I fixed the issue where "Percentage of account my_name contributed to" when set to zero wouldn't stick and revert back to 50%. Thanks for alerting me to it.

To keep with CRA attribution rules, any taxes due on a Joint account are attributed to each spouse according to their percentage of contributions. Since it's Joint, the TIME MACHINE allows either spouse to contribute to it. It then updates the percentage contributed anytime a deposit to the account is made.

So for the scenario you are describing, where the Joint accounts are not really Joint, you'd have to set it up in a way to make sure the TM does not need you to contribute to "her" account, and for her to not need to contribute to "your" account. That way the proportion contributed by each spouse would not change if you each only contribute to your own accounts. I realise that is not easy to do given the way Joint accounts are treated in your Priorities table. The Optimizer may also do its own thing to optimize. So I would have to set up something special for you, like a separate account type: "Joint (but not really)" 😉. I'll think about it.

In the meantime, I suggest you just set them up as not Joint and know your probate fees won't be quite as high as shown. You can set up a non-taxable income for the last day of the year the first spouse dies to make up for the probate if needed.

You are right. I am aware of it of course, but surprisingly haven't included it yet. I think that is because I find that puny amount to be offensively low. It has not been changed for years, and it doesn't appear it will be indexed any time soon.

Now you ask, I will add it. Will post here again when it is done.

The account rebalancing procedure used by our rebalancing tool and the TIME MACHINE now considers risk-adjusted expected returns rather than simply expected returns.

For that to work optimally, you need to have entered risk values for all your investments. To make that easy, we expanded the 'Change the expected rates of return for all investments by their asset classes'  feature again. We've added a checkbox that when checked will also automatically set the risk value for each investment. If we can calculate the 3-year volatility for the investment from the FUNData market data for that investment, the risk measure on our scale of 1 to 20 will be used. If not, an approximate risk measure based on the investment's asset classes will be set.

The risk measure will also be set automatically when you enter new investments either manually or when first imported from Wealthica.

Hi and Welcome. I'm glad you are enjoying trying out all of the tools. You must have run the Choose Your Legacy tool to create a Legacy cash flow. That tool tells you how much to increase or decrease your spending and in what time frames so that you can leave the legacy amount you choose. It will save those suggestions as entries in your EXPENSEs table if you ask it to, with names like Legacy_1 and Legacy_2. The entries will show positive amounts when you need to increase spending but negative when you need to decrease spending. Negative expenses act as income when you subsequently run a TIME MACHINE or the Withdrawal Optimizer and will show up as such in the cash-flow reports. You would probably want to reduce the amount for other positive expenses and delete the negative ones, but we can't know what expenses you can reduce, so we can't do it for you.

I like to start the year by reflecting on the one past, and 2023 was absolutely fantastic for the MoneyReady App by every metric we have: traffic, registrations, subscriptions, and renewals. It's all from word of mouth, we didn't do any advertising.

I want to thank all of you who have supported the app not only with your paid subscriptions that keep the lights on, but also your referrals, and your feedback. I always find your feedback very useful so thank you for taking the time to reach out through the Forum or the Contact page.
I am continually improving the app and adding features and I want to particularly thank the people who have asked for features directly, or simply through their questions, feedback, and interesting discussions, that inspired me to write new or to improve features. 

Here is the list of new features and enhancements we announced last year with the Money Ready Forum usernames of the people I particularly want to thank.

January 2023:

• 100 Monte-Carlo simulations. (understandingTermite8)
• If you have started or applied for U.S. Social Security benefits. (forcefulFerret1)
• Foreign currencies for REVENUES, INCOMES, EXPENSES, and AUTOMATIC SAVINGS/WITHDRAWALS. (enlightenedSyrup4, forcefulFerret1)
• A model for the USD/CAD exchange rate was added to the Market simulations. (forcefulFerret1)

March 2023:

•  The MoneyReady Forum. (SheltieLover)
•  Accurate GIS calculations when reduced OAS eligibility. (enchantedTermite7)

April 2023:

• Implementation of changes to the QPP starting in 2024. 
• Ability to take CPP in Québec and QPP outside of Québec. (niceBumblebeeburritos8)
• EXPENSE Types, Subtypes, and Subtotals. (forcefulFerret1)

May 2023:

• CPP/QPP and OAS start age including months.
• Added a multiplier option to inflation for indexing. (immenseMuesli9)

June 2023:

•  OpenAI searching of all MoneyReady documentation. (WanderingMonkey)
•  Repeating EXPENSEs date picker. (brilliantChile0, forcefulFerret1)

October 2023:

• We’ve added support for Family RESPs and now allow multiple Individual RESPs for the same beneficiary. (communicativeTuna7)
• New Cash-flow Sankey diagrams in the year reports. (gregariousDotterel1)

November 2023:

• Notification emails from the MoneyReady Forum. (SheltieLover)
• ChatTVM: use AI for solving Time Value of Money problems.

