Help — plannng

Creating a plan

A plan is the top-level container for your retirement model. Each plan represents a complete financial scenario and contains all the elements that make up your retirement picture.

To create a plan, tap the + button on the home screen. You'll need to provide:

Plan name: A descriptive name for this scenario, e.g. "Main retirement plan" or "Early retirement".
Retirement date: The date you plan to retire. This can be set as a specific month and year, or relative to a person's age (e.g. "age 60"). The retirement date is used as a reference point for other date calculations in your plan.

You can create multiple plans to compare different retirement strategies. Plans can also be duplicated to quickly create variations of an existing scenario.

Persons

Persons represent the people in your plan — typically you and your partner or dependents. Each person has a first name, last name, and date of birth.

Adding persons to your plan unlocks age-based date calculations. Instead of specifying exact dates for when elements start or end, you can set them relative to a person's age (e.g. "when Sarah turns 65"). This makes your plan easier to read and automatically adjusts if you change someone's details.

Elements can be associated with a specific person, which is useful when modelling a household with multiple incomes, pensions, or expenses tied to different people.

Elements

Elements are the building blocks of your plan. Each element represents a financial component — an income source, a pension pot, an expense, an investment, or a physical asset. Together they form a complete picture of your finances over time.

All elements share these common properties:

Starting value: The current value in GBP. What this represents depends on the element type — it could be an annual income, a pension pot balance, an investment balance, or an asset's market value.
Growth rate: How the value changes over time. You can set this as a percentage (e.g. 5% annual growth) or a fixed amount (e.g. £200 per month). Growth can be applied monthly or annually.
Person: Optionally associate this element with a person in your plan. This enables age-based date calculations for the element.
Start date: When this element becomes active. Can be a specific month/year, or relative to a person's age or retirement date.
End date: When this element stops. Can be a specific month/year, relative to a person's age, or left empty if it's ongoing.

Income

Represents employment income or other regular earnings such as salary, freelance income, or rental income.

Starting value: Gross annual income amount.
Start date: When you start receiving this income.
End date: When this income stops. Leave empty if ongoing.

Pension

Represents a pension pot that grows over time through contributions and investment returns. Pensions can be drawn down in retirement to cover expenses.

Starting value: Current pension pot balance.
Contribution: Employer and/or personal contributions into the pension pot. Set as a monthly or annual amount, with an optional end date for when contributions stop.
Drawdown order: The priority for drawing down this pension in retirement. Lower numbers are drawn first. Leave empty to exclude from drawdown.
Start date: When contributions began.
End date: Leave empty — pensions typically have no end date.

Expense

Represents regular spending such as mortgage payments, household bills, or lifestyle costs.

Starting value: Annual expense amount.
Start date: When this expense begins.
End date: When this expense stops. Leave empty if ongoing.

Investment

Represents an investment account such as an ISA, brokerage account, or savings. Investments grow through returns and regular contributions, and can be drawn down in retirement.

Starting value: Current investment balance.
Contribution: Regular deposits into this investment account. Set as a monthly or annual amount, with an optional end date.
Drawdown order: The priority for drawing down this investment in retirement. Lower numbers are drawn first. Leave empty to exclude from drawdown.
Start date: When this investment was opened.
End date: Leave empty — drawn down until depleted.

Asset

Represents a physical asset such as property, a vehicle, or other valuables. Assets can have a liquidation event where they are sold and the proceeds directed to another element.

Starting value: Current market value of the asset.
Liquidation event: Sell or cash in this asset at a specific date. You can specify a fixed GBP amount or a percentage of the asset's value to liquidate. Proceeds can be transferred to another element in your plan (e.g. an investment account).
Start date: When this asset was acquired.
End date: Leave empty unless the asset has a known end date.

Running projections

Projections calculate a deterministic, month-by-month forecast of your plan. They show you exactly how your finances are expected to evolve over time based on the values and growth rates you've defined.

To run a projection, go to the Projections tab on your plan and set:

Start date: The month and year to begin the projection from.
End date: The month and year to project to, or a target age for a person in your plan.

Tap Run Projection to generate results. The output includes:

Chart view — a stacked bar chart showing each element's value over time, with line overlays for total net worth, income, and expenses.
Data view — a month-by-month table with per-element breakdowns, net cash flow, and total net worth. If persons are in your plan, their calculated ages are shown alongside each month.

Projections use fixed growth rates and assume everything goes exactly to plan. For a view that accounts for market uncertainty, use simulations.

Running simulations

Simulations use Monte Carlo analysis to test your plan against thousands of possible market outcomes. Instead of assuming fixed growth rates, each simulation run randomly varies returns based on a volatility level you choose. This gives you a probability-based view of whether your plan will succeed.

To run a simulation, go to the Simulations tab and configure:

Start date

The month and year to begin from.

End date

The month and year to simulate to, or a target age.

Number of simulations

How many trials to run. Default is 1,000. More simulations produce more reliable results but take longer to process.

Annual volatility

How much market returns can vary year to year. Choose from preset levels:

Low (15%) — conservative, stable markets
Normal (25%) — typical market conditions
Extreme (40%) — high uncertainty or volatile markets
Custom — set your own percentage

Tap Run Simulation to start. Simulations run asynchronously and may take a moment to complete. Results include:

Success rate — the percentage of simulations where your plan did not run out of money. Displayed as a large banner with colour coding:
- Green — above 85%, strong likelihood of success
- Orange — 70–85%, moderate risk
- Red — below 70%, higher risk of running short
Chart view — shaded bands showing the range of outcomes at each month. The outer band spans the 10th to 90th percentile, the inner band the 25th to 75th, with a line for the median (50th percentile). A success rate overlay shows how confidence changes over time.
Data view — a monthly table of percentile values (P10, P25, P50, P75, P90) and cumulative success rate.

Try running simulations with different volatility levels to see how sensitive your plan is to market conditions.