Every goal calculator in Kerdora — Retirement, Education, and Liquidity — comes with a set of assumptions you can adjust to match a specific client's situation. Some assumptions auto-populate from client data you've already entered, and others are set to reasonable defaults. You can override any of them.
To customize assumptions, go to Planning → Goals inside the client, then click on the goal you want to adjust. The calculator opens with numbered steps — each step is an assumption you can change.
How "Derived" Fields Work
Some fields show a small toggle icon next to them. These are derived fields — they automatically pull values from data elsewhere in the client's profile.
For example:
Spending Need (Retirement) pulls from the client's total annual spending in their Cashflow data
Years Until Retirement (Retirement) calculates from the oldest adult's age, assuming retirement at 65
Monthly Expenses (Liquidity) pulls from the client's total annual spending divided by 12
When a field is in derived mode, it updates automatically if you change the underlying data. If the auto-calculated value doesn't fit the client, click the toggle to switch to manual mode and type in your own number. You can always switch back to derived mode later.
Retirement Goal Assumptions
The Retirement calculator walks through these assumptions in order:
Years until retirement — Derived from the oldest adult's age (65 minus current age). Override if the client plans to retire earlier or later.
Expected inflation — Enter the assumed annual inflation rate (e.g., 3%).
Retirement spending need — Derived from total annual spending. This is the after-tax amount the client wants to spend per year in retirement, in today's dollars. Override it if retirement spending will differ from current spending.
Expected tax rate — The estimated average tax rate on retirement withdrawals.
Other income sources — Any income the client will receive in retirement outside of their portfolio — Social Security, pensions, annuities.
Withdrawal rate — The percentage of the portfolio the client plans to withdraw each year (e.g., 4%).
Target amount — This is calculated for you. It shows how much the client needs at retirement, and you can toggle between today's dollars and future dollars.
Current retirement savings — Pulled automatically from accounts you've assigned to this goal. This is read-only — to change it, assign or update accounts in the goal's account assignment section.
Lump sums — Add any one-time contributions the client plans to make before retirement (e.g., an inheritance, bonus, or home sale). You can enter amounts in today's dollars or future dollars.
Investment return — A single expected return rate, or switch to staged returns to set different return rates for different time periods (e.g., 8% for the first 10 years, then 6% for the remaining years).
Annual savings increase — If the client expects to increase their savings rate over time due to raises, promotions, or lower expenses, enter the annual percentage increase here.
Monthly savings needed — Calculated for you. Shows how much the client needs to save per month to reach the target.
Fully funded today — Calculated for you. Shows the lump sum needed today to fully cover the retirement goal.
At the bottom, the calculator also shows a projected spending estimate — how much the client could spend per month in retirement based on their current savings trajectory.
Education Goal Assumptions
The Education calculator walks through these assumptions:
Which student — Select the child (or adult) this goal is for. Children added in the client's Household profile appear here automatically.
Education start age — When the student will begin (default: 18).
Education end age — When the student will finish (default: 22).
Current annual cost of education — Today's cost for tuition, room and board, and fees (default: $40,000).
Funding percentage — What portion of the total cost the family plans to cover (default: 100%). Reduce this if scholarships, loans, or student contributions will cover part of the cost.
Education inflation rate — How fast education costs are rising (default: 4%). Historically, college tuition has increased around 4–5% per year.
Target amount — Calculated for you. Shows total cost in today's or future dollars.
Current education savings — Pulled automatically from accounts assigned to this goal. Read-only.
Lump sums — Add any planned one-time contributions before education starts.
Investment return — A single expected return rate, or switch to staged returns for different rates across time periods.
Monthly savings needed — Calculated for you.
Fully funded today — Calculated for you.
Liquidity Goal Assumptions
The Liquidity calculator is the simplest — it has just two inputs:
Months of Expenses — How many months of expenses the client wants to keep in reserve (default: 6).
Monthly Expenses — Derived from the client's total annual spending divided by 12. Override if the client's emergency fund target should be based on a different spending number.
The calculator multiplies these two numbers to show the total liquidity reserve needed.
Tips for Customizing Assumptions
Start with derived values. Let Kerdora auto-populate what it can from the client's profile. Only override when the default doesn't match the client's situation.
Adjust one thing at a time. The calculator updates instantly as you change each input, so you can see exactly how each assumption affects the result.
Use staged returns for more realistic modeling. If a client is decades from retirement, you might assume higher returns early and more conservative returns closer to retirement.
Lump sums are flexible. Use them for any expected one-time inflow — inheritance, home sale, bonus, gift. You can enter multiple lump sums at different years.
Check your account assignments. The "current savings" field is read-only because it pulls from assigned accounts. If it looks wrong, go to the account assignment section on the goal page to add or update which accounts count toward this goal.