Hello everyone,

Today I’m excited to introduce the MoneyReady Year Check-in, created in response to years of requests for a complete first-year report.

A financial projection created in September should not pretend that September 1 was January 1.

The MoneyReady App TIME MACHINE normally begins on the day it is run. This anchors every projection in the most reliable starting point available: what you own, what you owe and the financial plan in place today.

Its primary purpose is to project forward from today, rather than reconstruct the part of the year that has already happened. Consequently, the current calendar year in a regular TIME MACHINE report is necessarily partial.

Many simpler calculators produce a complete first year by treating today as though it were January 1, or by moving the tax year-end to 12 months from today. That approach is simple and requires no additional information.
The resulting report may look complete, but it does not describe the actual calendar tax year. It is therefore of limited use, particularly for current-year financial and tax planning.

The MoneyReady Year Check-in takes a different, reality-based approach. It provides the most accurate full-year picture possible from the information available for current-year financial and tax planning.

It divides the current year into two clearly identified periods:

• • Year-to-date (YTD): January 1 through today.
  • Rest of the year: Today through December 31.

The elapsed portion is initially estimated using the income, expenses, taxes and other information already in the plan. 
These estimates provide a useful starting point, but information about what actually took place will normally be more accurate. 
Known year-to-date amounts can therefore be entered to improve the report.

The remainder comes from the normal TIME MACHINE projection. The two periods are then combined to produce a full-year report.

Are you on track?

The central result is a comparison between the plan and what appears to have happened. Based on planned income, expenses and taxes, the Check-in calculates the household’s expected net account and debt activity by today. In other words, did the plan expect money to be contributed to accounts and used to repay debt, or did it expect withdrawals and borrowing to help fund spending? It then compares that result with the account and loan activity entered in the Check-in.

For example: The elapsed-year plan expected a net $12,000 to be directed toward accounts and debt. Entered account and loan activity shows $10,000, a $2,000 difference. That difference does not automatically identify its cause. It could reflect spending that differed from the plan, unexpected income, investment activity, transfers, missing information or some combination of these. It does, however, provide something valuable: a practical indication of whether the plan and the year that is actually unfolding still resemble each other.

How much information is required?

The Year Check-in is optional, and it can initially be viewed without entering any additional information. The first result estimates what it reasonably can from the existing plan and shows which values could be improved.

You do not need to enter every transaction. The form asks for summary balances and year-to-date totals.
For a more complete comparison, you can provide:

• • account balances at the end of last year;
  • account-owner contributions and withdrawals so far this year;
  • loan balances at the end of last year;
  • additional amounts borrowed and loan payments made so far this year
  • taxes paid or withheld;
  • any RRSP deductions to be claimed for the year;
  • taxable investment income and realized capital gains or losses.

Blank values remain unknown or are reasonably estimated where possible. The report can therefore be improved gradually, without reconstructing every transaction before seeing any results. You can then update entries throughout the year.

The historical account and loan information is used for the Check-in reports. It does not replace the current balances recorded in the plan. 
Tax-related information, such as taxable RRSP withdrawals and the RRSP deduction claimed, can affect the current-year tax calculation.

Help from Wealthica

If accounts or loans are linked to Wealthica, available historical balances and transactions may be used to prefill some Check-in values.
The amount of usable history varies by financial institution and by when an account was connected. Wealthica may provide year-to-date transactions without a previous year-end balance, and some deposits, withdrawals, transfers or distributions may not be identifiable with certainty.
Values obtained through Wealthica should therefore be reviewed. They can reduce the work required, but they may not provide a complete Check-in on their own.

Understanding what happened inside the accounts

For accounts with complete information, the Check-in performs the following reconciliation:

Previous year-end balance  +  account owner deposits −  withdrawals + implied growth or other activity = current balance

Implied growth or other activity can thus be estimated. It is deliberately broader than investment return, as it may also include employer or government contributions, contributions made by someone else, fees, transfers, currency movements and differences in the information entered.
The report does not claim to know more than the available data supports. Instead, it makes the unexplained portion visible.

What happens next?

A useful annual review should not stop at today.
After presenting the elapsed-year results, the Check-in shows the TIME MACHINE plan for the rest of the year, including planned account deposits, withdrawals, borrowing and loan payments.
It then combines both periods into a full-year report containing:
- full-year income, expenses and taxes;
- account and loan reconciliations;
- projected December 31 balances; and
- cash-flow diagrams showing where money came from and where it went.

The Year Check-in is therefore both a review and a planning tool. It asks two connected questions:

How has the year gone so far?

Given the situation today, what does the plan call for next?

How to access the Year Check-in

Paid subscribers can launch the Year Check-in directly from the Run TIME MACHINE page.

During the free trial, a regular TIME MACHINE run comes first so that the plan from today onward and its standard reports can be explored before adding the optional and more advanced elapsed-year analysis. The Year Check-in then becomes available for that plan at no cost.

A more honest complete first year

The Year Check-in does not rewrite history or assume that today is January 1. Nor does it require perfect records before it can be useful.
It starts with what the MoneyReady App already knows, estimates what it reasonably can, and improves as more information is supplied.
The result is a complete framework for the current calendar year that remains anchored to today’s real financial position—and a clearer answer to the questions that matter most:

Am I still on track this year, and what should happen between now and the end of the year?

Bonjour à toutes et à tous,

Aujourd’hui, j’ai le grand plaisir de vous annoncer une nouvelle fonctionnalité de l’application MoneyReady. Elle a été créée en réponse aux nombreuses demandes reçues au fil des ans pour obtenir un rapport complet pour la première année.

Une projection financière créée en septembre ne devrait pas faire comme si le 1er septembre était le 1er janvier.

La TIME MACHINE de l’application MoneyReady commence normalement le jour où elle est exécutée. Ainsi, chaque projection repose sur le point de départ le plus fiable disponible : ce que vous possédez, ce que vous devez et le plan financier en vigueur aujourd’hui.

Sa fonction première est de faire des projections à partir d’aujourd’hui, plutôt que de reconstituer la partie de l’année qui s’est déjà écoulée. Par conséquent, l’année civile en cours est nécessairement partielle dans un rapport TIME MACHINE ordinaire.

