Hi,
I'm a new ESPlanner Plus user and I'm a bit confused by how it handles Current Consumption.
How can we enter actual current consumption information? I can see the Profile Budgeting report spreadsheet but any data I enter into it is overwritten at the next update.
Thank you,
Ann
Disclaimer: ESPlannerBASIC, ESPlanner, ESPlannerPLUS and ESPlannerPRO, are educational calculators designed to give users input in mapping out financial futures, but should not be acted upon as a complete financial plan. The creators of these programs are not certified, registered, authorized, or any other type of financial planners. These programs are simply tools for helping you think through economic futures. Its "recommendations" should be viewed as informative inputs into your own decision-making with respect to saving and the purchase of life insurance. ESPlannerBASIC, ESPlanner, ESPlannerPLUS and ESPlannerPRO provide neither economic, financial nor tax advice, which can only be delivered to you by authorized professionals.
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Ann,
In this program, you are entering the data on the data screens (by clicking each folder in turn in the menu tree at the left in the program) and it never asks for consumption data like groceries or gasoline. What it will show you is how much of this consumption is available to you each year through whatever age you enter to die.
The budget sheet you found is just a kind of helper worksheet for after you learn how much consumption you have available, and it does not put any data into the program. So if the program tells you you have 50,000 in consumption, this means that given the total income (see income report) and all your spending (see spending report) and your taxes (see regular asset report) what you have left is what is available for consumption.
This turns out to be a much better way to annual plan than trying to detail your monthly expenses. That can be done on the side with a budget or try using the free mint.com
What ESPlanner will show you is an affordable and smooth living standard (consumption) that is available each year despite the ups and downs of taxes, a fading fixed mortgage, term insurance, rising medicare part b in retirement, and any special expenditures you may have entered.
Check out the case studies on the site for examples of problems to solve and other information.
To clarify a little, the consumption number is calculated. You don't need to enter it. As Dan explains, this is the primary function of ESPlanner, to calculate that number.