I like to think in terms of calendar years. What is the best way to set up my plans?

If you prefer to build models where each simulated year always aligns with the calendar year, you might want to create a fixed-date plan and set a start date of January 1.

When you are looking at simulation output in the tool, the first bar you see (if you’re using a bar chart) will represent your starting conditions, and display the plan’s starting date and corresponding age(s) at that time.

The next bar represents the results at the end of the first simulated year… so it’ll display the final date of the first simulated year, and your age at that time. And so on from there.

If you are using a plan that always projects from “now”, then the plan start date will shift as time passes in the real world, and the plan will always use the latest data from Current Finances as the starting conditions.

But if you prefer each simulated year to always align with the calendar year instead, then using a fixed-date plan with a start date of Jan 1 should make the output more intuitive for you.