Tools & Resources
Retirement Income Gap Analyzer
A retirement income gap analysis compares your expected income against your expected expenses — surfacing the shortfall you'll need to cover.
What an Income Gap Is
The difference between your projected retirement expenses and your projected guaranteed income (Social Security, pensions, lifetime annuities).
Why It Matters
If your gap is small, your portfolio has less work to do. If it's large, you'll be drawing heavily from savings — making sequence and longevity risk much more important.
How the Analysis Works
Add up essential and discretionary expenses. Add up guaranteed monthly income. Subtract. The result is your monthly gap that must be funded from savings or new income sources.
Strategies to Close the Gap
Delay retirement, delay Social Security, reduce expenses, add part-time income, or convert a portion of savings to lifetime guaranteed income via an annuity.
The Bottom Line
Knowing the gap turns retirement planning from guessing into engineering. It's one of the most clarifying exercises a retiree can do.