De nombreux calculateurs plus simples présentent une première année complète en faisant comme si aujourd’hui était le 1er janvier, ou en reportant la fin de l’année d’imposition à douze mois à compter d’aujourd’hui. Cette méthode est simple et ne nécessite aucun renseignement supplémentaire.

Le rapport obtenu peut sembler complet, mais il ne décrit pas l’année civile réelle. Son utilité est donc limitée, particulièrement pour la planification financière et fiscale de l’année en cours.

Le bilan de l’année MoneyReady adopte une approche différente, fondée sur la réalité. Il fournit le portrait annuel le plus exact possible à partir des renseignements disponibles pour la planification financière et fiscale de l’année en cours.

Il divise l’année en deux périodes clairement identifiées :

• • Depuis le début de l’année (YTD) : du 1er janvier à aujourd’hui.
  • Reste de l’année : d’aujourd’hui au 31 décembre.

La période écoulée est d’abord estimée à partir des revenus, des dépenses, des impôts et des autres renseignements déjà contenus dans le plan. Ces estimations constituent un point de départ utile, mais les renseignements sur ce qui s’est réellement produit seront normalement plus exacts. Les montants connus depuis le début de l’année peuvent donc être saisis afin d’améliorer le rapport.

La période restante provient de la projection normale de la TIME MACHINE. Les deux périodes sont ensuite réunies pour produire un rapport pour l’année complète.

Êtes-vous sur la bonne voie ?

Le principal résultat compare le plan avec ce qui semble s’être réellement produit.

À partir des revenus, des dépenses et des impôts prévus, le bilan calcule l’activité nette attendue des comptes et des dettes du ménage jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Autrement dit, le plan prévoyait-il que des sommes seraient versées dans les comptes et serviraient à rembourser les dettes, ou prévoyait-il plutôt des retraits et de nouveaux emprunts pour financer les dépenses ?

Il compare ensuite ce résultat avec l’activité des comptes et des prêts saisie dans le bilan.

Par exemple : le plan pour la période écoulée prévoyait qu’un montant net de 12 000 $ serait affecté aux comptes et aux dettes. L’activité saisie des comptes et des prêts indique 10 000 $, soit un écart de 2 000 $.

Cet écart n’en indique pas automatiquement la cause. Il peut refléter des dépenses différentes de celles prévues, un revenu imprévu, des activités de placement, des transferts, des renseignements manquants ou une combinaison de ces facteurs.

Il fournit néanmoins quelque chose de précieux : une indication pratique permettant de déterminer si le plan et l’année telle qu’elle se déroule réellement se ressemblent encore.

Quelle quantité de renseignements faut-il fournir ?

Le bilan de l’année est facultatif et peut d’abord être consulté sans saisir de renseignements supplémentaires. Le premier résultat estime raisonnablement ce qu’il peut à partir du plan existant et indique les valeurs qui pourraient être améliorées.

Il n’est pas nécessaire de saisir chaque opération. Le formulaire demande plutôt des soldes sommaires et des totaux depuis le début de l’année.

Pour obtenir une comparaison plus complète, vous pouvez fournir :

• • les soldes des comptes à la fin de l’année précédente ;
  • les cotisations du propriétaire du compte et les retraits effectués depuis le début de l’année ;
  • les soldes des prêts à la fin de l’année précédente ;
  • les sommes additionnelles empruntées et les paiements de prêts effectués depuis le début de l’année ;
  • les impôts payés ou retenus à la source ;
  • les déductions REER qui seront demandées pour l’année ;
  • les revenus de placement imposables ainsi que les gains ou pertes en capital réalisés.

Les valeurs laissées vides demeurent inconnues ou sont raisonnablement estimées lorsque c’est possible. Le rapport peut donc être amélioré progressivement, sans devoir reconstituer chaque opération avant de voir les premiers résultats. Les renseignements peuvent ensuite être mis à jour tout au long de l’année.

Les renseignements historiques sur les comptes et les prêts servent aux rapports du bilan. Ils ne remplacent pas les soldes actuels enregistrés dans le plan.

Les renseignements fiscaux, comme les retraits imposables d’un REER et la déduction REER demandée, peuvent modifier le calcul de l’impôt pour l’année en cours.

Aide de Wealthica

Si des comptes ou des prêts sont liés à Wealthica, les soldes historiques et les opérations disponibles peuvent servir à préremplir certaines valeurs du bilan.

La quantité de données historiques utilisables varie selon l’institution financière et le moment où un compte a été lié. Wealthica peut fournir les opérations depuis le début de l’année sans fournir le solde à la fin de l’année précédente. Certains dépôts, retraits, transferts ou distributions peuvent également ne pas être identifiables avec certitude.

Les valeurs obtenues de Wealthica doivent donc être vérifiées. Elles peuvent réduire le travail nécessaire, mais elles ne fourniront pas toujours un bilan complet à elles seules.

Comprendre ce qui s’est produit dans les comptes

Pour les comptes dont les renseignements sont complets, le bilan effectue le rapprochement suivant :

Solde à la fin de l’année précédente + cotisations du propriétaire du compte − retraits + croissance implicite ou autres activités = solde actuel

La croissance implicite ou les autres activités peuvent ainsi être estimées. Cette catégorie est délibérément plus large que le rendement des placements. Elle peut également comprendre les cotisations d’un employeur, d’un gouvernement ou d’une autre personne, les frais, les transferts, les fluctuations de change et les écarts dans les renseignements saisis.

Le rapport ne prétend pas en savoir plus que ce que permettent les données disponibles. Il rend plutôt visible la partie qui demeure inexpliquée.

Et ensuite ?

Un examen annuel utile ne devrait pas s’arrêter à aujourd’hui.

Après avoir présenté les résultats de la période écoulée, le bilan montre le plan de la TIME MACHINE pour le reste de l’année, y compris les dépôts et retraits prévus dans les comptes, les nouveaux emprunts et les paiements de prêts.

