I've been hoping to compare Pralana against some alternatives and had been waiting for the online version since I don't own (or in general need or want) Excel. Unfortunately, I gather there is no trial or Bronze version of the online product?
I'm guessing that right now the development focus is on the online paid version so soon after the release, but is something similar to Bronze in the works? I understand that the former distribution model as an Excel file made trials difficult, but with the move to online it seems like you could offer a more traditional software-as-a-service trial mode. Or a shorter-term paid sub for the first month? Or a demo with dummy data?
I'm reading the (very well written!) manual for online, but my experience is that its not really possible to get a feel for a tool from reading alone.
Even if something is in the works, in the near term, besides the manual, is there a way to get a sense of the new online tool yet? Demo videos?
@axel Thanks for your inquiry! We will do something to enable prospective customers to get a sense of the online tool when we get a chance, but have not had the time to address that as of now. We may offer a free version at some point in the future but do not want the additional load on the servers now as we're closely monitoring the performance of the online tool in the course of bringing on new paid users.
Stuart
@axel I have the new book available, which is kind of a concise walk-through of the product with some screen shots. Especially in the ebook you can see them as they're in color and you can pinch to expand. I'm not trying to hawk a $10 book but it would help until a trial is available. The book is preorder only at the big book sites until Nov 1 (ebook/paperback/hardcover/audio), but you can get the epub at wildlakellc.com today if you want it sooner.
I'm thinking of doing a youtube walk through as well and if I do, I'll post that up here so keep an eye out.
Stuart, thanks for confirming that a trial or demo is on the roadmap. I look forward to it. In the meantime (possibly for other readers), in addition to the manual, the Bogleheads presentation from a few years ago seems like the best "watch it work" presentation of the Excel tool at least.
Bill, thanks for pointing out your book, I may pick it up after I finish my way through the manual. I'll watch for your future video. That said, I suspect my particular frustrations with some other tools are specific enough that it won't be covered in the book.
Just for completeness, I'll say that the manual (so far) doesn't seem to answer these well, so I'll leave them here for reference:
- I'm looking to retire early, but have not picked a date, whereas my wife will have a very different retirement date (also undetermined). This means that I have a large number of date ranges that start at one or the other retirement date. The magic "R" is a great way to model that, but in some contexts its not clear which person's "R" is being used (in other tools its often incorrectly mine). So, for example, my wife has professional expenses that are large enough to be worth modeling that depend on her retirement date, not mine.
- To make the model more complete I have some expenses that only are relevant to an early retirement, which again are ideally based on "R". However, as I play with specific retirement dates, some of these ranges become zero (or even negative) width. That is, R > expense end, so the expense should be discarded. An obvious example of this are heathcare premiums prior to Medicare, which I understand Pralana models differently (good!), but I have other examples and wonder if the engine handles this (it makes other tools unhappy). Again, "R" here is also different between me and my wife.
- The expense modeling for children seems to be overly simple, with a pre-college expenses, college start year, and college expenses (including specifying the number of years). I assume the pre-college expenses are charge from either the child birth year or the model start year (whichever is later). The assumption is that college expenses are flat for the duration of college and then suddenly end.
- I'm not clear how (if at all) family/child ACA costs are folded into the healthcare expense model.
- In my very specific case, college costs are unlikely to be flat, in addition to large "setup" costs (not drawn from the 529), its likely that school costs will vary year-to-year. At minimum I expect an increase during a transition from a 2 year to 4 year college.
- I expect child expenses, for complex reasons, to continue past college end. That includes ACA premiums (till 26), as well as other ongoing expenses likely past 26. AIUI some tools appear to model child "launch" separate from college end date, which may be more appropriate for my case.
I'd be interested in feedback on how Pralana handles these cases. I tend to set these up in tools I've tried as a first step, hence my desire for a demo.
Obviously I can't expect a tool to be perfect for my particular situation, but I have not enjoyed fighting other modeling tools in these areas, and am hoping to do better.
Thanks for reading...
Axel
@axel Hi Axel, I'm heading into a meeting, but quickly - The R is independent to each of you in the assumptions section, it's changed in Online (was in income previously). It's your "retirement" date, usually used for end of full-time type work, and some may continue income streams beyond that with part-time or side hustles or a business. So you can each model your "R" independently.
It would be good to be able to isolate kids expenses beyond the start of college, which would allow the college expenses to focus on tuition, room, board, and also have an "end date" for the kids expenses, since many parents do support for some period of time after graduation. You can build that into your phases, since we have more than the three we got in Excel, or into the Miscellaneous expense period.
Healthcare shouldn't be a problem as the tool will pick up on any periods where one or both of you need ACA or other insurance after you're not working full-time (R) and allow you to enter those premiums from ACA or any old employer benefit.
I think there's enough flexibility built into Online to handle a lot of side cases and customization. Others will likely chime in here. For sure though, I'd get started, it's dirt cheap, especially when comparing the benefit. Just what you'll learn by going through the exercise is invaluable. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
@axel Hi Axel, and thanks for your additional questions! The magic Rs are indeed specific to you or your spouse, BUT in the current design they're used to start and stop income streams but not expense streams. That would be an enhancement, but probably one we need to carefully consider and I'm adding that to our list. You currently have the ability to associate expenses with certain time spans, such as early retirement, but those spans have to specified directly rather than with the variable R. Healthcare expenses are currently tied to particular time periods, so I think you should be covered there. We already have plans to improve the modeling of child expenses in and after college but that doesn't necessarily include a step function change in college costs as a child transitions from a 2-year college to a 4-year college. We'll need to think about that a bit. Currently, college costs are "flat" in terms of today's dollars; they are increased each year by the inflation rate you specify. Regarding ACA premiums, they're always a function of your family size. So, as long as you have dependent children, you need to account for them in the numbers you enter.
Stuart
I'm thinking of doing a youtube walk through as well and if I do, I'll post that up here so keep an eye out.
I will look for your book, but would very much appreciate a few videos on Pralana Online. Perhaps a general walk through for new users, but then some on specific areas such as Spending strategies, Roth conversions, etc. I would gladly pay for access.
Thanks Bill and Stuart, I've gone ahead and bought a sub to online (and today, Bill's book to read) and tried it out over the weekend as time permitted. Some aspects of data entry are going quite smoothly, and I like aspects of the product. Its definitely has the potential to replace portions of Ontrajectory and NewRetirement, which form a large part of my mental comparison points.
OTOH, there are some areas where the design choices are frustrating me, including some things that were in the manual but I didn't understand the significance till I actually tried things. I'll start a new thread later with those frustrations.
After that, I'm going to have make at least one more pass at trying to get my healthcare expenses modeled, maybe reading Bill's book first, before I post a new question. I see how Pralana thinks about healthcare periods, but it seems too limited, as there are more variables which should result in more permutations (and thus periods). In my circumstances, healthcare expenses are likely to be a major component of my future expenses, which is why I really want to get them modeled well.
For example, Bill, your suggestion to handle future child expenses under miscellaneous is a good one except that I need those to inflate at the rate of healthcare and not general inflation. The fact that miscellaneous expenses cannot be assigned an inflation type prevents that (this is on my list of frustrations to be posted later).
In any case, I appreciate the help, and am happy I made the decision to give it a try, but a trial would still have been the best way for me to learn a lot more about what works for me quickly, so I'm glad one is in the plans.