Financial Tools for Personal Financial Planning.

A 24-sheet Excel workbook that has all of the usual time value of money calculators, plus several sheets with most all of the smaller financial tools needed when creating personal financial plans.

The First Six Sheets are the Free Financial Calculators

Sheet #1: TVM Calculators

All of the usual Time Value of Money calculators: Present value, Future value, Payments, Interest rate, Monthly loan amortizer, Net present value, Life Expectancy, Estimated Capital Needed vs. Weekly Income Needs, Gross wage calculators, Human life value, Final expenses, Tax-free yield converter, CD early withdrawal penalty calculators, and more.

Most of what's available on free online financial calculator websites are here for free. You can download the spreadsheet and use them offline.

Sheet #2: 360-Cash Flow IRR Calculator

Calculate simple Internal Rate of Return based on a series of 360 cash flow periods. It has a column where you enter cash flow dates and it gives the rate of return results as is, and also compounded annually.

Sheets #3: Compound and Simple Interest Rate Comparators

Input and compare the growth (or shrinkage) of money given the three compound interest rates. It has one column for simple interest; one compound interest column has a year-by-year manual override (so you can have a different rate of return every year), and a graph sheet. You can also add new money to the picture every year.

Sheets #4: Compound Interest Rate Converter

Calculate differences in interest rates given different compounding periods. Two graphs.

Sheet #5: Cost of Raising A Child calculator

Input data and see how much a child will cost each year, total for each expense category, grand total, and net present value (for each expense category and grand total).

Sheet #6: Rent vs. Buying a Home Calculator

The most comprehensive, flexible, and detailed "Rent vs. Own a Home" calculator ever created. Homeowners prepared to be shocked! The devil is in the details, and the more details you consider, the more you will be surprised.

Sheet #7: Mutual Fund Calculator and Investment Balance Estimator

The most detailed mutual fund investment projector ever created. Input basic parameters, and see more details about growth, shrinkage, taxes, capital gains realized and unrealized, basis, costs in percentages, etc. It's the same Non-Tax-Qualified Mutual Fund A-Share sheet carved out of the of the Investment Comparator. Control every number in every year with the manual overrides.

Sheet #8: 401(k) or 403(b) Calculator

The most detailed investor software ever created that shows the growth and payout of 401(k) or 403(b) plans. Three charts.

Sheet #9: Investment Growth and Payout Calculator

The most detailed investor software that grows and pays out income. It's the same asset sheet carved out of the Real World Retirement planner (RWR).

Assets have nine payout methods to simulate, as closely as possible, life in the Real World. This is the only retirement calculating spreadsheet that will do payouts this closely to real life (and take into account all of the IRS tax-qualified plan distribution methods). To make a long story short, you have total control over when assets start, how they grow or shrink, how new money is added, how they're taxed, and how they pay out income, down to the dollar in every year.

The asset has its own growth rate of return specified by the user (compounded annually), and this rate of return can be manually overridden in each year. If you think an asset will have different rates of return in different years, or even a loss in some years, you can do this. Great for limited partnerships or laddered bond portfolios that have staggered maturities.

The asset has a starting year at which monthly contributions to the asset will start and stop. This can be any year, even a year after payout has begun. It can be any number of years too, even just one.

You can manually override every contribution amount at every year. For example, you can specify $100 monthly contributions to a 401(k) plan (that even currently doesn't exist because the client hasn't worked there long enough to qualify yet), inflating at 2% annually, with no contributions in the 4^th year, a $50 contribution the 6th year, and a $200 withdrawal (or loan) in the 12th year. Years before (or after) the Manual Income Withdrawals use the $100 + 2% growth number as if nothing unusual happens in previous or future years.

This is great when someone says they will be eligible for their company 401(k) plan next year (or any future year), and they will start contributing to it then (and even better when they contribute in unequal income need amounts over any number of years).

These Nine Asset Payout Methods Are:

1) Lump Sum: 100% of the asset's balance is paid out as a lump sum at any year specified. You can still use the Manual Withdrawal column to take out amounts before the 100% Lump Sum year. You also control how much is taxed, and these rates can be different in these two payout phases (manual withdrawals and then lump sum).

