Is there a way I could set the software to include 2023 data for the full year (not just for the tax number)?

I get asked a lot about the first year,  it confuses people to see pro-rated amounts, and I would love to find a way to make it clearer. However I suppose I don’t really understand your question. What exactly would you like to see?

The full year amounts for expenses/incomes etc, you know what they are. You know how much you have earned and spent this year so far. The deposits/withdrawals to accounts have to be done from today because the balance we have is today’s. This is important because most of my users have their accounts/investments automatically updated with Fundata and/or Wealthica. Again, you know what withdrawals/deposits were already done this year. You know how your investments did. The TIME MACHINE projects in the future from today, it does not project back into the past as we assume you know the past already, and your knowledge would be most accurate.

Maybe you could clarify more on what exactly you are trying to achieve? If I can implement it without having to ask many additional questions from the user, I will consider it.

I also seem to miss having a full year's data for current year but do understand the benefit to clients whose investments are automatically updated to the date of a Time Machine run. 

I just have two questions on Time Machine output for the current year:

1. Figures are noted as prorated except for taxes. Are withrawals from investment accounts prorated or for the full year? (I am deciding how much to withdraw from RRIFs before Dec. 31.)

2. When I run Time Machine in March and then again in September, has the value of a dollar declined by inflation between the two dates? (That is, is the value of a dollar slightly different?)

Thanks to all!

1.  For a planned withdrawal from an account (entered in AUTOMATIC SAVINGS/WITHDRAWALS), just enter the amount you intend to withdraw specifying the same start and end date for the withdrawal on the date you are planning to do it. It won't be prorated that way. If the start and end dates are not the same, the amount is assumed to be an annual amount and will be prorated in any partial years covered between the two dates.

2. I'm not quite sure what you are asking. You set the inflation rate in RATES/YIELDS/CURRENCIES, the default rate is set to 2% (the long term target), but you can click Update on that rate and get the latest rate we obtain nightly from the Bank of Canada. You can set it up to change the rate to anything you like at any dates today and in the future. The results of your March run are not modified if you look at it again in September, it has used your assumed inflation rate at the time and the today's dollars results are for March dollars for that run. For many scenario entries we ask you for amounts in today's dollars, and a dollar is worth a dollar today. For amounts that start in the future, you can specify if you want that to be in today's dollars or future dollars when they start.  Future dollars are usually worth less today due to inflation. The TIME MACHINE uses your inflation rate(s) and will show you results in both future dollars and today's dollars.

Thank you for the speedy and helpful response! I appreciate knowing that I can schedule future RIF withdrawas into the Time Machine runs. On my original confusion, I think I can do a better job explaining what I am trying to do:

For my September run of Time Machine, I did not enter any withdrawals into MoneyReady.

I am trying to take advantage of the withdrawal optimizer in the Time Machine to tell me how much RIF income I should take this year (2023). So far, I have taken none. So if my Time Machine and WIthdrawal Optimizer run tells me to withdraw, say, $30,000 from RIF accounts this year, I wonder if $30,000 is the total recommedation from the Withdrawal Optimizer for 2023 or if $30,000 is only a partial number for 2023 becasue it is prorated to the September 2023 run date of the Time Machine. I hope this makes sense.

Thanks again.

Yes that make perfect sense. Unfortunately the Withdrawal Optimizer algorithm only works for full years after retirement, so for the current year there is no optimization (I'm working on it  but is not a trivial problem). The TIME MACHINE will always withdraw the minimum required from RIF accounts, which is why the app asks you for those accounts, your balance at the end of last year and how much you've already withdrawn this year, if any (you can enter that in the ACCOUNT's properties, you may need to click submit to see that on the next screen). 

To plan this year, you can set to have withdrawals in AUTOMATIC SAVINGS/WITHDRAWALS as I said before. If the amount is higher than what was already mandated to withdraw it will take that much more.  You will always see what has been withdrawn from today in the reports of the TIME MACHINE.

Couldn't you simply add a feature that allowed the calculation date to be January 1 of the current year? 

I can see that there would be some useful applications for this, such as testing: how much to withdraw from RSPs this year, when to sell stocks and trigger capital gains, or the ammount of dividends paid from CCPCs.

I've had the same question.  If the Time Machine run in July recommends withdrawing $20,000 from my RRIF, is it prorated for the last 6 months of the year?  Should I actually withdraw $40,000 for the full 12 months of this year.  I agree that it would be nice to have a non-prorated option for the current year where the full year of Time Machine results could be seen.  

For the current year, the amounts for deposits and withdrawals shown in the Time Machine are the amounts from today to the end of the year. The Time Machine starts from today, with today's account balances, thus deposits and withdrawals are shown from today to the end of the year. You don't need to adjust them. The Time Machine prorates your Incomes, Expenses, and any entered Automatic Savings/Withdrawals, since those are set for the entire year (with some exceptions, as you can set one-time lump-sums that are not prorated). It calculates public pensions (CPP/QPP/OAS/GIS) for the entire year, but shows you what is left to be received this current year. It calculates taxes for the full year given all your income, which is why we ask how much you've already paid in taxes this year before you run the Time Machine, so it can credit you. Then it tells you what needs to be deposited or withdrawn in the accounts for the rest of the year.

RRIFs and LIFS are special cases because there are mandated minimum withdrawals from those accounts. We must ask you for the last end of year balance and what has already been withdrawn year-to-date (you set that in the account's properties), because the Time Machine calculates the minimum withdrawal for you. It will tell you how much to withdraw at a minimum if you haven't already. To that, it will add any additional withdrawals, if any, to cover your expenses or additional automatic withdrawals you set up.

Believe me covering the first year of the Time Machine both easily and accurately is not a simple problem. First, we take pride in our accuracy. We use your current account balances and expect you to keep them updated, and if you wish at no extra cost to you, we automatically update them for you with market data or Wealthica. So we expect you to have the most accurate values for today, not Jan 1 values, which are quickly out of date. Future projections are hard enough, we need to start from a known accurate base. Second, we try to keep the app as simple as possible for you. We ask as little as possible and still be accurate, and useful as we show you the data you don't know, not what you already know. What happened Jan 1 to today, you already know, it's in the past. For the app to give it to you accurately, we would have to ask you for all that data, (all balances, deposits, withdrawals, actual growth/loss to date of investments, how much you've actually earned and spent),  which would be a great pain to enter and not that useful to you since you already know it. You can fill in the current year that has already past more accurately than we could estimate it if we were to "predict" the past. 

That said, I'm still working on finding a solution so that you can get a complete first year that is accurate, and not too painful to enter the data necessary to get that needed accuracy.

Thanks.  That answers my questions, very helpful.