Il réunit ensuite les deux périodes dans un rapport pour l’année complète comprenant :

• • les revenus, les dépenses et les impôts pour l’année complète ;
  • le rapprochement des comptes et des prêts ;
  • les soldes projetés au 31 décembre ;
  • des diagrammes de flux de trésorerie montrant la provenance et l’utilisation de l’argent.

Le bilan de l’année est donc à la fois un outil d’examen et de planification. Il pose deux questions liées :

• • Comment l’année s’est-elle déroulée jusqu’ici ?
  • Compte tenu de la situation actuelle, que prévoit le plan pour la suite ?

Comment accéder au bilan de l’année

Les abonnés payants peuvent lancer le bilan de l’année directement à partir de la page Exécuter la TIME MACHINE.

Pendant l’essai gratuit, une exécution régulière de la TIME MACHINE vient d’abord. Cela permet d’explorer le plan à partir d’aujourd’hui et ses rapports standards avant d’ajouter l’analyse plus avancée de la période écoulée. Le bilan de l’année devient ensuite accessible sans frais pour ce plan.

Une première année complète qui respecte davantage la réalité

Le bilan de l’année ne réécrit pas l’histoire et ne suppose pas qu’aujourd’hui est le 1er janvier. Il n’exige pas non plus des dossiers parfaits avant de pouvoir être utile.

Il commence avec ce que l’application MoneyReady connaît déjà, estime raisonnablement ce qu’elle peut et s’améliore à mesure que des renseignements supplémentaires sont fournis.

Le résultat est un cadre complet pour l’année civile en cours qui demeure ancré dans la situation financière réelle d’aujourd’hui — ainsi qu’une réponse plus claire aux questions les plus importantes :

Suis-je toujours sur la bonne voie cette année, et que devrait-il se passer d’ici la fin de l’année ?

Hi everyone,

This update is mostly about making existing plans easier to review and maintain. It should save a lot of clicking—and reduce the chance of missing important information.

Review and edit all your accounts

There is now an Edit All Accounts page where your accounts are displayed as cards with their relevant properties.

You can filter the page to show:

• All accounts
• Newly imported Wealthica accounts that still need review
• Accounts that commonly need yearly updates, such as RRIFs, LIFs, RESPs, RDSPs and IRAs

This should be particularly helpful after importing several accounts from Wealthica. You can review ownership, beneficiaries and other required information without repeatedly moving through separate forms.

More complicated accounts, such as RESPs and RDSPs, still link to their full editors when additional information or contribution history is required.

One-page account and income editing

When adding a new account or income, the MoneyReady App will continue to guide you through the necessary forms one step at a time.

Once an entry exists, however, you generally already know what type it is. Editing an existing account or income will now show both the common information and the fields specific to its type together on one page.

This is especially useful for defined-benefit pensions, annuities, rental income and retirement accounts, where information was previously spread over multiple screens.

Better handling of older plans or restored saved TIME MACHINE scenarios

Dates that were in the future when a plan was created may eventually pass. We have added more checks and clearer guidance for situations such as:

• A planned RRSP, DCPP or LIRA conversion age that has passed
• A planned annuity purchase date that has passed
• A planned property purchase associated with an FHSA that is now in the past
• Investment maturity dates that require review
• Older entries containing incompatible start and end dates

Where possible, the MoneyReady App repairs harmless older data automatically. When your input is needed, it will identify the affected entry and direct you to the appropriate page. Additional safeguards prevent questionable stale entries from causing inappropriate transactions in the TIME MACHINE.

If you have not reviewed your plan recently, this is a good time to visit ACCOUNTS and INCOMES before running your next TIME MACHINE.

As always, your questions, suggestions and reports of anything confusing are very welcome.

Elisabeth

Bonjour à tous,

Cette mise à jour vise surtout à faciliter la révision et la mise à jour des plans existants. Elle devrait vous éviter beaucoup de clics et réduire le risque d’oublier des renseignements importants.

Réviser et modifier tous vos comptes

Une nouvelle page Modifier tous les comptes présente vos comptes sous forme de fiches avec leurs propriétés pertinentes.

Vous pouvez filtrer la page pour afficher :

• Tous les comptes
• Les comptes nouvellement importés de Wealthica qui doivent encore être révisés
• Les comptes qui nécessitent habituellement une mise à jour annuelle, comme les FERR, les FRV, les REEE, les REEI et les IRA

Cette page devrait être particulièrement utile après l’importation de plusieurs comptes depuis Wealthica. Vous pouvez réviser les propriétaires, les bénéficiaires et les autres renseignements requis sans devoir parcourir plusieurs formulaires pour chaque compte.

Les comptes plus complexes, comme les REEE et les REEI, conservent un lien vers leur formulaire détaillé lorsque des renseignements supplémentaires ou l’historique des cotisations sont nécessaires.

Modification des comptes et des revenus sur une seule page

Lorsque vous ajoutez un nouveau compte ou un nouveau revenu, l’application MoneyReady continuera de vous guider, étape par étape, dans les formulaires nécessaires.

Toutefois, une fois l’entrée créée, vous savez généralement déjà de quoi il s’agit. Lorsque vous modifiez un compte ou un revenu existant, les renseignements généraux et les champs propres à son type sont maintenant regroupés sur une seule page.

Cette amélioration est particulièrement utile pour les régimes de retraite à prestations déterminées, les rentes, les revenus locatifs et les comptes de retraite, dont les renseignements étaient auparavant répartis sur plusieurs écrans.

Meilleure gestion des anciens plans ou des scénarios sauvegardés de la TIME MACHINE qui ont été restaurés

Certaines dates qui se trouvaient dans le futur au moment de la création d’un plan peuvent éventuellement être dépassées. Nous avons ajouté des vérifications et des directives plus claires pour des situations telles que :

• L’âge prévu de conversion d’un REER, d’un régime de retraite à cotisations déterminées ou d’un CRI qui est maintenant dépassé
• Une date prévue d’achat de rente qui est maintenant dépassée
• L’achat prévu d’une propriété associée à un CELIAPP dont la date est maintenant passée
• Une date d’échéance de placement qui nécessite une révision
• D’anciennes entrées comportant des dates de début et de fin incohérentes

Lorsque cela est possible, l’application MoneyReady corrige automatiquement les anciennes données qui ne présentent aucun risque. Lorsque votre intervention est nécessaire, elle identifie l’entrée concernée et vous dirige vers la page appropriée. Des mesures de protection supplémentaires empêchent également les anciennes entrées problématiques de provoquer des opérations inappropriées dans la TIME MACHINE.

