Five short steps: your spending, your dependable income, the gap between them, what it takes to bridge that gap, and your Paycheck Stability Index™.
Your monthly spending is the foundation of everything that follows. Your savings isn't income yet, this is the paycheck it will need to produce. Put in one number, or break it down if that's easier.
Dependable income is money that arrives every month no matter what the market does: Social Security, pensions, and any guaranteed income you already have. Enter what you expect once retirement income begins.
Your spending, minus the income you can already count on. Whatever's left is your Retirement Paycheck Gap™, the monthly income your savings still needs to create.
A few details let us estimate the capital it would take to convert your gap into a dependable monthly paycheck you won't outlive. Continue to see your full results and your Paycheck Stability Index™.
Life expectancy is a planning age you can change. Your Paycheck Stability Index™ looks across your whole retirement, so a longer horizon means level income has more years to lose ground to inflation.
Prefer to talk it through now? Book your free Retirement Paycheck Review.
Enter your email and we'll unlock your full report below, including how your savings can create your paycheck, your Two Portfolio breakdown, and your personalized Paycheck Stability Index™.
Every point here comes straight from the amounts you entered.
The Two Portfolio Strategy™ splits your savings into two parts. One creates your dependable paycheck. The other keeps growing. Because the income you purchase stays level while prices keep climbing over a long retirement, the growing part is what helps your overall income keep pace with the cost of living over time.
Paycheck Stability IndexThink of your Paycheck Stability Index™ the way you think about a credit score. It is a single number, from 0 to 100, that sums up how much of your everyday retirement runs on dependable income you will not outlive, rather than on money that rises and falls with the market. The higher the number, the more of your life is carried by a paycheck instead of by market swings.
Many people save for decades and then find they cannot bring themselves to spend it, because watching a savings balance fall feels risky in a way a steady paycheck never does. Research for the Alliance for Lifetime Income by David Blanchett and Michael Finke found that retirees who hold more of their wealth as guaranteed lifetime income spend roughly twice as much as retirees with the same amount in ordinary savings. In their survey, most people said they would feel more comfortable spending on things like travel or dinners out if the money arrived as income for life rather than as an equivalent lump sum. That is what your Income Portfolio is for: it turns part of your savings into a dependable paycheck you feel free to actually use, which was the whole point of saving in the first place. Blanchett and Finke, "Guaranteed Income: A License to Spend," Alliance for Lifetime Income.
Running out of money is Americans' single biggest retirement fear. A 2026 study found that 67% of Americans worry more about running out of money than about death itself, and longevity is a big part of why. Averages hide how long retirement can last: the Actuaries Longevity Illustrator, built by the Society of Actuaries, shows a healthy 65-year-old couple has roughly a 50% chance that one of them lives to 95. Dependable income that keeps arriving for exactly as long as you live is the one thing that takes that fear off the table, because it cannot run out no matter how long you live. That is the job your Income Portfolio is built to do. Society of Actuaries; Allianz Life 2026 Annual Retirement Study.
It is not only how the markets do over your whole retirement that matters, it is the order in which the good and bad years arrive. William Bengen's landmark 1994 study, and more recent research from Morningstar, showed that a market drop in the first few years of retirement is far more damaging than the same drop later, because selling investments to pay the bills while prices are down locks in losses the portfolio may never fully recover from, even if returns are strong afterward. A dependable paycheck that already covers your essentials means you are not forced to sell in a bad year. That is the quiet power of pairing the two portfolios: the income floor lets your Growth Portfolio ride out a downturn instead of being drained at the worst possible time. Bengen (1994); Morningstar, "The State of Retirement Income."
Prices tend to rise over time. Inflation has averaged around 3% a year, and that adds up across a long retirement. That is part of why we keep some of your savings in your Growth Portfolio: to help make up any gap that opens between your dependable income and the rising cost of living over the years ahead. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Paycheck Stability Index
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Additional dependable income is estimated from up to 80% of your investable savings, at current payout rates.
Dependable income is money that arrives on a set schedule for as long as you live and does not depend on how the market performs, the way Social Security and a traditional pension do. This report estimates what it would take to create more of that kind of income from a portion of your savings, so more of your everyday life runs on a paycheck instead of on market swings.
This tool is educational, and it does not recommend or sell any product. The numbers here are illustrative estimates, not a quote. We believe in leading with education, which is why everything in this report, along with the articles and tools across this site, is free for you to use to understand your choices and compare your options on your own terms. There are several ways to create lifetime income, each with tradeoffs, and which one fits depends on your full picture. A Retirement Paycheck Review is simply a chance to look at your specific situation, with no obligation to act.
That is exactly why we never suggest putting everything toward income. Under the Two Portfolio Strategy™, at most about 80% of your investable savings would go toward creating dependable income, and the rest stays invested and accessible for emergencies, opportunities, and the flexibility to change course. Finding the right balance for you is one of the things a Review is designed to work through.
That depends on how the income is set up, and there are options that continue income to a spouse or leave a remaining balance to your heirs. Because this is where your personal wishes matter most, it is one of the specific things a Retirement Paycheck Review is designed to walk through with you.
It is a no-cost, no-obligation conversation with a licensed professional who looks at your complete picture and shows you what is actually available to you today. There is no pressure to act. The goal is clarity, whether or not you decide to do anything afterward.
This is an educational tool, not a quote, recommendation, or guarantee, and not investment, tax, or insurance advice. Every figure is a hypothetical estimate based on the amounts you entered and current payout rates, rounded down.
Your Paycheck Stability Index™ is measured across a retirement horizon that runs from the year your income begins through the life expectancy you entered, assuming 3% annual inflation, Social Security that rises with inflation, and all other dependable income held level. At most 80% of your investable savings is dedicated to creating dependable income, and the remainder is assumed to stay invested. Joint scenarios use the younger spouse's age and plan through the last surviving spouse.
A free, no-pressure conversation. We'll confirm your real Paycheck Gap™ and Paycheck Stability Index™ (PSI™), and walk through the options for turning your savings into dependable monthly income. Education first. Always.
Available in select states today, with more added regularly. We'll confirm availability for your area when you book.
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