Retirement Calculator
Retirement Readiness Scorecard: What It Calculates and How to Read the Result
Quick answer
A retirement readiness scorecard surfaces the gaps in your plan across savings adequacy, tax coordination, income strategy, healthcare planning, and estate structure, and prioritizes what to fix first. Most pre-retirees discover they have meaningful gaps in 2–3 of the categories, even when the overall savings number looks adequate.
Retirement Readiness Scorecard
- High blind-spot score (overall <60).
- Small assumption changes can materially change outcomes.
- A coordinated plan can reduce risk and improve efficiency.
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Educational tool only. Results are simplified estimates and not financial, tax, or legal advice. Consider taxes (including your projected federal marginal bracket), sequence risk, healthcare costs, and personal circumstances. Weights: Savings 35%, Income 25%, Tax 25%, Legacy 15%.
Scoring notes: Funding success proxy uses simple annual projection with post-ret return – inflation – 1% safety built into weights; guaranteed coverage ratio emphasizes SS/Pension/Annuity; tax friction uses pre-tax share, projected federal marginal bracket, RMD peak, and headroom to the next bracket; legacy reflects documents & hygiene.
What This Calculator Actually Answers
This scorecard scores your retirement plan across multiple dimensions: savings adequacy (do you have enough), tax structure (is the mix of pre-tax, Roth, and taxable balanced for tax-efficient withdrawals), income strategy (do you have a sequencing plan), healthcare coverage (have you thought through Medicare, IRMAA, and LTC), and estate alignment (are beneficiary designations and trust funding current). The output is not just a number: it's a prioritized list of which gaps to address first.
The framing matters. A score of 70 isn't 'failing': it's 'three meaningful gaps with concrete actions to fix them.' The point of the scorecard is to focus attention, not to provide false reassurance or alarm.
How to Read the Result
Read the category breakdowns, not just the headline score. A household with adequate savings but no Roth conversion strategy, no IRMAA awareness, and outdated beneficiary forms scores in the high 60s, which is technically 'on track' but actually has six-figure leverage available. Conversely, a household with weak savings but excellent coordination across the rest scores in the low 70s with the most important fix being undeniable: keep working or cut spending.
The highest-priority gaps are usually structural: missing tax diversification across account types, outdated beneficiary designations, or no plan for the pre-Medicare healthcare window. These are fixable but require deliberate decisions over the next 1–3 years.
Common Mistakes
- Focusing on the score rather than the gaps. The score is a summary; the gaps are the actionable output.
- Treating a high score as proof everything is fine. Even a 90 has 10 points worth of fixable gaps, which at $1.5M+ in assets can be six figures of value.
- Skipping the estate-planning category because 'I have a will.' A will from 2008 with outdated beneficiary forms is not estate planning.
- Ignoring the healthcare planning section because you're under 65. The pre-Medicare years are when healthcare planning has the most tax-coordination leverage.
- Treating the score as deterministic. A retirement plan is a moving target; the score is a snapshot, not a forecast.
When This Calculator Is Not the Right Tool
This scorecard is a diagnostic, not a plan. Once you've identified your top 2–3 gaps, you need the dedicated tools to actually close them: the Roth Conversion Bracket Analyzer for tax structure, the Tax-Efficient Withdrawal calculator for sequencing, the Healthcare Decision Tool for Medicare and IRMAA. The scorecard tells you where to focus; the other tools build the actual strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What score should I be aiming for?
There is no magic number. A score above 80 usually means the plan is structurally sound with minor refinements. A score in the 60s means there are meaningful gaps but no fundamental disaster. A score below 60 means the plan needs work in multiple categories before retirement.
How often should I re-run this?
Annually is appropriate for most pre-retirees and early retirees. Major life events, such as retirement itself, a spouse's death, a large income event, or a significant tax law change, warrant an additional check.
Why does the scorecard ask about beneficiary designations?
Because beneficiary designations on retirement accounts supersede the will. A household with a perfect will but outdated 401(k) beneficiary forms can produce results dramatically inconsistent with their estate intent. The category exists because this is one of the most common gaps and one of the cheapest to fix.
Does the score account for Social Security?
Yes. Social Security claiming strategy is part of the income-strategy category. A household with a deliberate claiming plan that protects the surviving spouse scores meaningfully higher than one that defaults to age 62 claiming without analysis.