Si vous n’avez pas révisé votre plan récemment, c’est un bon moment pour consulter COMPTES et REVENUS avant de lancer votre prochaine TIME MACHINE.

Comme toujours, vos questions, suggestions et commentaires sur tout élément qui vous semble peu clair sont les bienvenus.

Elisabeth

Nous avons apporté plusieurs améliorations aux rapports de résultats du TIME MACHINE afin de les rendre plus faciles à explorer, comparer, sauvegarder et imprimer.

Choisissez votre vue TIME MACHINE par défaut

Dans vos PRÉFÉRENCES, vous pouvez maintenant choisir la vue de rapport TIME MACHINE que vous voulez voir par défaut.

Il y a trois vues, selon le niveau de détail que vous souhaitez :

Résumé des flux de trésorerie

Il s’agit du rapport le plus résumé. Pour chaque année, il présente le total des entrées de fonds, le total des sorties de fonds et maintenant aussi la valeur nette, y compris les soldes des comptes regroupés par type de compte. Il s’agit maintenant d’un rapport financier sommaire complet, et c’est la nouvelle vue par défaut pour les nouveaux utilisateurs.

Vue TimeTable

Il s’agit d’une vue plus détaillée qui présente le revenu de pensions publiques pour chaque conjoint, les totaux des impôts payés, des dépenses et de l’épargne nette, ainsi que la valeur nette et, pour chaque compte, le solde, les dépôts nets et la croissance. C’était auparavant la vue TIME MACHINE par défaut.

Vue détaillée des flux de trésorerie

Il s’agit du rapport le plus complet. Il comprend des tableaux détaillés pour les flux de trésorerie, les impôts, le bilan, les gains des comptes et les valeurs successorales. La vue détaillée présente notamment :

chaque source de revenu et de dépense
le revenu imposable par type
les impôts payés et les taux d’imposition
la valeur nette de chaque conjoint
les soldes des comptes, des prêts et des biens immobiliers
la croissance des placements par compte et par type de croissance
les impôts finaux, les frais d’homologation et les montants à hériter

Toutes les vues incluent maintenant tous les graphiques

Auparavant, plusieurs graphiques étaient seulement disponibles dans la vue TimeTable.

Maintenant, les trois vues affichent tous les graphiques.

Vous pouvez aussi cliquer sur 📊 dans les en-têtes des tableaux pour voir des graphiques additionnels pour ces données. Les graphiques permettent de visualiser plus facilement l’information contenue dans les tableaux et de mieux comprendre ce qui se passe dans les résultats.

Comme auparavant, vous pouvez aussi cliquer sur n’importe quelle année pour ouvrir un rapport détaillé pour cette année, y compris des diagrammes Sankey des flux de trésorerie.

Passez facilement d’une vue à l’autre

Quelle que soit la vue que vous préférez, vous pouvez passer de la vue Résumé à la vue TimeTable ou à la vue détaillée à partir de la barre de navigation au bas des rapports.

À partir de cette même zone de navigation, vous pouvez aussi :

    sauvegarder votre exécution et votre scénario
    télécharger les tableaux vers Excel
    ouvrir le rapport complet et tout télécharger en PDF

Rapport complet et PDF personnalisables

Le rapport complet est maintenant personnalisable. Cette fonctionnalité devrait être particulièrement utile aux conseillers qui souhaitent fournir un rapport PDF à leurs clients.

La table des matières à gauche vous permet de naviguer dans le rapport, de choisir ce qui sera inclus dans le PDF et de réordonner les sections du rapport par glisser-déposer.

Vous pouvez aussi sauvegarder votre mise en page. Cela signifie que si vous masquez, affichez ou réordonnez certains éléments du rapport, le rapport peut se souvenir de votre mise en page préférée.

Vous pouvez même sauvegarder une mise en page comme valeur par défaut, afin que les futurs rapports s’ouvrent avec la même structure dans la mesure du possible. Les changements aux comptes, aux prêts ou à d’autres détails du plan peuvent quand même avoir une incidence sur l’ordre et la visibilité, mais le rapport fera de son mieux pour conserver votre mise en page sauvegardée.

Nous espérons que ces changements rendent les résultats du TIME MACHINE plus faciles à lire, à explorer et à sauvegarder. Dites-nous si vous avez des suggestions de choses que vous aimeriez voir dans les rapports.

We’ve made several improvements to the TIME MACHINE result reports to make them easier to explore, compare, save, and print.

Choose your default TIME MACHINE view

In PREFERENCES, you can now choose which TIME MACHINE report view you want to see by default.

There are three views, depending on how much detail you want:

Summary cash flow
This is the most summarized report. For each year, it shows total cash coming in, total cash going out, and now also Net Worth, including account balances totalled by account type. This is now a complete summary financial report, and it is the new default view for new users.

TimeTable view
This is a more detailed view showing public pension income for each spouse, totals for taxes paid, spending, net savings, along with net worth, and each account's balance, net deposits, and growth. This was previously the default TIME MACHINE view.

Detailed cash flow view
This is the most comprehensive report. It includes detailed tables for Cash flow, Taxes, Balance sheet, Account Gains, and Legacy values. The detailed view breaks out items such as:

• • • each source of income and expense
    • taxable income by type
    • taxes paid and tax rates
    • net worth by spouse
    • balances for accounts, loans, and real estate
    • investment growth by account and growth type
    • final taxes, probate, and amounts to be inherited

All views now include all charts

Previously, many charts were only available in the TimeTable view.

Now, all three views show all the charts.

You can now also click on 📊 in the table headers to see additional charts for those numbers in the table. Charts make it easy to see the info in the tables. and to understand what is happening in the results.

