How Do I Create A New Plan?

ProjectionLab allows you to create plans to test out different situations. Life isn’t always linear, and ProjectionLab allows you to forecast different scenarios. Let’s say you want to retire a few years earlier than age 65, take on a side hustle, or forecast different spending levels: creating a plan is a great way to accomplish that!

Step 1: Create a New Plan

Once you’ve started your ProjectionLab account and entered your initial current finances, you can create your first plan.

On the left-hand side, scroll down and click the plus button that says New Plan > enter your plan name (for this example we’ll call it “Retire at 55”) > choose New Plan > add any relevant notes about your situation > then click Create Plan.

Step 2: Add Milestones

Next, you’ll walk through building your plan. You’ll define the key elements needed to start making projections. These can always be changed later. Click Continue.

The first stage is Milestones, where you can define key ages like retirement, financial independence, or other targets, bind them to plan events, or just see them plotted in the chart.

Typically, your retirement date and life expectancy are already populated. There will also be a milestone called Financial Independence. You can add more milestones if you want. Click Continue.

For this example, our age is 36 and birth month/year is 1990. Since you want to retire at 55, set Retirement > At Date > type Jan 2045. Set Life Expectancy > At Year > 2075 (age 85).

You can always add, activate, or deactivate milestones later. Click Continue to go to the next step.

Step 3: Add Income

Next, add your income. Include every source of income you expect throughout your life. Some may happen once, others monthly or annually, and some may change over time. Make your best estimates: you can always refine them later.

Click + Add Income > choose from salary, hourly wage, RSU grant, inheritance, and more. We recommend adding at least one income stream now. For example: click Salary > set Starting Amount to $55,000 > set Frequency to Yearly > click Add. Learn more about income streams. Click Continue to go to the next step.

Step 4: Add Flows

Next, add Flows. Where do you want your money to go? Build an emergency fund, invest extra income, contribute to retirement accounts, and more. Add the goals that matter to you and arrange them in priority order. Available income is allocated from top to bottom.

Click + Add Flow > Existing Accounts > Savings > choose your Strategy (e.g., Build up to target balance or contribute indefinitely) > set your Target Balance in either today’s currency or actual currency > choose your Contribution (e.g., Maximize Contribution, % of Remaining Income, or Specific Amount). You can continue to add or reprioritize flows later.

Lastly, choose what happens to anything left over:

• Save anything left over – after addressing higher-priority flows, any extra income goes to your cash holdings.
• Spend anything left over – any extra income after handling the flows above is spent. Appears in Expenses as “Discretionary Spending.”

Learn more about cash flow priorities.

Step 5: Add Expenses

Next, add your expenses. Define the expenses you’ll have throughout your life, but do not include mortgages, property taxes, maintenance, or insurance yet: those should be modeled as part of a financed asset in the next section. Some expenses might happen once, others every month or year, and some may change over time. It’s okay to make a rough estimate now and refine it later.

Click + Add Expense > Living Expenses > set Starting Amount to $40,000 > set Frequency to Yearly > choose your currency preference > choose your Time Range.

Step 6: Add Real Assets

Next, add Real Assets. What other kinds of assets do you expect to buy or sell? What are their initial values, and how do you expect those values to change over time? You may already see real assets you added when setting up your account. This is a good time to add any you may have forgotten or want to model at the plan level.

Click + Add Asset > choose your asset type > complete any additional steps such as financing details, ongoing maintenance, and more. Learn more about real assets.

Click Confirm and your first plan is built!