How investment returns are projected in life event planning
In Quicken Classic for Windows, life event planning tools focus on projecting the overall performance of your entire investment portfolio—not the results of individual investments. This approach supports long-term forecasting by emphasizing diversified performance rather than isolated returns.
Why aren't individual investments projected?
Quicken’s planners don’t let you assign a unique rate of return to each security. Instead, they estimate how your full portfolio may perform over time. Here's why:
Long-term variability: Investment planning spans decades—typically 40 to 50 years. Over such a long period, individual investment performance can change significantly. A bond that yields 8% today might not be replaceable at that same rate when it matures 12 years from now.
Market unpredictability: Stock dividends and prices are subject to volatility. Even if a stock has a 10% dividend today, there's no guarantee that rate will continue for decades. Planning based on individual security performance introduces unrealistic assumptions.
Diversification matters: Long-term financial success depends more on overall portfolio performance than any single investment. If one investment underperforms but another outperforms, the average may still meet your goals.
Life Event Planning tools that use investment projections
Quicken Classic for Windows includes Life Event Planning tools in the form of financial calculators, accessible from the Planning tab. These tools help model future outcomes using average investment return assumptions.
The tools that factor in investment performance include:
Retirement Calculator – Estimates how much income your retirement savings, including investment growth, can provide.
College Calculator – Projects the cost of higher education and evaluates whether your savings and investment returns will be sufficient.
Savings Calculator – Helps estimate future savings growth based on regular contributions and an annual yield.
Savings and Investments Planner (Lifetime Planner) – Uses linked investment account data and projected return rates to model long-term funding scenarios for retirement and major life goals.
How projections work
Life Event Planning tools ask you to estimate a single average rate of return for your investments. That rate is used consistently across your plan, offering a stable basis for projection.
You can adjust the expected return in your plan settings.
The average rate includes growth from all investment types and accounts for diversification.
Each calculator uses a dedicated Annual yield field (sometimes labeled Annual rate of return) to represent investment income. This single value is applied to:
All investment accounts in the Savings and Investments Planner.
Current and projected balances in the Retirement, College, and Savings Calculators.
These tools do not use real-time income such as dividends or interest from your actual holdings. Instead, they rely on your entered average return to forecast future values.
Once your plan aligns with your financial goals, your objective should be to manage your portfolio in a way that achieves that average return. You don’t need every investment to perform equally—only that the overall return meets your planning target.
Note: This method avoids overreliance on past performance of any single investment. Instead, it assumes that a diversified mix of assets will, on average, reach your chosen return rate. This is a more practical approach for long-term financial planning.