The Best Retirement Planning Tools In The Web
Because of recent studies that show many employees are still unaware or ignorant of planning for retirement, a lot of retirement planning tools have been developed. Most of these can be found on the Internet. Some can be acquired free, while some can be purchased in a considerably low amount. To be equipped with the right information and tools that you can use for your early retirement planning, here are some of the web financial planning software tools available nowadays, as cited by forbes.com web site. These are the retirement planning tools that you can get for free. First is the Vanguard Retirement Calculator that you can get at www.vanguard.com. It is very user-friendly and simple, though it only offers basic uses average investment returns, and does not save your data for future reference. Next is the T.Rowe Price Retirement Income Calculator. It is an easy-to-use tool that employs Monte Carlo simulations to calculate the likelihood of the longevity of your savings. For more information, visit www.troweprice.com. Lastly, you can get the Fidelity Retirement Income Planner for free at http://personal.fidelity.com/retirement for as long as you are a Fidelity customer. It is the best tool for those who have a lot of what if in mind as far as retirement is concerned. It is convenient to use because it saves all the data you enter and takes account of tax effects and non-Fidelity investments.
On the other hand, these are the premium retirement planners that you can get on the Internet. First is Financial Engines that you can acquire for $300 (many employers offer it for free). It is also user-friendly and tells you how you can meet your goals and recommends specific investments that you can have. It is developed by Nobel Prize winner William Sharpe and is available at www.financialengines.com. Second is the Morningstar Retirement Planner, a tool that you can use if you want retirement investing advice from the authority on mutual funds. It is can be purchased at $125 (many employers offer it for free) by visiting the site www.morningstar.com. Next is ESPlanner plus, a $199 tool that was developed by two economists, Laurence Kotlikoff and Jagadeesh Gokhale. This is the right tool for you if you want detailed projections of your spending and insurance needs, and future investment returns. For more information, visit www.esplanner.com. Lastly, you may opt to buy the Quicken software at $59, which includes the Quickens Retirement Planner. Though it does not make use of Monter Carlo simulations, this tool gives you a rough idea of how much you need to save, as well as it uses the financial data that is already saved in your computers hard drive. Visit www.quicken.com for more details about this software. |
