Entering retirement benefit information in the Lifetime Planner

Your retirement benefits play a crucial role in your Lifetime Plan. They’re the foundation of your income after you stop working—often continuing for 20, 30, or even 40 years.

These benefits include:

• 💵 Social Security income

• 🏛️ Pension payments from employers or government plans

By entering this information accurately, you help Quicken answer important questions:

• Will your retirement income cover your future living expenses?

• How much will you need to draw from savings or investments each year?

• Will your plan remain solvent if benefits are reduced or delayed?

📘 If you skip this step, your plan may over-rely on withdrawals or underestimate your taxes in retirement. Entering your expected benefits helps create a more realistic and sustainable plan.

Include benefit details for yourself—and for your spouse if they’re part of the plan.

🧓 Social Security benefits

Use the Retirement Benefits tab to enter or estimate your Social Security income.

1. Under Social Security, enter the starting age when benefits will begin.

2. If you know your expected benefit, enter the annual amount.

3. If you don’t have an amount, select Estimate to use the built-in tool.

📈 Estimate your benefits

Click Estimate to open the Estimate Social Security Benefits window. Then:

• Enter the age when you expect to begin receiving benefits

• Enter your monthly benefit amount

• Enter the as of date (must be today or earlier)

💡 Tip: The “as of” date must not be in the future. If your latest benefit estimate is several years old, consider requesting a new one from the Social Security Administration.

💡 Tip: The later you start collecting, the higher your monthly benefit—up to age 70.

🗓️ Social Security retirement age thresholds (2025)

These are the official ages that affect your benefit amount:

💡 Tip: If you're unsure when to claim, entering a later age provides a more conservative estimate.

⚠️ Reduce your benefit estimate (optional)

If you want to plan conservatively, you can reduce your Social Security estimate.

1. Under Reduce the estimated benefit amount, select Yes

2. Enter a percentage (e.g., 10% or 15%) to lower the estimate

💡 Tip: This is useful if you're concerned about future policy changes or want to build in a buffer.

🏛️ Pension benefits

If you currently receive or expect to receive a pension, enter it under Pension Benefits.

1. Click New

2. In the Add Pension window, complete the following:

💡 Tip: For government pensions not coordinated with Social Security, Quicken automatically reduces your spousal or survivor benefit by two-thirds.

💡 Tip: If you receive a one-time lump sum instead of monthly benefits, don’t enter it here—go to Homes & Assets and add it as an asset.

✏️ Edit or remove pension entries

To update an existing pension:

1. Select the pension in the list

2. Click Edit to change it

3. Click Delete to remove it

4. Use Exclude from plan to temporarily hide it without deleting the details

🧠 Common retirement benefit scenarios

• 📬 You haven’t received your Social Security statement
  Use the estimate tool now, then update the number when you get the official statement.

• 🎯 You want to delay Social Security until age 70
  Set the starting age to 70—the planner will calculate the higher monthly amount.

• 📉 You want to be conservative
  Reduce the estimated Social Security benefit by 5% to 10%.

• 🧓 You receive multiple pensions
  Enter each one separately with its own start age and cost-of-living setting.

• 💰 You received a lump-sum pension
  Enter it in the Homes & Assets section, not under pensions.

💡 Final planning tips

• Retirement benefits rarely cover 100% of post-retirement expenses. Use them to build your income baseline.

• Enter all values in U.S. dollars—non-U.S. accounts are automatically converted if included elsewhere in the plan.

• You can return to this section and update your benefit information as needed.

• When in doubt, estimate conservatively—then adjust upward when you have official data.