Plan retirement when you're already retired

If you're already retired, Beyond Payday can project forward from right now instead of from a future retirement date. Turn on Already Retired mode and the simulation starts in withdrawal mode immediately, using your current numbers to help answer the question that matters most: will your money last?

Before you start

• Retirement planning is a Pro feature.
• Update your Income entries to reflect your real current income first (see Good to know below) — this setting doesn't remove old income entries for you.
• You need permission to update retirement settings.

Steps

1. Go to Retirement (opens in a new tab) and open the Retirement Age settings card.
2. Find the row labeled I'm already retired and turn it on. (If you have a spouse, a second row labeled Spouse is already retired appears below it — turn on whichever applies.)
3. Beyond Payday confirms with a message: "Currently retired (age X)" and "Projections start in withdrawal mode. All current income continues."
4. Review the rest of your settings — Social Security claiming age, pensions, Share of retirement income paid in taxes — since these still drive the projection from day one.

How the projection handles it

• Retirement date becomes "now." Instead of waiting for a future age, the simulation logs your retirement milestone immediately and starts covering your spending from your income and accounts right away.
• New contributions stop. Payroll 401(k)/HSA contributions and employer match no longer get added — the projection assumes you're not actively contributing through an employer anymore.
• Current benefits can fill missing assumptions. Enabled, ongoing Social Security, pension and annuity entries for you or your spouse carry into the projection when that person has no corresponding retirement amount or plan. Explicit zero amounts, empty plan lists and turning off Social Security take precedence, so current entries are not counted twice.
• Current Social Security starts at the entered check. Only future COLA is added. The app does not infer your past claiming age, add another spousal benefit or repeat earnings-test withholding on that current check.
• Pension and annuity defaults are limited. Current payments stay level, respect an entered end date, and stop at the owner's plan-until age. No survivor payment is assumed; add a retirement plan to enter raises or survivor benefits. Retirement tax settings apply, while retained Income entries marked tax-exempt stay exempt. If a survivor switches to a larger inherited Social Security check, the projection applies its normal Social Security tax rules; the deceased recipient’s exemption is not assumed to transfer.
• Retirement distributions are transfers from savings. The Current column shows the entered transfer under Investment Withdrawals. Future draws are funded from your portfolio to cover modeled spending, so they may differ from that transfer.
• Everything else works the same. Social Security, pensions, RMDs, and withdrawals follow the same rules as any other retiree in the projection — see How the retirement projection works.

Inherited benefits include their recorded end date. Future Social Security COLA applies after complete calendar years from today. The Current column uses the same household coverage and age-based deduction limits as Income.

Good to know

• Clean up old income entries first. An enabled recurring salary from your working years with no end date keeps counting in Already Retired mode. Disable an old entry so the projection reflects your real income. Future and ended income follow their saved dates; one-time entries do not become recurring retirement income.
• Works independently for each spouse. One of you can be retired while the other keeps working — each person has a separate toggle and retirement age.
• Combine it with Monte Carlo mode to see how your current balances hold up against a range of market scenarios, not just one steady rate. See Run a Monte Carlo simulation.
• Guided setup asks about this too — see Set up your retirement plan with guided setup.