2) Yield Only: The biggest use is when you want to keep principal intact forever. This retirement payout method also has more uses. For example, to account for individual bonds in the Real World, you can use the Manual Withdrawal column to lump sum the maturity proceeds. You can also simulate any number of individual bonds maturing on different years by using the Withdrawal Manual Override column in conjunction with the Rate of Return Manual Override columns.

Another practical use of this payout method is simulating assets like bond mutual funds, by assuming a total return of 7%, taking out 6% interest income, and having the principal grow by some small amount (1% in this case). Or slowly deplete it by 1% by taking out 7% and growing it at 6%.

Tax on Municipal bonds, or mutual funds, can be simulated correctly too by setting the amount taxable input field (Cell A10) to 0%. If there's a capital gain to pay when it's sold or matured, enter a tax inclusion rate into cell A11. Or the tax rate on any mix of state and federally taxable scenarios can be run too.

With this payout option, you basically have control over every bond, or fixed-income, scenario where a fixed, or variable, percentage of the asset's balance is paid out as income.

3) Inflation Adjusted Income Stream Generator: This retirement withdrawal method automatically answers the question, "What's the most money I can take out of this asset every year, account for taxes, have this income stream keep up with inflation every year, and have it last until I'm 100 years old?"

You just input the year it starts to pay out, a life expectancy age, a rate of return, a tax rate, and the retirement tool automatically figures out the rest. You can still use the Manual Income Withdrawal column before the payout age starts, but not afterwards.

4) IRS Required Age 70 & 1/2 Minimum Distributions (MDIB or MRD): You can still use the Income Withdrawal Manual Override column at any age too, so you can tap into it when it's needed, and then have it go back to paying the minimum distributions. Click here to read more about the MRD/MDIB tool.

5) Specific (Manual) Annual Amounts: This retirement income withdrawal method just disables all of the other nine payout methods, so that only Manual Withdrawals using the Income Withdrawal Manual Override column will work. In short, you just input how much of an asset's balance you want to come out, and to be spent as retirement income, in every year.

6) Single Life Fixed Annuity: This method of paying out retirement income trades in the asset's market value for a permanent income stream. This income stream most resembles a single life annuity (or old style defined benefit pension plan) because the income stream does not increase with inflation. It wipes out the asset's market (principal) value when it starts to pay out, it pays out until death, and cannot be altered once it begins. It basically allows you to simulate what will happen in the Real World if you were to annuitize a fixed-rate annuity.

7) Inherited IRA and/or IRS 72(t) using the Life Expectancy Method: Calculate early tax-qualified retirement plan distributions without getting hit with the before age 59 and a half penalty tax.

Read the IRS page that describes how to avoid IRA premature penalties by using 72(t) distributions here.

You can tap your IRA without paying penalties, and other tax-qualified assets, before you turn 60, as long as you use what the IRS calls, "A substantially equal series of payments lasting until life expectancy." There are three standardized ways to do this listed in Section 72(t) of the Code. Read the IRS page that describes this process here.

8) IRS 72(t) using the Fixed Amortization Method

9) IRS 72(t) using the Annuitization Method

Sheet #10: 25-Year Dollar-Weighted Rate of Return (IRR) Calculator

A simple and easy to use, but comprehensive, 25-year investment portfolio IRR calculator that shows the rate of return each year, and averages for multiple years - considering all of the unequal/separate monthly cash flows that happen with portfolios in the Real World: Dividends/capital gains/spent withdrawals, taxes on them, and contributions.

Uses the dollar-weighted rate or return methodology (AKA internal rate of return, or IRR). You can change each tax rate every year, and have different tax rates for each type of distribution.

It gives you the pre-tax and after-tax IRRs for all 25 years. Finally a simple and easy to use calculator of total returns where all you have to do is input how much money went in and out on a monthly basis. Good for tracking one mutual fund and complex portfolios from numerous accounts/brokers (so you can get a return on everything you own combined).

Will also give returns for sold assets, so you can determine the IRR since way back when you bought them. It also adds up all of the monthly cash flows so you can see what the annual totals are.

The point is that it works well for people that just want to input data from their multiple monthly statements, and see how well their investments have done.

Sheet #11: 25-Year Time-Weighted Rate of Return Calculator

The same concept as sheet #10 but using the time-weighted rate of return methodology.

