What is "Your plan at your actual return"?

Your plan at your actual return runs your whole projection a second time with one change: the return your plan assumes while you are working is replaced by the XIRR your priced holdings have actually earned. It then shows what that does to two figures — your Corpus when you stop working and your Independence age — against the plan as it stands. Nothing on your plan changes; the assumed rate is still the one it uses.

Reading the card

• The heading reads At your actual return instead of your assumed one.
• Corpus when you stop working: the figure at your actual return, with a chip showing the difference and the plan’s own figure.
• Independence age: the age at your actual return, with a chip such as 2 years earlier or 1 year later.
• Projected, not promised. — and How this was worked out, which explains the second run.

When it appears

The card needs two things, and says which one is missing until both are true:

• Three years of history on your priced holdings. Before that it says how long is left to go, because a shorter record would re-run your whole plan on a number that is still noise.
• At least half of what you hold priced daily. Below that it gives today’s share, because otherwise the return of a minority would be stretched over everything.

Using it well

A better result here does not mean your plan should assume more. A few good years are a small sample of a long horizon, and the return in your plan is meant to hold across decades. The card’s value is as a check: if, over several years, your actual return sits well below what the plan assumes, the plan is optimistic, and lowering the assumption in You & your assumptions is the change within your control.