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How it’s calculated

Plan accuracy

The checks behind the plan accuracy score, their weights and the review thresholds.

Updated

Where this happens in a plan year

3of 8 stages

  1. Events (covered)
  2. Growth
  3. Required
  4. Income (covered)
  5. Spending (covered)
  6. Cash flow
  7. Taxes
  8. Year end
On this page
  1. What each check looks for
  2. How the score is calculated
  3. Review items
  4. Where it appears
  5. What the score doesn’t measure

Plan accuracy scores how complete your plan’s inputs are, from 0 to 100. Each check looks for an input that moves the whole projection when it is missing. Checks that don’t fit your plan are left out of the score. Review items flag assumptions and events that look unusual. They are listed, but they never change the score.

Completeness checks
CheckWeightPasses whenApplies to
Account balances20Your accounts add up to more than $0.Every plan
Expenses20At least one expense is more than $0.Every plan
Your Social Security15A switched-on Social Security income stream is yours.Plans taxed in the US
Partner’s Social Security15A switched-on Social Security income stream is your partner’s.US plans with a partner
Salary ends10Every salary has an End milestone that is reached in the projection.Plans with recurring employment or self-employment income
Coverage before Medicare10Health coverage costs are modeled with marketplace coverage, or an itemized medical budget, for each person who needs it.US plans where someone is younger than their Medicare age when the household’s last salary ends
  • Salary means recurring pay above $0 that starts in the projection. One-time pay and switched-off streams are skipped. An End milestone that is never reached leaves the salary running to the end of the plan, so it doesn’t pass.
  • Coverage before Medicare uses the year the household’s last salary ends, or the plan’s first year when nobody has one. Anyone younger than 65 that year, or a later Medicare start age you set for them, needs coverage. With marketplace coverage, a partner needs Partner is covered on the same policy left on.

Plan accuracy=Weight of passing checks÷Weight of applicable checks×100

Rounded to the nearest whole number, halves up. A plan with no applicable checks scores 100.

Example: one account, a salary with no end, nothing else
Account balances passes20
+Expenses, Your Social Security and Salary ends fail45
=Applicable weight65
→Score: 20 ÷ 65 × 10031

Single person with a $100,000 brokerage account entered without basis and a $120,000 salary. Coverage before Medicare doesn’t apply while the salary never ends. The blank basis is a review item.

Stock return above inflation
8%
Flagged above this in any projected year
Inflation
1%
Flagged below this in any projected year
  • Stock return over 8% after inflation: the stock return is price growth plus dividend yield. It is compared with inflation as (1 + return) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. Exactly 8% isn’t flagged. Both thresholds are CoastMath’s planning choices, not rules.
  • Inflation under 1%: exactly 1% isn’t flagged.
  • Never runs: an income stream or expense whose Start milestone is never reached, or is reached after its End milestone. Streams that start at a switched-off milestone are skipped.
  • Missed milestone: a milestone with a deadline set to miss that the projection doesn’t reach in time.
  • Social Security is $0: a benefit entered as an amount of $0.
  • Basis assumed equal to balance: a taxable brokerage or crypto account with a balance and a blank cost basis.

Assumption checks cover every projected year, so an age-based curve is flagged in the years it crosses a threshold. Milestone items come from one projection of the saved plan (see Milestones and event timing).

The score isn’t a probability and doesn’t judge your plan’s outcome. A plan that runs out of money can score 100, and a plan with no Social Security can succeed. It counts only whether the inputs above are entered. For outcomes, see Success odds.