And as before, you can click on any year to open a detailed report for that year, including Sankey cash flow diagrams.

Switch views easily

Whichever view you prefer, you can switch between the Summary, TimeTable, and Detailed views from the bottom navigation bar in the reports.

From that same navigation area, you can also:

• • save your run and scenario
  • download tables to Excel
  • open the full Report download everything to PDF

Customizable full Report and PDF

The full Report is now customizable. This feature should be most useful to Advisors who want to provide a PDF report to their clients.

The table of contents on the left lets you navigate the report, choose what will be included in the PDF, and reorder report sections by drag and drop.

You can also save your layout. That means if you hide, show, or reorder report elements, the Report can remember your preferred layout.

You can even save a layout as your default, so future reports open with the same structure whenever possible. Changes to accounts, loans, or other plan details may still affect ordering and visibility, but the Report will do its best to preserve your saved layout. 

We hope these changes make the TIME MACHINE results easier to read, explore, and save. Let me know if you have any suggestions for things you want in the reports.

We worked on making reports more dynamic this past month:

More charts:

📊 Any column or row headers of tables with amounts over years in the TIME MACHINE can be clicked to see a chart of those values. Much easier than looking at numbers in the tables.

The extensive REPORT is now customizable:

A table of contents on the left lets you easily navigate the full HTML report. You use it to select what is visible and will be printed in the PDF, and you can reorder elements by drag and drop. You can save your custom layout as the default.

Le mois dernier, on a travaillé à rendre les rapports plus dynamiques :

Plus de graphiques :

📊 Il est maintenant possible de cliquer sur les en-têtes de colonnes ou de lignes des tableaux présentant des montants sur plusieurs années dans la TIME MACHINE pour afficher un graphique correspondant. C'est beaucoup plus facile que de regarder les chiffres dans les tableaux.

Le RAPPORT complet est maintenant personnalisable :

Une table des matières située à gauche permet de naviguer facilement dans le rapport HTML complet. Vous pouvez l’utiliser pour sélectionner les éléments visibles et ceux qui seront imprimés dans le PDF, et réorganiser ces éléments par glisser-déposer. Vous pouvez sauvegarder votre mise en page personnalisée comme disposition par défaut.

L’application MoneyReady est enfin offerte en français! Vous pouvez choisir votre langue de préférence dans PRÉFÉRENCES.

Toutes les pages du site Web ont maintenant été traduites, y compris les pages d’aide. Nous travaillons encore sur les versions françaises du livre électronique PDF et des articles de blogue.

The MoneyReady App is finally available in French! You can set your language preference in PREFERENCES.

All pages on the website have now been translated, including the help pages. We are still working on the French versions of the PDF eBook and our blog posts.

New Year checklist:
  My favourite time to run the TIME MACHINE is early January. This is because the current year then acts very much like a future year in the TIME MACHINE. There is no need to consider what contributions have already been made, what taxes have already been paid, and no need to prorate any amounts for incomes, expenses and savings. Here is a list of things that need to be updated at the start of the year, and sometimes throughout the year, to keep the current year calculation as accurate as possible.

  1. CPP/QPP table(s). An entry for pensionable earnings for last year will appear. You will need to estimate what those were until the actual amount is updated at the CRA or Retraite Québec later in the year.
  2. RRIFs and LIFs.  For each of these, within 'Edit Account properties', enter the balance of the account at the end of last year. If you make any withdrawals during the year, update the total withdrawn this year.
  3. RDSPs. 'Edit Account properties' for these, and update the table of previous contributions if one appears. If you make a contribution this year, enter the amount once made, and you will need to come back and check the box once the grants/bonds have been received so that they are not double-counted in the TIME MACHINE.
 4. TIME MACHINE. There are up to 3 screens that capture current year tax information before running the TIME MACHINE: one for yourself, one for your spouse and one for your CCPC when applicable. Please update the amounts asked for the current year, and keep them updated throughout the year.
  5. Tax owing or refund. If you expect a tax refund from the previous year's taxes, you can enter it as an Income (Other, not taxable) with start and end dates on the date you expect to receive it. Similarly, for tax owing, enter it as an Expense for the date you expect to pay it.

Happy New Year!

The program is not indexing the CPP and OAS to inflation, it's the same amount all the way down.

My last announcements have been all about Building a Resilient Financial Plan, using Monte Carlo simulations and SCANS.
These address the risks to your financial plan stemming from market volatility and the uncertainty in the timing of various life events like retirement and death.

There is yet another risk to financial plans: policy risk,  as governments can change tax and pension policies. 
A recent federal budget and a climbing budget deficit have got people anxious and speculating about what changes the government will make. They ask me how those changes would affect their financial plan.

We do not know what changes governments will make, nor when a change would apply, but the MoneyReady App was always meant to be an exploratory tool. We've set up some canned scans that can modify internal parameters of the app to address a selection of users' fears or expectations of particular policy changes:

1: Reduce the OAS Minimum income recovery threshold:
This scan reduces the current OAS Minimum income recovery threshold by a factor of 0.9 (a 10% reduction) to 0 (no minimum income for clawback).
2: Reduce capital gains exemption on sale of principal residence:
This scan reduces the current capital gains exemption on the sale of principal residence by a factor of 0.9 (a 10% reduction) to 0 (no exemption).
3: Reduce RRIF/LIF required minimum withdrawals.
This scan reduces the current RRIF and LIF required minimum withdrawals by a factor of 0.9 (a 10% reduction) to 0 (no minimum withdrawals required).
4: Capital gains inclusion rate.
This scan changes the current (50%) realised capital gains inclusion rate into taxable income from 0% (no tax on capital gains) to 100% (capital gains fully taxed as regular income). 
This only applies to non-registered investments (personal or business).

The scan applies the changed parameters from today. 

Obviously, this is only a small selection of potential policy changes. We could imagine changes in tax brackets and rates, caps on tax-advantaged accounts, etc.

I don't want to scare you. These are not predictions; they are just for fun.

Let us know if there's another policy change you'd like to explore.

