What's changed

Leave federal service before your Minimum Retirement Age and the annuity is deferred, normally to 60 or 62. The pension section said so, but the projection started paying it at your separation date anyway. Someone leaving at 50 was shown ten years of pension they would not receive. It now begins on your birthday in the year it becomes payable, and the first year is part-year. A survivor annuity is also no longer paid if the employee dies before the deferred annuity ever begins, which in real life is a refund of contributions instead.

It made every early withdrawal penalty-free. A 72(t) SEPP only covers one fixed payment a year, worked out once and held for the longer of five years or until 59½. Draw more than that and the extra is penalised and the arrangement is broken retroactively, putting the 10% back on everything already taken. The box now calculates your actual payment, shows it in dollars per year and per month, and penalises anything above it. If your plan needs more than the payment allows, it says so.

The Medicare Part B premium is added automatically at 65, so a premium left inside a single living-costs line was counted twice from 65 on. The bills section now says this, and explains that the medical tick is for out-of-pocket costs like dental, vision and copays, which is what an HSA is allowed to pay.

Where a label wrapped onto two lines, the box under it sat lower than its neighbours. Cosmetic only.

Unticking the married box cleared your survivor annuity election, which is right, but ticking it again never put the election back, and the zero was then saved over your real answer with nothing on screen to say so. For a federal retiree that quietly removes a survivor annuity and a spouse's income for life. The election is now set aside and handed back, and it survives a reload.

It was booked in the year you separate. In federal service the payment goes out in a later pay period, and a December separation is never processed before January, which is precisely why so many people leave at the very end of December. The lump now falls into the next tax year instead of stacking on top of a full year of salary. On a $150,000 salary with 568 hours, that is about $3,800 less tax across the two years.

Balance and yearly contribution per person. It pays Medicare Part B, the IRMAA surcharge and any bill you tag as medical, tax-free, before the plan works out what to withdraw, so it lowers the withdrawal and the tax rather than just the bill. Contributions stop at 65 because Medicare ends eligibility, the 55-plus catch-up is per person, and a surviving spouse inherits it as their own.

A conversion is not free. Tick this and its tax is counted with your bills rather than disappearing into the year's tax line, so a conversion year reads as what it is, a large bill you chose to pay. Nothing about the plan changes, only where the money is counted.

A stacked chart of where each year's money comes from, with a line showing what survives tax and bills. Social Security and pensions are shown per person rather than merged, so you can see whose benefit starts when and how far the survivor drops.

Every hover label on every chart read "Retirement Estimator" instead of the figures. A publishing step was overwriting them.

The places you added were dropped both when loading your file into the new version and when saving a plan to move it to another device. They now travel with both.

Every test case had retired at 62, which hid them. The FERS cost-of-living adjustment was running from your retirement date rather than from 62. The special retirement supplement was being increased for inflation when it is a fixed amount. Under an early-out the supplement was being paid before you reach your Minimum Retirement Age. And it stopped on a year boundary instead of running through your birthday month.

The Rule of 55 was tested against your age on the day you left rather than the calendar year you leave, which penalised a January exit by someone turning 55 that year. The IRA contribution limit was showing 2024 figures; 2026 is $7,500 with a $1,100 catch-up at 50 or over. A FERS disability annuity was paying a full twelve months in its first year. And "PIA at full retirement age" was displayed inflated to your claim year, reading about 8% high for someone claiming at 70.

For the decisions that are genuinely hard. When should a much younger spouse claim Social Security, given that the survivor benefit may replace their own? Is taking an early-out now better than staying to your planned date? What does a disabled child end up with? Each one sweeps the choice against a range of death ages and reports the break-even.

A 457(b) has its own contribution limit on top of your main plan and no early-withdrawal penalty once you separate, which matters a lot if you go before 55. Outside IRA balances and contributions are separate fields. And each person's card shows a countdown to their retirement date with working days remaining, holidays and leave deducted.

Compare states and 150 cities on income tax, property tax and cost of living, including the state-tax column on a conversion ladder. The ladder itself shows the tax and IRMAA cost year by year with a break-even.

Monthly amounts were being read as yearly ones. A one-time cost such as a new roof was also being charged every year instead of once.

Added as an option, along with a fix to age-50 access for special-category employees: law enforcement, firefighters and air traffic controllers.

The projection showed no withdrawals at all in that case. It also projected your balance to your Social Security claim age rather than the age you actually start drawing.

A "when can I actually go?" search that finds your earliest workable date. Health Savings Accounts. TSP and outside IRA balances split into separate fields. A printable report you can save as a PDF. How much of your income does not depend on the market. A projection horizon informed by life expectancy. An optional Social Security trust-fund stress test. And a phone layout that no longer scrolls sideways.