The Versatile Calculator is the tool you reach for when a client says "what if."
What if I retire at 62 instead of 65? What if the market returns 4% instead of 7%? What if I pull $6,000 a month instead of $5,000? These are the questions that shape the plan, and you need to answer them in real time.
How I think about it
This is a projection calculator, but it's built for conversations, not reports. You're not generating a 30-page Monte Carlo analysis. You're plugging in a scenario and getting an answer while the client is sitting in front of you.
The power is in the flexibility. You can model almost any cash flow scenario: money coming in, money going out, growing over time, with taxes, inflation, and fees layered on. And you can solve for different variables depending on the question. "How much will I have?" is a different question than "How much can I spend?" or "What return do I need?"
The inputs
Starting point — a present value (current balance), a starting age, and a time horizon.
Payments — regular contributions or withdrawals. You can set a flat amount or build a custom schedule with different amounts in different years. Payments can increase annually by a percentage (to model raises or inflation adjustments). You choose whether payments happen at the beginning or end of each year.
Returns — three options:
Fixed rate — one number, every year
Custom schedule — different return rates for different years (useful for modeling a glide path)
Random (Monte Carlo) — set a mean return and standard deviation, and Kerdora runs 1,000 scenarios. You can view the best case, worst case, median, or 25th/75th percentiles.
Adjustments — inflation rate (deflates payments over time), investment fees (applied to the balance), and tax rate (applied to growth).
Solve mode — instead of calculating the ending balance, you can solve for the required payment or the present value needed to hit a target.
What you get
A year-by-year table showing beginning balance, payments, returns, taxes, fees, and ending balance. A chart that visualizes the projection (with multiple scenario lines if you're using Monte Carlo). And the key numbers up top: ending balance, total payments, and compound annual growth rate.