You may know how much you have saved and still feel unsure about retiring. Will your investments support the life you want? What changes if you work another year? Which numbers should you check before making that decision?
An AI retirement planner can help organize those questions and turn a few starting figures into an illustrative projection. It cannot make uncertain markets predictable or fill in missing financial details reliably. We built One Retirement Plan to make that first conversation easier, with a draft you can read, change, and bring to an advisor.
How our AI retirement planning chat works
You can begin in ordinary language: “I’m 60, I’d like to retire at 62, I have $1 million invested, and I expect to spend $5,000 a month.” Those four facts—current age, retirement age, investments, and monthly spending—are enough for a first draft. Use today’s dollars for spending and include your expected taxes and healthcare costs.
The chat asks for missing essentials and generates the draft automatically once it has them. There is no separate intake form or “create my plan” step. You can read the plan in the conversation, download its PDF, and change an input by replying. Where supported, your device’s share menu lets you attach the PDF to an email; otherwise, download it and attach it yourself.
AI interprets the figures you share. A separate calculation engine applies the stated assumptions to compare three constant-return scenarios. That distinction matters: a fluent explanation is useful, but it is the inputs and arithmetic underneath that determine the projection.
A hypothetical $1 million example
This is an invented illustration, not a client case study or a recommendation to retire. Suppose someone is 60, wants to retire at 62, has $1 million invested, and expects to spend $5,000 a month in today’s dollars. They provide no additional savings or retirement income.
For this example, the model assumes no new contributions, excludes Social Security and pensions, increases spending by 2.5% annually, and runs to age 95. It compares constant nominal annual returns of 3%, 5%, and 7%, assumed net of investment fees. These are chosen sensitivity assumptions, not forecasts.
| Annual return | Investments at 62 | First spending shortfall | Investments at 95 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3% | $1,060,900 | Age 79 | $0 |
| 5% | $1,102,500 | Age 84 | $0 |
| 7% | $1,144,900 | None before 95 | $84,680 |
Figures are rounded to the nearest dollar. A shortfall means investments cannot fully cover the modeled spending during the year beginning at that age. The model does not borrow to cover the gap, so a zero ending balance does not measure the accumulated unmet spending.
Here is a piece you can check yourself: $1,000,000 × 1.05 × 1.05 = $1,102,500 at retirement in the 5% scenario. Monthly spending becomes $5,000 × 1.025² = $5,253.13 at age 62. The annual model subtracts spending at the beginning of each retirement year, then applies investment growth to the remaining balance.
The lesson is not that this person can or cannot retire. The result is sensitive to assumptions, and this first draft excludes income they may actually receive. Before treating a shortfall as a reason to delay retirement, add a verified Social Security estimate, pension details, and realistic spending. Before treating the 7% result as reassurance, remember that real returns do not arrive at a constant rate.
What the estimate includes—and what needs more work
Our current model uses annual periods. Before retirement, contributions are added at year-end; during retirement, spending and income occur at year-start. Spending and any supplied Social Security amount rise by 2.5% each year. Pension and other income stay fixed in nominal dollars. Contributions stop at retirement. These conventions simplify the calculation and can differ from your actual cash flow.
If you leave income out, the draft excludes it rather than inventing a benefit. If you supply a Social Security amount without a start age, the draft labels its assumed age; that is not a claiming recommendation. For an estimate based on your own earnings record, use Social Security’s retirement planning page to compare benefit amounts at different claiming ages.
Taxes are not calculated separately. Neither are required minimum distributions, account withdrawal restrictions, Medicare surcharges, survivor benefits, or the best order for drawing from accounts. Healthcare appears only to the extent it is included in your spending estimate. A remaining investment balance is not an estate valuation: home equity, debts, insurance proceeds, and estate taxes are not modeled.
We also do not assign a probability of success. Three constant returns are not a simulation of changing markets. They do not test the effect of losses arriving early in retirement. For a separate explanation of how starting savings, contributions, time, and assumed rates affect growth, see the SEC’s Investor.gov compound interest calculator. It is an educational reference, not an endorsement of our tool.
How to make your first draft more useful
- Check the inputs. Confirm that the chat understood your numbers, including whether spending represents the whole household.
- Add dependable information. Use benefit estimates and pension statements; identify any income you have not included.
- Test one change at a time. Adjust retirement age or spending and compare the new assumptions and results with your saved draft.
- Bring the unresolved questions to a professional. Account types, taxes, healthcare, investment risk, and family needs require more than four facts.
You do not need to share account numbers, passwords, or a Social Security number. With your consent, chat messages are sent to OpenAI for processing. The chat is not saved by this experience; download your draft if you want to keep it. See our privacy policy before sharing information.
From a first draft to a retirement decision
A useful AI retirement plan gives you something concrete to question. It should show what you told it, what it assumed, and what remains unknown. Our draft is educational and has not received human review. It does not recommend investments, trades, or Roth conversion amounts.
Start your conversation with One Retirement Plan. Once you have a draft, schedule a Grape advisor review to discuss the assumptions and the parts of your financial life the model cannot assess.