Other announcements:

• Once an account has converted to an RRIF or LIF, this is now indicated in the Warning/Info column of the Timetable.
• The year reports and detailed reports of the TIME MACHINE now break down the total of TDA withdrawals by required minimum withdrawals and voluntary withdrawals. 
• You can now set the age at which to stop CPP or QPP contributions if you work past 65.
• You can now set GIS to be ignored in the TIME MACHINE.
• We've added support for BC and AB property tax deferral loans for users from those provinces.

Last week, we introduced Guardrails—automatic, dynamic spending adjustments that help reduce sequence-of-returns risk.

But markets aren’t the only risk. Retiring too soon, living longer than expected, inflation surprises, or simply overspending can all derail a plan.

That’s where SCANS come in. Scans let you sweep key scenario parameters (amounts, dates, life events) to test many “what-ifs” quickly to see how robust your plan is.  It’s one of MoneyReady App’s most powerful features—and now even easier to use.

We’ve added Canned Scans for common risks (longevity, survivorship, early retirement timing, and inflation). One click runs a full set of Time Machine scenarios. You can edit any canned Scan to fit your situation, then save your own for instant re-runs as your numbers change.

👉 Blog post for the details: Building a Resilient Financial Plan

Got ideas for additional canned Scans you think would help others? Post them here!
We’d also love to hear about the custom Scans you’ve built and how they helped your planning.

Hi Everyone,

Several announcements for the beginning of October.

1. Guardrails.
To stress-test your scenario, the 100 Monte Carlo simulation results show you the percentage of runs that did not have a cash-flow problem. 
You want that success rate to be high. If it is low, then your plan is at risk, and a common strategy to mitigate that risk is to reduce spending. Of course, you can adjust your EXPENSES entries to modify the amounts or the dates they apply. 

The new Guardrails feature allows you to explore, without changing your EXPENSE entries yourself, if a dynamic strategy to adapt your account withdrawals in years following years where the market returns have been lower than your expected returns, will help to not run out of money and thus your success rate in the simulations.

It works this way:
After 100 simulations, the success rate is calculated. If it is less than 90% then another 100 simulations are run, but these also reduce your EXPENSE entries by 10% for any years following a year where market returns were lower than the expected return of your entire portfolio at that time. 
Reducing expenses will reduce the required income from your accounts, thus reducing withdrawals, and that will lead to a higher success rate. 
If still not over 90%, it runs another 100 simulations the same way, this time reducing the expenses by 20%, then again by 30% if it has to.

Be patient, as although the 100 simulations are parallelised so that they complete faster, each set of 100 must be run sequentially, so it might take some time to run up to 4 sets. You’ll be able to see the results of each of the sets. 

What this analysis shows is that you may need to be vigilant with your spending, and you may need to monitor your actual returns in the market and adapt your spending to it.

2. New Chart in the TIME MACHINE results

The guardrails feature requires the calculation of your overall average expected returns in every year of the TIME MACHINE.
I thought this would be useful information, and it has been added as a new Chart in the TIME MACHINE results (new runs only).
You might be surprised at first that your overall average expected return can vary over time. This will happen when you have different expected rates of return for different accounts. 
The overall rate will change as some accounts are depleted or others increase in value. 
The new chart is right above the overall asset allocation charts, as that also varies with time for the same reason.

3. Last resort withdrawals.

The simulations showed us an issue if you set some Withdrawal Priorities limits to 0%. 
The TIME MACHINE follows your orders and refuses to withdraw from those accounts.
That is fine in cases you actually want to make sure those accounts are never withdrawn from, but often in simulations, where the market can go really bad on you, you may need to access that money or run into a cash-flow problem.
For that reason, in years there is a cash-flow problem the TIME MACHINE could not resolve (even if there's a spouse it can try to get money from), the TIME MACHINE will go through another round of your Withdrawal Priorities, ignoring any limits on withdrawals (except for CRA-imposed ones that are never ignored).
So as a last resort, you can always access all of your accounts. When that happens, a Warning is shown in the Timetable for the years it did so you know that happened.

4. Lots of styling changes on the web pages. 
The left menu is now collapsible, which gives you more room to see things on smaller screens. 
A new bottom menu is now visible on all the various reports of the TIME MACHINE, so you can navigate within and between the reports quickly and easily. 
In comparison reports, the scrolling of side-by-side TIME TABLE comparisons is synced both horizontally and vertically. 

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions,
Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a great summer. Mine was spent mostly on back-end improvements. We were getting close to outgrowing our cloud provider in terms of capacity for running simultaneous TIME MACHINES  as the MoneyReady App user-base has increased dramatically in the last few of years, a good problem to have. Growing pains were expected as the MoneyReady App turned 6 years old this summer! After considering several options, we finally moved the entire site to Amazon AWS in Montréal. It went quite smoothly with no disruptions for our users, and I'm very happy with that service.

But today I want to announce a new feature and front-end improvements that you will notice:

For maximum accuracy, the TIME MACHINE uses calendar dates for its calculations, so it needs actual dates. However dates that are far in future are hard to grasp, and we naturally tend to want to convert that date to the age we will be at that date. For this reason, in most forms where a date is required, you can now enter a date, or an age (less accurate), or the life event you want the date tied to. In all cases it is the date that will be used in the TIME MACHINE, and you will see below the entry what date that is, and what age that corresponds to (in years and months).

The new LIFE EVENTS table stores the important dates.  We pre-filled it with what you’ve entered in your Quick Entry Form or later edits, for your retirement date, for the age of the start of taking CPP/QPP and OAS, and the year of death. We also added some convenience dates when you have a spouse, like first and last to retire, and first and last to die. All the life event in this table can be used to link most of your subsequent entries for the start or end of INCOMES, EXPENSES, AUTOMATIC SAVINGS/WITHDRAWALS etc. to that life event. 

This new feature is entirely backwards compatible with what you previously entered, as we've always provided the ability to linking entries to your retirement date (or spouse's). You will find them still linked in that case. The difference is that the retirement dates will now be found under LIFE EVENTS in the left menu, and no longer under PROFILE.

