Kerdora’s New Retirement Calculator: What Changed and How to Update Existing Plans

We’ve shipped a new retirement calculator to Kerdora. Here’s how the methodology changed, what happened to existing inputs, and how to move an existing client plan onto the new calculation.

The calculator now builds retirement one year at a time. It models when spending changes, when each income source starts and stops, how taxes affect withdrawals, how returns shift near retirement, and which accounts fund the plan.

The retirement calculator follows 5 steps.

Each adult has an individual retirement age. The earliest retirement year starts the household projection.

The plan continues through the selected horizon, which defaults to the latest life expectancy in the household. You can also enter a desired legacy balance at the end of the plan.

Kerdora starts with the household’s ongoing retirement spending.

It then removes current expenses when they end and adds new expenses when they begin. This lets you model changes such as a mortgage ending, travel increasing during early retirement, or healthcare costs beginning later.

Each income source is included based on its owner, amount, timing, growth, and tax treatment.

Kerdora calculates taxes each year using the household’s filing status, state, dependents, age, income, assigned accounts, and withdrawal order. It also accounts for required minimum distributions.

After income is applied, any remaining spending gap must come from investments.

Kerdora works backward from the end of the plan to calculate the balance required at retirement. The calculation includes each year’s withdrawal need, estimated taxes, retirement return, and desired legacy.

Assigned accounts, regular savings, employer contributions, and additional contributions grow through the selected return path.

Kerdora compares that projected balance with the retirement target to show what the current plan may support.

This is a deterministic planning scenario based on the assumptions entered. It doesn’t provide a probability of success or model market volatility and sequence-of-returns risk.

The previous calculator had one combined Additional Income field. That amount could represent Social Security, a pension, an annuity, or several different sources.

Those sources can behave very differently.

The new calculator uses individual household income records. For each source, you can enter:

This makes bridge years visible. If a client retires at 62 but Social Security begins at 67, the portfolio must cover the gap between those dates.

If an existing retirement goal included Additional Income, Kerdora converted it into a household income named Additional retirement income.

Because the old field didn’t identify the source, owner, or timing, Kerdora used the following migration assumptions:

The income includes an internal note explaining that it came from the old retirement goal and needs review.

Replace this generic entry with the client’s actual Social Security, pension, annuity, rental income, or other income sources. Delete or reduce the migrated entry after adding the real sources so income isn’t counted twice.

Where we could confirm that the old amount duplicated income already entered elsewhere, Kerdora didn’t add a second record. Partial overlaps include an internal note asking you to reconcile the amounts.

The old calculator used one investment return or a staged-return schedule.

The new calculator has 3 return assumptions:

Existing retirement goals received a 3% retirement return and a 10-year glide during migration. The previous investment-return assumption remains as the pre-retirement return.

Review both rates before recalculating an existing plan. Historical staged-return schedules are no longer used.

Regular monthly savings now come from the accounts assigned to the retirement goal. Each savings source can have its own growth assumption and tax treatment.

Contributions beyond those regular savings appear under Additional contributions.

You can add:

Old lump sums were converted into one-time Additional contributions. Their amount, timing, and dollar basis were preserved.

The old lump-sum input didn’t store tax treatment. Review each migrated contribution because an untagged contribution is treated as taxable.

Open the client’s Retirement goal and confirm:

The earliest adult retirement age starts the household projection.

Open the household’s income list.

Confirm the owner, amount, start, end, growth, and taxable status for Social Security, pensions, annuities, and other retirement income.

If you see Additional retirement income, replace it with the actual income sources and remove any duplicated amount.

Confirm the base retirement spending amount.

Add current spending that ends and any new spending that begins later. Include timing and growth for each item.

Confirm:

Existing plans were migrated to a 3% retirement return with a 10-year glide.

Confirm the accounts assigned to the retirement goal and the regular savings attached to each account.

Open Additional contributions and review every one-time or recurring contribution. Pay close attention to timing, dollar basis, growth, and tax treatment.

Confirm the household’s filing status, state, dependents, birth dates, and account registrations.

Choose whether withdrawals should be Sequential or Proportional. Required minimum distributions are applied under either option.

Kerdora preserved the previous target balance and monthly savings target as custom values so existing client files wouldn’t change overnight.

On the Retirement goal page, find:

If either target shows a circular-arrow button, click it to return that field to calculated mode.

Do this after reviewing the plan inputs. Once the targets are calculated again, the new methodology can update both numbers when assumptions change.

Review the year-by-year projection in Today’s dollars first.

Check the Income view to confirm when each income begins and ends. Check the

Spending view for expenses that start or stop. Use the Gap view to see what investments must provide each year.

Before using an updated retirement plan with a client, confirm:

Once those items are confirmed, the plan is using the new retirement methodology.