Build a SHTF plan

SHTF plan helps you prepare for when sh*t hits the fan. Start with your household's current income, bills, and cash on hand, then work out what you would change as things get harder. Nothing you plan here is carried out for you: your bills, accounts and debts stay exactly as they are.

The account owner and spouse can use it when they have read access to income, bills, and assets. Open SHTF plan (opens in a new tab) under Planning tools in the sidebar, with the subtitle Your worst-case emergency plan. If its shortcut is hidden, use Customize menu to show it or open the direct link.

The page is a numbered three-step flow, with the results beside it (below it on a phone): 1. What you're starting with, 2. How bad does it get?, and 3. What would you change?.

Step 1: What you're starting with

What you're starting with holds the settings shared by all four levels. Choose Edit starting numbers to set Cash you could use ($), Money you want to keep untouched ($), How far ahead to look (months), and Start date. Leave the cash blank to use your current cash you can use now. You can also use these settings and custom changes to model a plan before you have entered all your household data.

Step 2: How bad does it get?

Choose:

1. High inflation
2. Temporary loss of income
3. Long-term loss of income
4. The world is ending

Each level starts from your actual numbers. Selecting a level does not automatically reduce your income or raise your expenses. Set Monthly take-home income ($), Income recovers after (months), and Prices go up by (%) in the fields under In this case, my money looks like this. A valid field updates the forecast and saves when you leave it or press Enter. These assumptions do not carry into the other levels.

The world is ending assumes no income recovery by default. Turn on Plan for income to return to enter a recovery month (Income recovers after (months)). Existing recovery timing stays visible; turn the option off to remove it.

An untouched level with no baseline cash risk prompts you to enter an income or price change; existing cash risks still appear.

Step 3: Decide what you would change

Suggested optional-bill cuts start unchecked. Check the changes you would make, edit their amounts and timing, or choose Add a change to:

• Withdraw retirement money or Sell investments.
• Sell or replace a vehicle, Sell or downsize a home, or Sell another asset.
• Reduce or pause a bill.
• Unemployment benefits, State or federal cash assistance, or Disability, pension or insurance benefits.
• Food pantry or community meals, or Help with food, utilities or housing.
• Crowdfunding (GoFundMe, etc.), or Gifts or help from family.
• Extra work or gig income, Rent out a room or space, or Add monthly income.
• Severance, refund or insurance payout, Receive other one-time cash, Add a monthly expense, or Pay a one-time cost.
• Move in with parents or friends, Move to cheaper housing, or Explore bankruptcy.

For a bill, New monthly budget ($) is the final amount after inflation. Enter zero to model stopping the bill. An end month makes the bill return to its baseline cost afterward. Custom monthly changes can also have an end month.

A change you add at one level carries into every tougher level after it, so you never have to enter the same thing four times. If you edit a change at a tougher level, only the part you edit changes there — everything else stays the way you set it earlier. Choose Use lower-level choice to undo your edits at that level and go back to what you set earlier. Remove from all plans deletes the change from every level after you confirm.

For cash benefits or help from other people, use the amount you expect to receive after taxes and enter its start and end months. For noncash help, select the relevant bill and enter Monthly costs covered ($), plus its start and end months. Each source of help can be toggled separately. Help reduces the bill after its inflation adjustment or chosen budget, down to zero; unused help never becomes cash. Do not also count that same help as income. The planner does not check eligibility or predict approval, amounts, or timing.

Food shelves or pantries cover part of your grocery costs. For a GoFundMe or other fundraiser, use the net cash you expect to receive after fees and any taxes you expect, not the fundraising target. For program information, use USA.gov's benefit finder (opens in a new tab) or unemployment benefits guide (opens in a new tab). These resources do not establish that you qualify or how much help you will receive.

Estimate cash from an account

Choose Withdraw retirement money or Sell investments, then select Account to use. Enter the Gross withdrawal ($), timing, estimated taxes, and fees or other account costs. Retirement withdrawals also require your estimated early-withdrawal penalty. Enter an explicit zero when you expect no tax or penalty; the planner does not decide whether you qualify.

The tax amount is the total cash you want reserved for taxes, including any withholding. Do not add withholding again as a fee. For investments, estimate tax on the taxable gains, not the full amount withdrawn. Estimate taxes from a rate can multiply your taxable portion by your estimated combined rate; Use tax estimate puts that amount into the main tax field.

Net cash per withdrawal subtracts taxes, penalties, and costs from the gross amount. Repeat every month uses the same amounts each month, with an optional Last withdrawal in month. The full gross amount reduces the recorded account balance. No investment growth or future contributions are projected. If the account cannot fund a full withdrawal, that withdrawal and all later withdrawals are skipped; the forecast warns you rather than using a partial amount. Each account gets one change, which carries into the tougher levels; edit that change instead of adding the same account again.

Confirm availability with your plan or account provider. Retirement access rules and tax exceptions vary, and withholding may not cover the total tax. See the IRS guidance on early distributions (opens in a new tab) and plan withdrawal rules (opens in a new tab).

