ESPlannerBASIC

More than a retirement calculator.

ESPlannerBASIC was released in April 2009 after I initially created this website so this review is being written after I evaluated various retirement calculators too numerous to mention.

I was aware of ESPlanner (Economic Security Planner) which costs $149 or ESPlannerPLUS for $199.  There is a $50 per year annual update fee which gets you the latest updates and the software is constantly being updated and improved. 

At that time I was only reviewing free retirement calculators so I did not review ESPlanner.  I recently learned that ESPlannerBASIC was free so I decided to include it on this site.  I am glad that I did since it is the best retirement calculator I have found.

The respected financial website, CNN Money.com, rates ESPlannerBASIC as the #1 site of The 20 best money Web sites.

ESPlannerBASIC ("ESPB") is really a financial planner since it can be used to develop your financial plan at any point in your life, but on this website it is being evaluated as a retirement calculator.

Beware of a retirement calculator that is sponsored by a company that can sell you a financial product since the calculator is usually designed to attract you to the website so you will buy something.  There is no sales pitch with ESPlannerBASIC.  Obviously, you could upgrade to the paid version if you feel the cost is warranted, but that is your choice.

This software plans for you, not the other way around. It is  based on economics and is designed to help you have a smooth living standard through time.  You can use it to help safely raise your living standard.  It can help you make life-style decisions by showing the living-standard implications of retiring early, having another child, buying a boat, moving to another state, etc.

The rest of this page and the continuation page will show you pictures of the input forms for ESPB so you can see what information you need to gather ahead of time to be ready to effectively use ESPB.  The data shown in the plan is a test case.

Ready?  Let's plan.

I recommend you print this page and the continuation page to use as a template to write your data as you gather it for input into ESPB.

Here is the Navigation menu for ESPB so you know what to expect.

First, enter your family information and your state of residence.

Enter your Earnings.

Enter your Assets.  This is a long input form and requires three pictures to show all the detail.

Second picture of Assets input.

Third picture of Assets input.  The Spouse/Partner input expands to allow the same input as seen above.

Let' start another page since this one is getting too long and will take too long to load.

Go to next page for ESPlannerBASIC.

Before you become a planning drop-put because this looks too long and complicated, consider that you are potentially ruining the last years of your life by not spending the time to properly plan for them