ESPlanner at a Glance

Laurence Kotlikoff Professor of Economics Boston University and President of Economic Security Planning, Inc.

When it comes to personal finance, ESPlanner, our economics-based, life-cycle financial planning software, cares about one thing — your living standard. ESPlanner calculates your sustainable living standard and helps you find safe ways to raise it.

Once you set up a basic profile, you can see in seconds how a host of decisions, such as adding to a 401(k), using a Roth IRA, switching jobs, moving to Florida, retiring early, downsizing your home, refinancing, having a baby, getting married, buying a boat, waiting to take Social Security, and timing retirement account withdrawals impact your living standard.

So what exactly is your living standard? It's your discretionary spending per household member adjusted for the fact that "two can live more cheaply than one" and the relative cost of children.

ESPlanner helps you raise your discretionary spending power not by suggesting you try to beat the market, but by helping you take Uncle Sam's best tax and Social Security deals as well as make the most economical career and financial decisions.