Tools and calculators

From Bogleheads
Revision as of 00:48, 24 July 2018 by Vectorizer (talk | contribs) (broken link to IRS tool; equivalent tool's title changed too)

Additional discussions and reviews of these Tools and calculators can be found in the discussion page (tab at top). Caution: Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Backtesting

  • Simba's backtesting spreadsheet, a Bogleheads community project. Acting as a reference for historical returns, and enabling the analysis of custom portfolios based on such historical data.
  • Portfolio Visualizer, by forum member pvguy. For backtesting, Monte Carlo simulation, tactical asset allocation and optimization, and investment analysis.
  • Portfolio Charts, by forum member Tyler9000. Historical data for popular portfolios and interactive calculators for studying your own personal asset allocation from different perspectives.

Bond calculators

Find out what your bonds are worth.

Compare bond yields for different tax treatments: Boglehead tfb's Bond Fund Yield Calculator. Use this calculator for taxable-equivalent yields on savings accounts or CDs. See (below).

Broker check

Those considering a business relationship with an investment adviser should perform due diligence to validate a financial adviser, broker, or investment firm's background credentials and complaints on file. The SEC and FINRA provide free tools to help consumers with this process.

Charitable organizations

From the IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search is an on-line search tool that allows users to verify that an organization is tax exempt and check certain information about its federal tax status and filings. You may search for.

  • Organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions (Pub. 78 data),
  • Organizations whose federal tax exemption was automatically revoked for not filing a Form 990-series return or notice for three consecutive years, or
  • Form 990-N (e-Postcard) filers and filings.

College savings planner

Credit report

AnnualCreditReport.com is a centralized service for consumers to request free annual credit reports. It was created by the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - and is the only service authorized for this purpose. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you have the right to obtain one free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus every 12 months.

IRA

Inflation data

Insurance for deposit accounts

Calculate insurance coverage for a group of deposit accounts.

Life expectancy calculators

Lifestyle calculators

These calculators use historical models to predict your life expectancy based on your lifestyle and family history.

IRS life expectancy tables

The IRS also has a view of your life expectancy, which is used solely for determining the Required Minimum Distribution of your IRA. Your age, your spouse's age, and beneficiary status are taken into account.

This Google Docs spreadsheet will calculate your life expectancy (or distribution period) based on Tables I, II, or III in IRS Publication 590 (IRAs):

Loan and mortgage calculators

A mortgage is a type of loan dedicated for financing the purchase of real estate. You can sometimes find mortgage calculators grouped with other types of loan calculators. The links below contain both dedicated mortgage calculators as well as calculators used for other types of loans.

Key loan parameters are principal, interest rate, periodic payment, and duration. Mortgage calculators can also include parameters such as rate of inflation and taxation. "Rent versus buy" decisions are specialized forms of mortgage calculators.

On its default setting, note that rent increases 3% per year while homes appreciate at 1% per year. A suggested assumption is for both to increase at the rate of inflation.
Contains numerous mortgage and financial calculators both online and download versions (email registration required for download). Includes various loan calculators (amortization, payments, etc.), refinancing, rent vs. buy, PMI with amortization.
An extensive number of mortgage calculators. With one or two mortgages, there's a calculator for: Debt consolidation, extra payments (prepayment), refinancing.
Also: When to terminate Private Mortgage Insurance, housing affordability, Adjustable Rate Mortgages with / without negative amortization, comparison of fixed-rate versus Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs), points and fees, downpayments, terms, annual percentage rate (APR)
Caveat - Some calculators only work with Internet Explorer.
Contains mortgage calculators for just about anything.
Be sure to check Financial Calculators from DinkyTown.net. There are (claimed to be) 300 financial calculators that should cover just about anything financial.
This calculator enables you to accurately calculate the tax savings of the mortgage.
Use this calculator to determine the total cost in today's dollars of various mortgage alternatives taking into account your opportunity cost of money.
A calculator that uses slider bars to graphically show the principal vs. interest breakdown over the period of the mortgage.
Free from Microsoft, for Excel 97 or later. To download, use Internet Explorer with cookies enabled (Firefox will not work). Microsoft will install an ActiveX control. The download will open a new spreadsheet in Excel.
When you put in the interest rate, points, term, etc. it shows a monthly tally of principle and interest payments. You can then compare what you are paying now with the new loan. It will also show total interest for the term of the loan. For any monthly payment you can enter a lump sum payment to see what happens to the total interest as a result of accelerating your pay schedule.

