Cbc https://github.com/coin-or/Cbc
[3] https://www.gocurrycracker.com/go-curry-cracker-2020-taxes/ https://www.gocurrycracker.com/go-curry-cracker-2020-taxes/
- scubakid 4y agoFor 1: you should already be able to add a milestone which has tax consequences; there's an option on milestones that lets you redefine the overall tax setup when the milestone occurs. 2-7: all great points; I'd love to add more strategies over time to help optimize scenarios like these, though I'll have to think carefully about what can be generalized and what is strictly US-specific. Thanks for writing these up -- I'll be looking into them in more detail :)