Portfolio at Retirement is one of the most important boxes in Test Your Retirement Plan calculator. It is also one of the easiest to flatter. Brochure balances, house equity you do not plan to sell, and cash you already earmarked for emergencies can all sneak into the number. When they do, the success rate smiles for the wrong reason.

This page is about what belongs in Portfolio at Retirement versus emergency cash, how importing from Growth Projection calculator should work, how to treat debts and loans against accounts, and what not to count. Honesty here is not pessimism. It is how you keep the flashlight pointed at invested capital that can actually fund withdrawals. Use the free calculators at pathtosoundretirement.com.

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What the box is asking for

Portfolio at Retirement means the invested capital you expect to have available for the retirement test when withdrawals begin - typically the sum of taxable brokerage, traditional retirement accounts, Roth accounts, and similar invested balances that will fund the plan. It is not "net worth" in the full personal-finance sense. It is not every asset you own. It is the pile the Monte Carlo engine will grow, shrink, and withdraw from across simulated paths.

If you are still learning the two calculators, start with How to Use the Calculator. Growth Projection helps you estimate how a current balance and contribution path might grow until a target year. Test Your Retirement Plan asks what happens after paychecks stop. The import button, located in the Test Your Retirement Plan calculator, is a bridge between those stories - not a license to paste a number you would not defend out loud.

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Portfolio at Retirement vs emergency cash

Emergency cash and an early-retirement spending buffer are real. They are also usually not part of the invested engine. If you plan to keep two years of withdrawals in cash or cash-like holdings so you are not forced to sell in a bad market, that cash is doing a different job. Put the invested remainder in Portfolio at Retirement. Model lower near-term withdrawals from the invested portfolio if cash will fund year one or two. See Cash Buffers in Early Retirement.

Mixing the buffer into Portfolio at Retirement while still assuming the same aggressive equity-like mean return double-counts calm. The cash is safer and slower. The invested pile is the part that faces volatility. Honest inputs keep those roles separate so the success rate does not flatter you.

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Importing from Growth Projection

Growth Projection is useful when retirement is still years away. You start with today's invested balance, add contributions, choose years to grow, and use a moderate return assumption. The ending balance is an estimate, not a promise. Importing that ending balance into Test Your Retirement Plan is sane when the Growth Projection inputs were themselves honest.

Check the chain. Did Growth Projection include only investable accounts? Did it exclude the house? Did contributions match what you can sustain, not a peak month? Did the return assumption stay moderate rather than heroic? If Growth Projection was optimistic theater, the import simply moves that theater into the retirement test. Building Your Nest Egg and Starting Later Than You Wanted both stress contribution and time over fantasy returns - keep that spirit when you import.

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Brochure balances vs real invested capital

Statements can include unsettled trades, employer match not yet vested, or "as of" dates that lag reality. Loans against a 401(k) reduce what is truly available. Pending tax bills on a taxable account are not a portfolio asset. Round to what you could actually deploy into the plan if retirement started on the date you are testing.

Taxable versus retirement accounts can still sum into one Portfolio at Retirement total for the test. The calculator's tax rate on withdrawals is a blunt planning estimate for the mix you expect to sell, not a full tax engine. Count the invested capital once. Then choose a withdrawal-tax estimate you can defend. Do not add the same dollars twice because they sit in different account types.

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Debts, loans against accounts, and what not to count

Count carefully: vested balances you can invest and later withdraw under your plan rules. Net of outstanding plan loans if the loan balance is still owed. After any known near-term tax settlement that will leave the account.

Usually leave out: primary house equity unless you truly plan to sell or otherwise convert that equity into investable capital on a defined timeline. Cars. Personal belongings. Lottery hopes. An inheritance you have not received. A business valuation you would not sell next year. Future Social Security belongs in other income, not in Portfolio at Retirement.

House equity can matter in a broader household plan. In this box, including it without a real sale plan inflates the engine that Monte Carlo thinks it can withdraw from. That is how success rate becomes a compliment instead of a test. For why a perfect-looking rate can still mislead, see What a 100% Success Rate Does Not Mean.

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Honesty so success rate does not flatter

A softer Portfolio at Retirement number that you believe is kinder than a hard number that only works on paper. When the honest input hurts, the next moves are controllable: save more while working, spend less in retirement, delay the start date, increase other income you actually expect, or rethink fees and costs. Inventing a larger starting balance is not a strategy.

Change one lever at a time after you lock an honest portfolio figure. If you raise portfolio size and mean return and cut spending in the same run, you will not know which honesty problem you fixed.

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Common traps

• Pasting total net worth into Portfolio at Retirement
• Including house equity with no sale plan
• Counting cash buffers as if they earn the portfolio mean return
• Ignoring 401(k) loans or pending taxes that reduce available capital
• Importing a Growth Projection ending balance built on hero returns
• Adding the same dollars twice across account types
• Treating an inheritance rumor as invested capital

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A 30-day pass

This week: list every account that will fund retirement withdrawals. Subtract cash you are reserving on purpose. Subtract outstanding plan loans. Write one number you would defend to a skeptical friend.

This month: enter that number in Test Your Retirement Plan. If you use Growth Projection, rebuild it with the same honesty and re-import. Compare success rate and 10th percentile to your old brochure version. Keep the honest one. Private by design: the work stays in your browser.

Closing

Portfolio at Retirement should be invested capital you can actually put to work in the test - not a collage of net worth, home equity, and hope. Separate emergency cash and spending buffers. Net out loans. Import from Growth Projection only when that projection was sober. Honesty may lower the success rate today. That is the point of a flashlight.

From pressure to peace starts when the number in the box matches the money that will face sequence risk, inflation, and withdrawals in real life.

This article is for educational purposes only and is not personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Illustrative figures use simplified assumptions and are not forecasts. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Always consult a qualified advisor for decisions about your personal situation.