What age should I plan to?

Choose an age comfortably beyond the one you expect to reach. Plan until age sets how long the projection runs and therefore how long your money has to last. The hint beside it says why: plan longer than you expect to live — running out is the expensive mistake.

People routinely underestimate this. Planning to 85 when you live to 92 leaves seven years unfunded, which is why most planners deliberately use a number above average life expectancy. Planning a few years too long costs you a slightly more cautious answer; planning too short costs you the years at the end, when there is no time left to fix it.

How to enter it

1. Open You & your assumptions.
2. Under About you, enter Plan until age. It accepts years and months, between 50 and 120.
3. Make sure it is later than both your age today and Age you reach independence; otherwise the app asks you to plan to an age beyond them.
4. Press Re-generate my plan and read the verdict again.

What it changes

• The number of years your corpus has to pay for, so a later age raises what you need.
• Whether the plan runs out: the verdict and the Retirement Tracker both read the projection to this age.
• Nothing about your figures — it only lengthens or shortens the years the projection covers.