December 2023:

• Rates for Short-term and Long-term financial planning. (sincereFish9)

If you use and like any of these features, I wanted to give all the credit to the users named.

Behind the scenes were many more enhancements. We have also greatly improved the site's speed, stability, and accuracy by adding server capacity, extensive testing capabilities, and more automated error checks and warnings. But still, along with all this new code in an extensive app as this one, it is inevitable for a bug to sometimes creep into production, and you can blame me entirely for those. 

So I also want to give a special thanks to all of you who have graciously reported anomalies you saw or asked for clarification. This greatly helped me find the bug if there was one or to clarify the app and its documentation to eliminate confusion. Many of you are already in the list above since the power users that use the app extensively and push it to its limits, are also the most likely to both see anomalies and to make suggestions. Additional thanks to sympatheticRaisins4, impartialLollies5, astronomicalToucan8,  stupendousSausage4, marvelousJerky8, incredibleBustard8, likableToucan0, decisiveGuppyhare3, courteousEggs8, fearlessRaisins5, enchantedTortoise1, focusedGranola0, lushEnzymeeukaryotefalcon1, adventurousBittern9, proficientLlama0, dependableTermite1, bustlingEnzymeeukaryotefalcon6, mountainousCheetah8. I thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Together, we are making the MoneyReady App the smartest financial planning app for you and all Canadians.

Onward to 2024! I wish everyone a happy and prosperous year.

Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
President of MoneyReady

Sorry, but you'll have to do your own research on that. If any users have any information that would be helpful feel free to post it here.

For those who may be wondering what you are talking about, that is the paper I used to derive the MoneyReadyApp's Withdrawal Optimizer.

It's hard to answer your question as the MoneyReady App is also by far the most transparent financial planning software in terms of describing its algorithms and methodology publicly and in fair detail.

sincereFish, you have inspired me with this discussion! See the Announcement:

https://www.moneyreadyapp.ca/forum/topic/270-rates-for-short-term-and-long-term-financial-planning

Thank you!

Today I'm happy to announce changes in the RATES/YIELDS/CURRENCIES section. 
These mostly apply to advanced users who enter and follow their individual investments.

1. Setting default expected rates of return by asset classes.
    If you've used this feature before you'll notice we have expanded the asset classes considered. 
    The rates entered will now be used to automatically set expected rates of return when investments are first entered, or first imported from Wealthica.
    The defaults have been set to the FP Canada long-term recommendations but you can change those defaults and save them.
    You can use them to change the default rates for all your investments at once at any time. You can now also opt-out any investment you never want changed by this feature.
    
2. Setting Long-Term future expected rates of return. 
    This allows you to set the TIME MACHINE to switch to long-term rates of return by asset class starting a given number of years in the future for all your investments.
    This is an important new feature that permits simultaneous short-term and long-term financial planning.
    It allows you to plan for shorter-term goals like buying a house, in conjunction with longer-term goals like retirement (or a later stage in retirement). 
    
    Many of my users are investors who follow their investments closely, including short-term investments with much higher or lower rates of return than the FP Canada™ projected long-term rates.
    They want the rates to reflect their own expected returns for the short term, and see those reflected in the short-term projections. 
    However, by allowing long-term projected rates to start from a later date, we can also obtain a reasonable long-term financial plan.  

3. The Withdrawal Optimizer now allows changes in future rates. 
    The motivation to implement varying rates in the Withdrawal Optimizer came about because of the new feature to automatically switch to long-term rates in the TIME MACHINE. 
    You can now optimize any TIME MACHINE run that uses that feature, anywhere you have set future rates manually in the Rates table, 
    and it even runs with market-crash scenarios and market simulations (although the usefulness of this on such simulations is doubtful).

Please see the expanded RATES/YIELDS/CURRENCIES section (7.1) of the eBook for details. Let me know if you have questions.

Happy holidays everyone!

The Withdrawal Optimizer algorithm finds the optimal withdrawal strategy in retirement that maximizes your legacy. The way it works cannot handle limits put on it as you suggest. Using the TFSA as an emergency fund is a fine strategy. I would not recommend deleting your TFSA account for the Optimizer, as that makes your scenario completely wrong. The Optimizer gives you an optimum strategy, but you don't have to follow it in real life, it's just an indication that you could do better. It actually tells you how much better, so is it significant? If it makes a large difference, then it's worthwhile to look in more detail at what it's doing to learn from it, and you can probably improve your set withdrawal strategy for regular TIME MACHINE runs. If it's not significant, then don't worry about it, do what you were going to do as you told the TIME MACHINE.

Hi,

Yes, I did write that, and always meant for any of the 'Other income' types not to be earned income. Not sure if it wasn't set right from the start or if it changed along the way, that should be fixed now.  Enter it as Other Income, selecting Income for its tax treatment. It will be treated as taxable but not earned and will not add to your RRSP room. Thanks.

