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Explore Your Financial What-Ifs

How would a major purchase affect retirement?

Add a one-time expense to your current path and compare what changes in the year of the purchase and beyond.

A purchase has an amount and a timing

A vehicle, home renovation or special trip can be easier to evaluate when you can see it alongside your longer-term spending. Money Rehearsal lets you add a one-time expense in a selected year while preserving your original baseline.

The difference between the paths may continue beyond the purchase year because the money used is no longer available for future spending or assumed investment growth. The size of that difference depends on the rest of the illustration.

What to enter and compare

1. Build your baseline. Use household totals for income, saving, spending, cash and investments before adding the new purchase.
2. Add the purchase once. Choose the major-purchase what-if, enter the expense and select its year. Check the dollar basis shown beside the input. Avoid including the same amount in regular spending as well.
3. Review the comparison. Look at the year of the purchase, the following years and the longer-term balance. Check whether the illustration shows a funding gap.
4. Try an alternative. Compare a different amount or year, using the same baseline and assumptions so the difference is easier to understand.

Remember the ongoing costs

A one-time purchase does not automatically include recurring maintenance, insurance, storage or other running costs. If those costs would change your household spending, explore them separately and combine the changes when appropriate.

What about financing?

A one-time expense illustration is not a loan quote or a complete financing comparison. Avoid treating an installment purchase as both a full cash expense and loan payments. Interest, borrowing terms and payment timing need separate attention.