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Pralana Online Sales Are Temporarily On Hold After Reaching 100 Users

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(@smatthews51)
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As stated in my prior post, our plan has been to roll out Pralana Online to a relatively small group of new users (100) and then suspend further sales temporarily to give us time to study system performance under this increased load and to deal with the initial feedback from the new users before opening it up to all comers. We have quickly reached 100 users and have removed the upgrade buttons from the Members page for the time being. At this point I do not have an estimate of when sales will resume, but I will continue to make updates in this forum to pass along information on how it's going. So far, so good! We really appreciate the interest of our users have shown in this project!

Stuart Matthews

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(@trueson1)
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I'm using it and continuing tweaks as I figure out more about options, etc. So far I like it.

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(@sandhu681)
Joined: 4 years ago

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@trueson1 Since you are beta testing it few general questions: (1) Is the interface similar to excel (in functionality) or some relearning involved? (2) Does it offer additional features (3) Is online pop up help enabled or does one need to refer to a manual Thanks

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(@hines202)
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@sandhu681 yes it's similar to the Excel version but laid out better. There are additional features that didn't fit in the Excel version, like more phased expenses periods, etc. the pop up help is excellent, doesn't take you off the page or lose your work.

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(@hines202)
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@sandhu681 yes it's similar to the Excel version but laid out better. There are additional features that didn't fit in the Excel version, like more phased expenses periods, etc. the pop up help is excellent, doesn't take you off the page or lose your work.

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(@sandhu681)
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(@smatthews51)
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Upgrades to Pralana Online are now activated again to the next 100 users of PRC2023 and PRC2024. If you have one of those licenses, the upgrade buttons should appear on your Members page. They will be removed again after another 100 users do the upgrades as we continue to proceed cautiously with the roll-out. Thanks for your support and understanding.

Stuart

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(@portolmy)
Joined: 11 months ago

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@smatthews51 Stuart are you ready for a new user to give it a shot? I have been waiting for a long time, hoping to give the Online Product a go. Thanks.

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(@smatthews51)
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@portolmy Sure. We're still not advertising it and offering it via the Get PRC page; however, here's a back door way to get it now as a new user:

Products Archive - Pralana Retirement Calculator. Just click this link and look for the Pralana Online icon.

Stuart

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(@portolmy)
Joined: 11 months ago

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@smatthews51 Thanks Stuart, subscribed and giving it a go as a newbie today. So far impressed.

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(@hines202)
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Prudent approach, and a good time to phase the rollout as folks are on vacation. Hopefully Team Pralana gets some down time!

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(@schulte574)
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PRC Gold vs Platinum

Howdy Stuart, I'm not sure if this is the correct thread to provide feedback.

For the past week, I've been doing a side-by-side comparison of PRC 2024 Gold v2.3.1 and PRC 2024 Platinum v1.0 using the same import file. I'm no expert and my plan is pretty simple; however, I am getting slightly different results, but the overall picture is in the same stall of the barn. I expected this going into the evaluation (due to the list of features or lack thereof). The biggest differences are wrt the Roth conversions: Gold being clunky and chunky suggesting bigger, faster conversions than Platinum. I will continue to evaluate the two versions. How due I see the ACA impact due to increased income associated with a Roth conversion (i.e. increased taxes due to payback requirement)?

Full disclosure, I have to admit that I like NewRetirement better than PRC Platinum for ease of use and output reports.

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(@hines202)
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@schulte574 Remember that due to Monte Carlo, etc you'll receive slightly different results each time you run an analysis even within the Excel version. Also 2.3.2 of the Gold Excel version is out now.

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(@schulte574)
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(@smatthews51)
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@schulte574 In PRC Gold, you can see ACA subsidies on the Tab Projections > Expenses page, and on Pralana Online, you can see ACA subsidies on the Review > Tabular Projections > Expenses > Specified Expense Details page (Healthcare tab).

Stuart

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(@schulte574)
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@smatthews51 Thanks, I missed that. Appears I do not have it modeled correctly.

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(@schulte574)
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Also, I would like to model my history. That is to say start the projections at 2014 and verify the 2024 results. Is that possible?

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(@hines202)
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@schulte574 I suppose you could ut the plan start year at 2014 but I've never tried that. I've only used it as a forward-looking financial planning tool. It won't precisely "verify" anything due to the inherent randomization with Monte Carlo, standard deviations, and so forth.

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(@schulte574)
Joined: 4 years ago

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Posts: 9

@hines202 Precisely why you also look at the historical and fixed rate analyses. I'm not looking for a projection down to the penny.

How do you verify a given software program is accurate with its projections? Crossing your fingers is not a plan. The whole purpose of having a model and a plan in retirement is to give you confidence to spend. Most people don't care as long as they know they can spend xxx dollars per month for yyy years. I'm past that now and looking into legacy concerns.

The hypothesis is: Given you can reasonably model the past decade, then the future projections for the next 3 decades should give you more confidence. Modeling is not "one and done" because life changes (i.e. annual review); however, I have more important things to do than to spend my life modeling my finances. Thus, it is important to have a reliable software program.

In the past, I have compared the following using the same dataset. Each has pros/cons. As you know, the trick is to minimize the cons.

  • Fidelity Planner (available to account holders only)
  • PRC Gold
  • Money Tree Total
  • Money Guide Pro
  • NewRetirement
  • Retirement Planning Academy
  • PRC Platinum (in work)

Other high-fidelity software that I did not like:

  • MaxiFi
  • Flexible Retirement Planner
  • OnTrajectory
  • Wealth Access
  • Naviplan
  • Wealth Trace

Happy Trails

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(@hines202)
Joined: 4 years ago

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@schulte574 I'd love to read that article, consider writing it up! It sounds like fascinating reading.

Yes, plugging in exact real rates of return from the past, using historical rather than monte carlo, etc would be somewhat more realistic. But it wouldn't account for quite a bit, like the year to year actual market performance, inflation, etc. I'm not even sure the tax tables would be correct, as these tools are forward looking. It's also 20/20 hindsight. What will happen in the future is variable and unknown.

What the tools are doing isn't that complicated. I verify by digging into the tabular results and making sure they make sense, and by being conservative and realistic. That's what gives me confidence. We have thoroughly researched/vetted rules of thumb for comparison such as the 4% rule.

We know 30 years out is fuzzy, because there will be tax changes, life changes, etc. But we update the plan each January and each year the picture becomes more sharp. As humans, we adjust as we go--if the economy has been in recession, we tend to back off spending some.

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(@smatthews51)
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@schulte574 I'm sorry, Ken, but I don't understand what you're asking. Please elaborate.

Stuart

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 Jo G
(@jo-g)
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Joined: 4 years ago

Just subscribing to this thread in hopes that the announcement will be made here on this thread when the Online version again becomes available.

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(@smatthews51)
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@jo-g It will be!

Stuart

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