Mutual fund fee calculators

Fees and expenses are an important consideration in selecting a mutual fund because these charges lower your returns. Compare the fees and expenses of different mutual funds before you invest.

The Fund Analyzer offers information and analysis on over 18,000 mutual funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs). Estimate the value of the funds and impact of fees and expenses on your investment. Look up applicable fees and available discounts for funds. Enable browser cookies to use. Features:
Real-time online comparison of up to 3 funds. (Use different calculator if the fund is not listed.)
Expense analysis: Slider bars allow variation of your investment, return and period (duration held).
Fee/Discount report: View a breakdown of the fund's expenses. If the information is not provided, the field is blank.
You must accept the Terms and Conditions when you first enter the site (check the box and hit OK).
An easy to use calculator that graphically shows the impact of fund expenses on your final balance.
Identical to the calculator from Dinkytown.net
A Canadian mutual fund expense calculator. It will also work with US equities. Referenced from Finiki, the Bogleheads' affiliated Canadian wiki site.
The AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) is a popular web site for retirement information. No calculator, just links to calculators from the SEC and FINRA, already mentioned above.
The basics. It's somewhat lacking from what you would find elsewhere.

Personal finance toolbox

This spreadsheet contains various calculations applicable to personal finance, including

  • Tax planning, including many common credits and extra taxes, for both federal and state taxes
  • Traditional vs. Roth vs. non-deductible IRA vs. taxable investment choice
  • Social Security benefit estimates
  • "HDHP plus HSA" vs. "non-HDHP and no HSA" comparison
  • Lump sum vs. pension

and others. The first tab in the spreadsheet, Instructions, has more detail about calculations available, and a "quick start" method for the tax calculations.

A notable feature is the marginal tax rate chart it can generate for any of the tax calculation inputs. This has been used for various Bogleheads' wiki articles.

MMM Case Study Spreadsheet updates is a forum thread in which version changes are posted.
To open the most recent (2018) version of the spreadsheet directly in Google docs (from which it can be downloaded in Excel form), use the spreadsheet itself. It works best in Excel.

Portfolio tools

You can use various utilities to design and manage portfolios that span multiple accounts. Most tools cannot automatically compose your ideal portfolio, but you can use the tools to enter two or three models that you composed, and then you can compare and contrast the results, looking in particular at the blended expense ratios and the totals of each asset class.

All of these are combined with a selected asset allocation and earnings rates to create a complete picture of retirement life for up to 40 years. The spreadsheet and additional details can be found in this Bogleheads forum topic: "Retiree Portfolio Model".
  • Portfolio Visualizer, by forum member pvguy. For backtesting, Monte Carlo simulation, tactical asset allocation and optimization, and investment analysis.
  • Morningstar - Requires a free subscription to use
    • Morningstar Tools
    • Morningstar Instant X-Ray is especially useful for breaking down a portfolio into asset allocations and style boxes. It essentially a pre-built spreadsheet; enter your portfolio and the X-Ray will show its current allocation and other statistics.
      • Use a ticker symbol of CASH$ (as shown) to enter cash.
      • Asset classes that are not part of a stock style box or bond style box will not appear in the Stock Style Diversification section of the report. The asset class will, however, appear in the Asset Allocation section of the report. Cash is one example, commodities are another. For example "GLD" (SPDR® Gold) will be listed as "other" in the Asset Allocation section and will not appear in the Stock Style Diversification section.
  • Fidelity
  • T. Rowe Price:
  • Vanguard:

RMD (Required Minimum Distribution) calculators

The RMD (Required Minimum Distribution) calculators should be checked against the IRS Life Expectancy Tables to be sure that the appropriate table is to be used in your situation. Additional comments in the discussion page (tab at top).

Retirement calculators

Roth IRA conversion calculators

Estimates the potential long-term tax and financial impact of converting to a Roth IRA, based on information you provide and a number of important tax and growth assumptions.

From EmergDoc's Roth Conversion Thread in the forum.

This web site sells financial calculators for use in web sites. There's no description of how the results are calculated, use with caution.

