✦ Free Calculator

Same plan, four answers

Run the same plan through two retirement apps and you can get two very different numbers. Usually neither app did the math wrong; they made different guesses about the next 30 years. This calculator runs one plan four ways, so you can see how much of the answer comes from the assumptions rather than from you. Drop it into your own article in one script tag.

The same four views as the “How much do assumptions matter?” card in the full app — same engine, same numbers.

Full explanation: Why Retirement Calculators Disagree →

See it in context

Here's exactly what that looks like — a live instance embedded inside a sample article, using someone else's fonts and colors, not ours.

clearpathplanning.com/blog/why-retirement-apps-disagree

Retirement Planning · 6 min read

Two Apps, Two Answers. Which One Is Right?

Clear Path Planning
Fee-only financial planning

A client came in last month with printouts from two retirement apps. Same savings, same spending, same retirement date. One said 96%. The other said 62%. "Which one do I believe?"

Why they disagree

Almost always, the gap is assumptions rather than math: how fast the money grows after you retire, how fast prices rise, and how long the plan has to last. Each app picks its own defaults, and a point or two of growth, compounded over thirty years, moves the answer a long way.

Four ways to look at one plan

The calculator runs your plan under four sets of assumptions: one app's own middle-of-the-road defaults, a cautious set, the kind of defaults many planning apps use, and a replay through every retirement start year since 1928. The spread between them is the part of the answer that nobody can know in advance.

If the four answers are close, your plan doesn't hinge on a guess. If they're far apart, you've found what to watch.

Try it with your own numbers

Move the sliders to the right — age, savings, spending, Social Security — and the four answers update. No signup, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.

What this doesn't tell you

It's a simplified plan: one person or a couple of the same age, savings treated as a 401(k), and no state chosen, so a flat 4.5% state tax rate applies. The spread is the lesson, not any single number. A full plan with your real accounts, taxes and timing is where the precise answer lives.

Try it

That's the exact <retirement-calc-assumptions> widget, unmodified — same script tag, same math as the full app. See the full picture → · Jump to the embed code ↓

For developers

Everything below is for embedding this calculator on your own site — integration code, theming, and events.

Live demos

Default

Themed (orange accent, couple, pre-seeded)

Preview your theme

Pick colors that match your site, then copy the CSS snippet at the bottom.

Theme colors

Accent color Big number, slider thumb, CTA button

#4f8ec9

Card background Outer surface of the calc

#ffffff

Inner surface Result area + toggle background

#f7f9fc

Text color Title, slider values, result subline

#1a1f2e

retirement-calc-assumptions {
  --rc-accent: #4f8ec9;
  --rc-bg: #ffffff;
  --rc-surf: #f7f9fc;
  --rc-text: #1a1f2e;
}

Integration code

Drop this into your HTML:

<script src="https://app.retirementscenario.com/embed/v1/assumptions.js"></script>

<retirement-calc-assumptions></retirement-calc-assumptions>

In the partner program? Add your via tag — readers who click through to the full app then credit your account (40% of anything they buy, 90-day window):

<retirement-calc-assumptions via="your-partner-name"></retirement-calc-assumptions>

Or pre-seed values relevant to your audience:

<retirement-calc-assumptions
  current-age="48"
  retirement-age="60"
  current-savings="1200000"
  contrib-annual="22000"
  monthly-goal="7500"
  ss-amount="2700">
</retirement-calc-assumptions>

Attributes

Attribute	Default	Range
`current-age`	55	30 – 75
`retirement-age`	65	current age – 75
`current-savings`	900000	0 – 5,000,000
`contrib-annual`	20000	0 – 100,000 (150,000 for a couple) — everything saved each year until retirement, including employer match, backdoor Roth and IRAs; fills the 401(k) up to its limit, the rest is modeled as a brokerage account
`plan-type`	single	`single` or `household` — a couple: savings, yearly savings and spending are household totals; the spouse is the same age and retires at the same time
`spouse-ss-amount`	1800	0 – 5,000 (spouse’s monthly Social Security at 67; couple mode only)
`monthly-goal`	6000	1,000 – 20,000 (retirement spending, today’s dollars)
`ss-amount`	2500	0 – 5,000 (monthly at 67)
`refsrc`	(none)	optional placement label for your own tracking (analytics only)
`via`	(none)	your affiliate tag — credits your partner account (40% of referred purchases) when readers click through and buy

Theming

Override CSS custom properties on the host:

retirement-calc-assumptions {
  --rc-accent: #ff6b35;    /* primary color */
  --rc-bg: #ffffff;        /* card background */
  --rc-surf: #f7f9fc;      /* sub-surface (result area) */
  --rc-text: #1a1f2e;
  --rc-muted: #6a7280;
  --rc-border: rgba(20,30,50,0.10);
  --rc-radius: 12px;
}

Events

The element emits two custom events you can listen to:

document.querySelector('retirement-calc-assumptions')
  .addEventListener('rc-calculated', (e) => {
    console.log('Your plan:', e.detail.scan.ours.sr, 'Popular:', e.detail.scan.popular.sr);
  });

document.querySelector('retirement-calc-assumptions')
  .addEventListener('rc-cta-clicked', (e) => {
    console.log('User clicked CTA to:', e.detail.url);
  });