The time-weighted rate of return method of computing investment returns is more accurate because it mostly ignores portfolio cash flows (contributions and withdrawals). So it's the most accurate way to compare the performance of investment managers apples-to-apples.

Used in the CFA Compliant Performance Presentation Standards and all of the expensive portfolio management software programs (e.g., Axys Advent).

It works on a monthly basis, so it's not as accurate as expensive portfolio management software. This is because you'd have to input portfolio values every day there was a cash flow, and most investors don't have this data available anyway.

It works well for people that just want to input data from their multiple monthly statements, and see how well everything has done combined.

The only other way to do this is to buy portfolio management software. This is investment software that will keep track of clients, client portfolios, transactions, portfolio statistics, rates of return, etc.

Sheets 12 - 15: Investment Management Fee Calculators for Investment Advisors

These tools help investment advisors working on a fee basis, calculate how much to charge clients. Some advisors have to manually tell their custodian how much in fees to deduct from client accounts, so they can get this amount paid to them on a periodic basis. This tool will do that quickly and easily.

Just input your breakpoints, fees, and account values and it totals everything up and gives the bottom line amount you're looking for (annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily), on a client-by-client basis, for up to 500 clients. Then it totals everything, so you can see how much you're making.

It has five, four, three, and two tier schedules for advisors with sliding scales. It has input fields for names, account numbers, and account values.

In the input fields, you can just reference from another source once, and everything will be automatic from then on.

If you have to do this manually, then this will save you tons of time, and will pay for itself the first time you use it.

Sheet #16: Inflation Adjusted Income Stream Generator

This is the same thing as payout method #3 on sheet #9 above, but stand-alone.

Sheet #17: Portfolio Yield and Paycheck Calculator

For up to 100 assets, it determines: The combined average income/dividend yield on your total portfolio; how much income, or paycheck, your total portfolio will produce on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis; how much as a percent each asset is of the total portfolio; and how much each asset is estimated to pay out on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis.

You just enter three data points (asset name, dollar amount of it held, and its annualized estimated yield - get it from the fund's prospectus, website, Morningstar, other source, or guess) into the green shaded areas, and it automatically computes the numbers.

Sheets #18: Age 70.5 IRS Required Minimum Distribution Calculators

For both IRA owners and inherited IRA beneficiaries. AKA MDIB (Minimum Distribution Incidental Benefit Calculator) and MRD (Minimum Required Distributions).

Sheet #19: IRS 72t IRA Minimum Distribution Calculators

All three versions of the IRS 72(t) tax-qualified plan premature distribution calculators to avoid paying the pre-age-59 and a half penalty taxes.

Sheet #20: Social Security Calculators

There are six calculators to compare and help decide when to start taking Social Security benefits. Input your own data, and compare annual cash flows and ending values between starting benefits at ages 62, 67, and 70. Calculates present values, future values, draw down on assets, and various other scenarios. This debunks the myth that you should wait because benefits go up. Read all about the classic debate, and how this tool resolves it here.

Sheet #21: Employee Stock Option Calculator

Far superior to all of the free online stock option calculators. Calculates most all of the numbers people want to see. Has a ten-year window and works on a quarterly basis. Allows you to see the before- and after- tax value of all of the options combined, less options already exercised.

Sheets #22: Average Tax Bracket Calculators

All four versions of the Average Federal Tax Bracket Calculators (read about them in detail).

Sheet #23: Convertible Bond Calculators

An array of Convertible Bond Calculators.

Sheet #24: Preferred Stock Yield to Maturity and Yield to Call Calculators

Input up to ten preferred stocks and calculate yield to maturity and yield to call on each one.

Why aren't you taking advantage of this? Send e-mail and if you have an interesting reason, then you may get a freebie.

To download the non-functional demo, right click on the link below, then choose "Save (Target) As..." to save to a folder on your hard drive. Then open it with MS Excel. Sometimes the WPP's server doesn't work well with weird browsers, or it just may not work if it's not configured right. Plus you won't be able to print well from your browser. Please send e-mail if you have any problems, and it will be sent to you. Answers to frequently asked demo questions, and how to use demos.

Download the 3.7Mb demo. Same as the 8.2Mb program, but only the first six sheets work

It helps to read the directions as you look at the demo

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