Social Security

Social Security Administration

The Social Security Administration maintains several benefit calculators to estimate your potential benefit amounts using different retirement dates and levels of future earnings. In general,

  • If your entry for current earnings is greater than zero, it will be used to estimate annual future earnings.
  • All earnings are indexed to the national average wage index (AWI). Future earnings are indexed with estimated increases in the AWI. Earnings are indexed only to age 60 (two years prior to the first year of eligibility, 62); later earnings are used at face value. These increases are derived from the "intermediate" assumptions in the OASDI Trustees Report.
  • Although Social Security documentation suggests that future benefits are increased with estimated cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), the estimates from my Social Security, Retirement Estimator, and the default Detailed Calculator (AnyPIA) do not project benefit increases beyond the current year. AnyPIA does offer the following increased benefit options:
  1. Alternative I (optimistic) assumptions from the most recent OASDI Trustees Report.
  2. Alternative II (intermediate) assumptions from the Trustees Report.
  3. Alternative III (pessimistic) assumptions from the Trustees Report.
  4. No benefit increases after the last known increase (default).
  5. User-specified benefit increase for each projected year.
  • The closer you are to retirement, with a longer work history and fewer future changes, the more accurate your estimates will be.
Social Security Administration Benefit Calculators
Features Quick Calculator 1 Online Calculator 2 Retirement Estimator 3 Detailed Calculator
(AnyPIA) 4
Access online online online download
Past earnings estimated, but annual entries in past dollars optional; indexed earnings not shown annual entries in past dollars; indexed earnings not shown accesses actual Social Security record; indexed earnings not shown annual entries in past dollars; indexed earnings are shown
Future earnings average annual entry in today's dollars; indexed earnings not shown average annual entry in today's dollars; indexed earnings not shown multiple filing ages and average annual entries in today's dollars; indexed earnings not shown annual entries in today's dollars; indexed earnings are shown
Saved Cases no no no yes
Accuracy rough better better; recommended by Social Security best; recommended by Social Security
Survivor or disability estimate yes no no yes
Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) no WEP Version available no yes

Notes:
1 Estimates past earnings from current with a national average wage index, modified by a relative growth factor. Past earnings can be adjusted by changing the growth factor or editing the annual numbers, but you cannot project future earning changes.
2 Javascript must be enabled.
3 You must currently have enough credits to qualify for benefits. You cannot be currently receiving benefits on your own Social Security record, be waiting for a decision about your Social Security or Medicare application, or be 62 or older and receiving benefits on another Social Security record.
You can enter multiple ages to stop work with the "Add a New Estimate" button; future earnings will stop and benefits will start at that age. Benefit filing and stop-work ages cannot be entered separately, but future earnings can be entered as zero. If you enter a stop-work age of less than 62, benefits will be estimated starting at 62, the first year of eligibility. Examples of the new estimate input and output forms are shown below (click on the image for full size):

Retirement Estimator Input Form
Retirement Estimator 1.png
Retirement Estimator Output Form

Retirement Estimator 2.png

4 Runs on the following operating systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10 and Mac OS 10 (up to 10.6, but not later).

Other tools

AARP provides a free SS benefits calculator that focuses on how much monthly benefits will be received and how they compare to retirement expenses.

Financial Engines has a free calculator focuses on calculating the highest lifetime benefits under various life expectancies. Go to site and click on "For individuals" and "Retirement Readiness."

SSAnalyze! is a free Social Security benefit forecasting tool provided by Bedrock Capital that allows users to set many factors, including life expectancy, COLA and discount rates and factors in the impact of a government pension. Considered the best of the free calculators in a July 2014 Wall Street Journal article.

An analysis by SocSec Analytics, LLC determines the optimum age to claim Social Security benefits. It is not a replacement for retirement planning and only determines when the maximum benefit will be received. The user enters an email address and Social Security information into an online form. A comprehensive report is then emailed back to the user. A limited report is available for free; a fee is charged for the full report.

The spreadsheet model Retiree Portfolio Model includes a feature that compares two alternative SS benefit amounts and starting ages, including the ability to include the File and Suspend option for those still eligible, and determines the impact of the alternatives upon income, taxes and portfolio balances.

T. Rowe Price's free calculator doesn't allow the user to set life expectancies but allows the user to pick from seven goals to determine their optimum benefit.

Also see this Bogleheads forum topic: "Web/Online calculators: When to Collect Social Security?"

Stock/Fund charts

Tax returns

A Federal income tax spreadsheet calculator that will prepare the form 1040 and many of the supporting 1040 forms. The creator, Glenn Reeves, doesn't guarantee that they meet the formatting requirements of the IRS. He has been providing this model, updated yearly, since 1996.

Taxable-equivalent yields

If an investment is taxable, the yield is after taxes are paid (not before). Use these calculators to find the yield that's equivalent to a tax-exempt investment.

Treasury data