Account for the whole cost of a sale

Choose the vehicle, home, or other-asset option, then select Asset to sell. Check the expected price, loan payoff, selling costs, Estimated taxes on sale ($), and sale month. Taxes are your reserve estimate; no exemption is assumed. The starting price and payoff are estimates to verify.

Open Replacement and transition costs only when needed to include a replacement purchase, delivery and setup, moving costs, or new monthly costs. Choose each existing bill that stops when the sale happens; none stops automatically. Replacement costs paid early ($) are part of the replacement total: they come out in the month you choose, with the remainder paid at the sale. Net cash can be negative when costs exceed proceeds. A sale in a later month cannot fund an earlier shortage.

Plan a stay with family or friends

Choose Move in with parents or friends or Move to cheaper housing. Enter New monthly housing costs ($), Move in month, and any Stay through month. Select the bills that would stop during the stay; mortgage payments and other costs do not stop automatically. Under Moving costs and deposit refund, enter moving or lease-exit costs, a new deposit and setup costs, and any old deposit you expect back with its return month.

For a temporary stay, enter the last month. Selected bills resume afterward unless another change, such as a sale, already removes them. A deposit can return later than the stay ends. This changes the cash forecast without changing ownership of your home or any debt.

Model bankruptcy-related cash flow

Choose Explore bankruptcy. Case you want to model offers Not sure yet, Chapter 7, and Chapter 13; choosing one does not change payments automatically. Enter your estimated Legal, filing and counseling costs ($), their payment month, and Change selected payments in month. Select the current payments you expect the scenario to replace, then enter any New monthly plan payment ($), its start month, and Number of plan payments. Do not count fees both upfront and inside the monthly payment. Only selected bills leave the forecast; nothing is assumed discharged for you.

Open Cash or property used to pay creditors for an upfront cash contribution or Assets you would surrender. Select each asset explicitly. It produces no cash and cannot also fund a sale or withdrawal from the payment-change month onward. Earlier modeled transactions and costs paid before a blocked sale remain in the forecast. This is a cash-flow estimate, not a finding that an asset is exempt, a debt will be discharged, or you qualify for bankruptcy.

Confirm the legal treatment before relying on it: liens and obligations that are not discharged may remain. The U.S. Courts explains Chapter 7 (opens in a new tab), Chapter 13 (opens in a new tab), and discharge (opens in a new tab).

Read the result

Will it get you through? compares projected cash with and without your changes under the selected level's assumptions. Review the lowest cash, cash cushion, and any shortfall. Open See month by month for the figures behind the chart and Check these assumptions when warnings appear.

What your changes are worth shows how much more or less cash you are projected to have at the end of the selected timeline, compared with making no changes. It combines savings, income, sales or withdrawals, and added costs; it is a cash difference, not a gain in net worth. This total stays visible on phones even when the chart is collapsed. Red shading marks the part of the chart below $0, separately from your cash cushion.

The forecast uses monthly planning averages. It does not track the exact days income arrives or bills come due. A living-cost increase affects ordinary expenses; linked debt payments, transfers, and contributions stay fixed. Explicit bill budgets remain the final amounts you entered. Results are estimates, not guarantees or financial advice.

Your household plan saves automatically when you leave a valid assumption field, check or uncheck a change, choose Apply changes in an action or starting-number editor, remove a change, or use Use lower-level choice. Invalid assumption entries stay on the page with an error; correct the field to include it. Switching severity asks before discarding unfinished assumptions. Other editor entries stay local until Apply changes or Cancel. Choosing a severity only changes your view.

Check the status at the top: Changes save automatically, Saving changes…, or Edit in progress. You can keep editing while a save is running. Changes not saved means your edits remain on the page; choose Retry saving. Failed saves also retry when your connection returns. Saving paused with This plan changed elsewhere asks you to Reload latest, which discards your local edits and loads the latest saved version.

Print it for the day it happens

Once at least one change is ticked, Print this for the day it happens appears under the verdict. It opens a one-page action plan: the changes you ticked for that level, grouped by the month each one starts, and ordered within a month so the slowest thing to arrange comes first — a bankruptcy filing or a house sale before a subscription you can cancel in a minute. Each line has an empty square to tick off with a pen.

Choose Which plan are you printing? to switch levels, and set Day one to the date it actually starts — it defaults to today, so month 1 is counted from then rather than from the start date you picked while building the plan. Both only change the sheet, never your saved plan.

Print / Save as PDF opens your browser's print dialog. Only the sheet prints; the toolbar and the print options are left off. Nothing on this page is saved, which is the point: a printed copy needs no login, no battery and no signal.

The public demo (opens in a new tab) starts each fictional household with its own sample assumptions and planned changes across all four severity levels. It shows Demo changes aren’t saved at the top. Changes stay on the page and reset when you leave, change households, or choose Reset sample plan, which restores that household’s sample plan. Your saved account plan is never used in the demo.