Hi,

A regular TIME MACHINE run follows your orders as you set them up with your PRIORITIES and AUTOMATIC SAVINGS/WITHDRAWALS.

However, the WITHDRAWAL OPTIMIZER runs ignores those orders. It does what it needs to maximize your legacy. There is no way to restrict it to give you a sub-optimal solution.

Thanks

Welcome! You can set contributions to accounts in the AUTOMATIC SAVINGS and WITHDRAWALS Tab. Select the account you want to deposit to. Then who will be making the deposit, if it's your employer, select "OTHER". For a one-time contribution, set the Start date to the same date as the End date. You can select those two dates to be linked to your retirement date, and if you later change it in your PROFILE to explore a different scenario, the deposit date will be changed automatically. Then enter the amount you expect to receive. The TIME MACHINE will make the deposit on the date requested, up to the contribution limits (for the type of account) it calculates for you at the time. There's a Help for this page where you can read all the details on entering AUTOMATIC SAVINGS and WITHDRAWALS.

Traditionally, financial planning software does not consider individual investments, only accounts with portfolios that the planner sets to a certain asset allocation (say 60% stocks/ 40% bonds). Often multiple accounts of the same taxable type are also lumped together as one. The exact portfolio allocation set for those accounts is based on the advisor's perceived risk for the different asset classes (which is presumed to be proportional to their expected return), to match their perceived risk tolerance of the client (usually based on age and other factors). You can use the MoneyReady App that way too.

Yes it's quite versatile. Usually, people import their accounts from Wealthica, the asset allocation of the investments is automatically set with information from Funddata at that point. Then they set the expected longer-term rates of return with the "Change all investment rates of return at once" button if there are many investments to go through and then adjust individual investments if they want. Those rates are used in the TIME MACHINE and our own rebalancing tool.

I have been thinking on how to make this even easier and versatile. The first would be to ask for the long-term expected rates before you link Wealthica the first time, save those rates, and use that to set the rates on the first import (and subsequent imports if new investments). A second enhancement would be to add more asset classes for the rates, particularly to consider geography in the "Change all investment rates of return at once" button. I'm surprised that hasn't been requested yet.

Coming up with individual long term expected returns (Capital appreciation growth rate) for each individual holding is virtually impossible.

Yet advisors do it all the time :).  Use their guidelines https://www.moneyreadyapp.ca/forum/topic/128-2023-projection-assumption-guidelines or your own judgement.

The same is true for the dividend yields. They can change too in the unpredictable ways of the market. If you want a stock to have a specific dividend yield, just enter it. The tool to set all rates at once is just used when you use it to set the rates, you can then modify exceptions as needed. Realise the rates set are for all time going forward in the TIME MACHINE unless you change them for future dates in RATES/YIELDS/CURRENCIES.

Yes, we can certainly use Wealthica to update your investment values. But those updates do not affect the expected rates of return you entered for those investments. Wealthica does not provide us with rates for dividends or other distributions. We have distribution information for tickers from Funddata, so we show you those where appropriate so you can use that information to guide you. However, we do not assume past rates of return will apply in the future, and we want you to enter your long-term expected rates yourself.

The MoneyReady App bridges the gap between short-term portfolio management and long-term financial planning by allowing you to manage your current portfolio while realising that your current portfolio will probably change in the future. The TIME MACHINE projections use the rates set for your current investments assuming they will be replaced with similar investments. So think long term for the rates you set.

Yes, easy and flexible is what we aim for. Thanks.

On a 100% fixed-income investment, it will apply that global expected yield you enter for fixed-income in the income yield for that investment. It will override your entries. If you don't want the globals you set applied to some specific investments, you can still change the yields for any investment you choose and set them to what you want afterwards.

Setting up Portfolios instead of detailing every investment is fine. That's why we have that capability. Entering investments with Wealthica is a convenience we offer for ease of entry, and as it allows you to keep the values of your investments and accounts always updated. If you're not a Wealthica user, you can also enter them manually with a stock or mutual-fund ticker and we'll use Funddata market data to keep them updated and track distributions (you just have to update any trades you make). Although we show you the past year performance in the tool-tip, that is just for your information, and I don't recommend using short-term returns for the long-term of the TIME MACHINE.

We do allow you to set individual expected rates of return for every investment. You can even change them to apply different rates in the future. This is for maximum flexibility.

But you can set all your expected rates of return at once which makes it very fast and easy. There's a button to "Change all investment rates of return at once" below your table of ACCOUNTS. Click on that and you can set your expected yields for capital gains, dividends, fixed-income and cash. The tool will consider the asset-allocation of every investment in every account to determine its rates of return for you. For investments with a stock or mutual fund ticker (entered with Wealthica or Funddata), we know the asset allocation from the Funddata market data and use that default unless you've changed it. For a portfolio investment, you will have entered its asset allocation