Retirement Meltdown Calculator
Estimate how income changes, planned expenses, market growth, inflation, life insurance, and an unexpected long-term care event could affect a surviving spouse's retirement assets.
Instructional Videos
Calculator Overview
Select a lesson and use the voiceover button for guided instruction.
Voiceover uses the visitor's browser speech feature. Actual hosted videos can be added later by replacing this placeholder panel with embedded video links.
Household and Assumptions
Historical guideposts: Social Security COLAs have varied widely year to year; the 2025 COLA was 2.5%. Long-term inflation is often modeled around 3%, while care costs can rise faster than general inflation. Adjust these assumptions before relying on the result.
Social Security and Pension
This is a what-if date of death for planning. Beginning in that month, the model keeps the larger Social Security benefit, removes the smaller one, applies any pension survivor benefit for the deceased spouse, and adds any life insurance proceeds.
Other Income
Examples: annuities, charitable trusts, irrevocable trust distributions, rental income, part-time work, full-time work, bonus compensation, consulting income.
Investable Assets
Monthly Budget
Planned Major Expenses
Prompts to consider: cars, roof, appliances, travel, new vehicles, redecorating, water heater, air conditioning, major repairs, and family support.
Unexpected Long-Term Care Event
Month-by-Month Spreadsheet
This detail page shows the monthly cash flow used to stress-test the retirement assets. In the PDF, it starts on a new page after the summary.
| Month | Income | Budget | Major expenses | Care cost | Life insurance | Ending portfolio |
|---|
Appendix 1: Assumptions, Sources, and Clarifications
This appendix explains where the major numbers came from and how the calculator applies the assumptions. It updates as inputs are changed.
Projection Method
Income and Survivor Benefits
Planned Expense Clarifications
Long-Term Care and Sources
Assets, Insurance, and Medicaid
Important Limitations
Optional Longevity Questionnaire
Use this as a planning prompt, not a medical or actuarial opinion. It starts with public life-table style assumptions, then makes a simple adjustment based on the answers below. The main retirement projection does not automatically change unless you choose to update the projection years or what-if dates above.
Public-table baselineAge 0
Questionnaire adjustment0 years
Educational estimateAge 0
Stress-test plan toAge 0
Source guideposts include the Social Security Administration period life table and CDC/NCHS mortality and life expectancy publications. The lifestyle scoring is a simplified educational model based on commonly published risk factors, not a diagnosis, medical recommendation, or insurance underwriting tool.
Default Florida care-cost assumptions use 2025 state monthly figures where available. Home health, assisted living, and nursing home defaults are from CareScout Cost of Care state tables. Independent living and memory care defaults are from A Place for Mom Florida cost summaries; memory care varies materially by community and care level.