You can edit these life events, and when you change the date, all dates linked to that life event will be changed automatically. For example, the default pre-retirement EXPENSES entry that was automatically added for you will have its start linked to "Previous to this year" and end linked to your retirement date. The post-retirement EXPENSES has its start date linked to retirement and end linked to the date of death.

This LIFE EVENTS table also shows you the entries that are linked to the life event.

You can add your own life-events that you may want to link entries to. For example: "start family", "inheritance", "buy house", "empty nester", "downsize", you get the idea. This is great to do if there is a  life event that you want to tie to changes to in your INCOMES,  EXPENSES, SAVINGS, REAL ESTATE, and other entries. You will also be able to run SCANS on that life event to explore a range of dates for that life events automatically, and all entries linked to it will automatically use that new date.

I hope you have as much fun playing with it as I had implementing it. It's a powerful new feature for easily exploring and comparing different scenarios. As always your feedback, questions, and suggestions are always welcome.

Elisabeth

The big news today is that the house of commons approved the proposed tax cut for the lowest income tax bracket. It still has to pass legislation, but that looks like a done deal, so we've implemented it in the MoneyReadyApp. It will go from 15% to 14.5% in 2025 and 14% in 2026. This will help everybody as it reduces the taxes paid on the first $57.375 of earnings. However, that lowest tax rate is also used to calculate non-refundable tax credits, so the overall tax savings may be a little lower than advertised

Other recent changes:

You can now link an EXPENSE to a real estate property. This makes sure the expense does not occur before the property is bought or after the property is sold.

I've been asked too often (including on this forum) how to enter an inheritance. A new `Inheritance' INCOME type makes it easier.

With the current volatility in markets around the world, this announcement of new features to make updating all investments' properties easier is either timely or untimely. That depends on whether you closely monitor your investments or ignore them in such times.

Mock investments. You can now set any investment (except 'Cash' investments) to be ignored in the TIME MACHINE and in net worth calculations. This is useful to run scenarios with portfolios of different investments you are considering. Ignored investments will still have their values automatically updated with FUNData market data or Wealthica when applicable, so it's also useful to just follow these investments you are considering but may not own yet.

View/Edit all Investments in all Accounts now allows you to edit most properties of all investments entered all on one page. Besides price, shares, market value, and book value, you can now change the risk value, default current expected returns, fees, and whether to ignore the investment or not.

Update from a spreadsheet. If you have many investments that need to be entered or updated manually, you may want to update from a spreadsheet (particularly if you do not use Wealthica). Most financial institutions allow you to download your investment values into a comma-separated (csv) or other file format that you can then get into a spreadsheet program to view it. Once you have your data in a spreadsheet program like Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers, you can now import those data to update your investments in the MoneyReady App.  For adding new accounts and their investments, first add the Account in the app, then the spreadsheet can be used to add the investments into it. I refer you to the eBook to learn how to set up the spreadsheet for import. It's easy to get a template by simply downloading your current list of investments from the View/Edit all Investments in all Accounts page.

Many are asking me how to deal with the current market volatility. Do not panic. Keep a long-term view for long-term investments. Make sure the money that is needed short-term is there for you by not having it tied up in the market.

Remember, we provide the tools for you to determine how resilient your portfolio is and thus be prepared for market volatility: https://www.moneyreadyapp.ca/blog/post/14

All the Best to all my fellow Canadians,
Elisabeth

In my last Announcement, I mentioned users wanted more and more detailed reporting.

• We've added a new GAINS table in the year reports. 
  • This table breaks down the total investment gains by type (interest, foreign dividends, eligible dividends, capital growth), by account type and for each account. It also shows the total fees (account maintenance fees, trading fees, and MER fees) paid, and any foreign taxes withheld. Additionally, realised capital gains and losses are shown.
• A new Sankey diagram right above the GAINS table shows the cash-flows in and out for the different account types types. 
• To accurately report the MER fees, we need to capture these for your ETF and mutual fund investments (optional).
  • The Management Expense Ratio (MER) corresponds to the total cost of managing and operating the fund, expressed as a percentage of the fund's assets. It is charged indirectly to the investor by reducing the returns. Fund returns are always reported by the fund after deducting the MER. We ask if the expected rates of return have not already been reduced by the MER. If you check the box, then the MER entered will reduce the expected yields you entered in the TIME MACHINE. Leave the box unchecked if you do not want the returns to be reduced by the MER. In either case, you will see an estimate of the fees paid in total for each account in the GAINS table. 
  • We will be adding the current MER fees as defaults for the most commonly-held ETFs eventually, but you may need to look up up the MER fees for your fund.
• You can now run 100 market-model simulations on Optimized scenarios. 
  • When you run the Withdrawal Optimizer or the CPP/QPP and Withdrawal Optimizer, there will be a button to run 100 market simulations on the results of that run (under Tools). For these simulation runs, the market model is used, but also your scenario will be modified (in the background) with the changes made to your scenario to reflect the results of the optimization. This means each simulation run will use the withdrawal strategy of the optimized run, and the optimal CPP/QPP start age(s) it calculated in the case of the CPP/QPP and Withdrawal Optimizer.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

PRIORITIES determine the order of accounts to deposit money in years you have a surplus, or to withdraw from accounts in years you have a deficit.  It is a great strength of the MoneyReady App that you can control that, but I've noticed that sometimes users get stuck on this.

PRIORITIES tables no longer intermingle your accounts with your spouse’s accounts and your CCPC accounts. 
Each of those now require separate tables. This sounds like it would be more complicated, but it actually makes things a lot clearer.

The entire PRIORITIES section of the eBook has been rewritten, and for visual learners, we have created a new video explaining how PRIORITIES work in detail.

It was a good time to make this change as you will be required to review your PRIORITIES with the New Year (see below).

I'm a bit sad to see 2024 go, as it was an amazing standout year for the MoneyReady App. We celebrated it turning 5 years old, and though you'd think we'd run out of features to add, far from it! Here's a brief summary of the upgrades we made and announced in 2024:

Reporting.

