Getting Started with Joey Planner

Key Takeaway

Joey Planner walks you through 7 steps to build a complete retirement projection. No financial expertise needed — just answer the questions honestly and let the math do the rest.

Step 1: Basics

Start by telling Joey your age, when you want to retire, and where you live. Your country selection automatically sets sensible defaults for retirement systems, inflation, and tax rates. The gap between your current age and retirement age is your savings runway — the longer it is, the more compound interest works in your favor.

Step 2: Income

Add your income sources — salary, freelance, commission, or business income. This step is optional but helps calculate your savings rate. You can add multiple sources and fine-tune details like income growth rate and employer matching in the advanced settings.

Step 3: Savings & Investments

This is the heart of your plan. Add each savings or investment account separately — your 401(k), IRA, index funds, or savings account. For each source, you can adjust expected return, fees, and confidence level. Don't forget to note your emergency reserve separately.

Step 4: Debt

Add any debts: mortgage, student loans, car loans, or credit lines. Joey will calculate payoff timelines and show you which debts might extend into retirement. No debt? That's great — skip right ahead!

Step 5: Spending

How much do you plan to spend in retirement? Start with Simple mode (one monthly number) or switch to Detailed mode to break spending down by category. Don't forget to add government benefits like Social Security or Age Pension — these reduce how much you need from savings.

Step 6: Assumptions

Choose from preset profiles (Conservative, Balanced, Growth) or fine-tune individual assumptions like expected return, inflation rate, and fees. These "knobs and dials" drive your entire projection. The defaults are sensible starting points.

Step 7: Your Results

See your complete retirement projection: projected portfolio, readiness score (0-100), Monte Carlo success rate across 500 market scenarios, charts showing portfolio growth and drawdown, and personalized guidance on what to improve. You can save your plan, download a CSV, or use the Advisor Prep summary for a meeting with a financial professional.

Ready to put this into practice?

Try this in your plan