• The summary cash-flow report has been a big hit. So much so that I've been considering showing it instead of the TIME TABLE as the default report you see at first.  What do you think?
• The Table of Contents of the full Report has also been appreciated. However, someone made the comment on social media that our reports are too extensive. Given that my actual users most often request more and more detailed reporting, I do find that an odd comment.
  
• We've recently added a new graph breaking down the source of investment growth over all your accounts, and we are planning more detailed reporting of growth.

SCANS.

• The ability to do parameter scans was added at the end of March. It's a powerful feature, I'm surprised it's not used more.
• We recently added the ability to run SCANs with the Withdrawal Optimizer, and that should help its popularity. Particularly if you have investments held in your corporation (see below).

Taxes.

• The Federal government kind of forced our hand here with the changes in the Capital Gains, and the Alternative Minimum Tax. We ended up implementing the AMT. I expect more changes to come.
• Québec likes to do things differently, and we worked on implementing more of its particularities for improved Québec tax calculations and our reporting of them.  We now include RAMQ premiums and contributions to the Health Services Fund when payable. We've added the Senior Assistance tax credit, the Solidarity tax credit, and the Family Allowance. 

Permanent life insurance.

• This had been often requested but was very difficult to add. It's difficult because only the insurance company has all the information necessary to do all the calculations. The workaround requires you to get an "illustration" from your insurance advisor, that we can now incorporate into the MoneyReady App.

CCPCs.

• We greatly improved the reporting for CCPCs. They now have their own detailed year reports, complete with Sankey cash-flow diagrams.
• What I'm most proud of is the ability to automatically direct the tax-optimal withdrawals of the different types of dividends from the CCPC.
• Combined with the ability to perform SCANS on the amount of income required, you can find the optimal mix of salary and dividends to withdraw from your CCPC before retirement.
• For after retirement, you can run a SCAN with the Withdrawal Optimizer of the dividend income required to determine the best withdrawal strategy in retirement considering both the CCPC investment accounts and your own personal accounts.

All this hard work paid off as we got attention from the Press this year. Both Bruce Sellery and Rob Carrick told me it was MoneyReady App users who recommended the app to them and urged them to make it widely known. And they did, big time.  Many of you now are new users, so welcome! 

You know where to find me if you have questions, comments, or suggestions.
Thank you for spreading the word.

Happy New Year everyone!

Elisabeth

New Year Checklist:
Here is a list of things that need to be updated at the start of the year, and sometimes throughout the year to keep the TIME MACHINE calculation as accurate as possible.

• CPP/QPP table(s). An entry for pensionable earnings for last year will appear. You will need to estimate what those were until the actual amount is updated at the CRA or Retraite Québec later in the year. 
• Changes in ACCOUNTS. For the accounts listed below, you’ll need to ’Edit Account Properties’. Review each account, and click ’Save and continue’ on every form, as some of the information required may appear on subsequent forms.
  • RRIFs and LIFs. For each of these, enter the balance of the account at the end of last year. If you make any withdrawals during the year, update the total withdrawn this current year.
  • FHSAs. You must also ’Edit Account properties’ for any FHSAs to reflect the cumulative amount contributed to date.
  • RDSPs. Update the table of previous contributions if one appears. If you make a contribution this year, enter the amount once made, and you will need to come back and check the box once the grants/bonds have been received so that they are not double counted in the TIME MACHINE.
  • RESPs. Make sure the table of previous contributions and withdrawals is kept up to date.

• PRIORITIES. Just review the PRIORITIES once you've updated the accounts. A new entry for this year will be created automatically from last year if you haven’t created one for the new year previously.
• TIME MACHINE. There are up to 3 screens that capture current year tax information before running the TIME MACHINE: one for yourself, one for your spouse, and one for your CCPC when applicable. Please update the amounts asked for the current year, and keep them updated throughout the year.
• Tax owing or refund. If you expect a tax refund from the previous year’s taxes, you can enter it as an Income (Other, not taxable) with start and end dates on the date you expect to receive it. Similarly for tax owing, enter it as an Expense for the date you expect to pay it.

Hi everyone,

The response to the press attention mentioned in my last two announcements has been phenomenal and has kept me very busy answering questions from new users. But I've also made improvements to the MoneyReadyApp over the last couple of months that I'd like to share with you today.

1. SCANs can now be run with the Withdrawal Optimizer. This makes it possible to make sure your after-retirement withdrawal strategy is optimal for any value of the parameters being scanned.
2. It also makes it possible to determine the best withdrawal strategy that also considers the depletion from CCPC investment accounts by performing a SCAN on the Optimized Dividend INCOME from the CCPC. This is a feature I've gotten a lot of requests for from business owners. 
3. If you have a CCPC, the value of the CCPC at death is now shown in your list of saved runs so you can easily consider the value of both your CCPC and personal estate when comparing runs.
4. Using a younger spouse’s age to calculate the minimum required RRIF/LIF withdrawals is usually beneficial so we had made it the default behavior, but it is now optional. For accounts where that may be applicable, Edit the Account Properties until it asks you whether to use the younger spouse’s age. Uncheck the box if you want the account’s owner age used to determine the minimum withdrawal.
5. The 100 Monte Carlo simulation results now display how many of the samples did not have a cash-flow problem.
6. We now consider Preferred shares as having their own separate asset allocation separate from Equities (common shares). With the rise of Crypto ETFs, we also allow an asset allocation to Crypto (previously "Other") for these. Default rates for these asset classes have been added.
7. We are getting ready to capture Second Additional Contributions to CPP and QPP which started in 2024. The TIME MACHINE has always calculated those in the future, but as of 2025, we will need to capture the past contributions (from 2024 on). You will see some changes to your CPP and QPP contribution tables.

As always, the details are in the MoneyReady App eBook and appropriate Help pages. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

And I want to extend a warm welcome to all our new users!

The MoneyReady App is a web app. It works with any modern browser on any device.

A laptop or a large tablet is preferable.

Note that some versions of the Safari browser have a bug that can cause you to get logged out or send you back to the dashboard. If you have any problems with it, please use a different browser.