Plan Diagnostics is FIREproof's automated review of your saved simulation. After a run, the engine inspects the result for known anti-patterns and missed opportunities, then surfaces a summary band on Proof and a full drawer of expandable items.

The summary band on Proof

The band sits near the top of the Proof view and shows the count of items by severity. Click the band or any of its severity chips to open the full drawer.

Severities: needs attention vs. opportunity

• Needs attention (red). Something in the plan is failing or actively hurting outcomes: portfolios depleting, ACA cliffs being crossed, mandatory contributions triggering early-withdrawal penalties.
• Opportunity (teal). The plan works, but a different choice would likely improve it: unfilled bracket headroom for Roth conversions, suboptimal withdrawal ordering, FAFSA-shaping options for households with dependents.
• Assumption (amber). Calls out an input the engine had to guess or that most users would benefit from reviewing.
• Information (blue). Neutral context, not a recommendation.

Surplus Deposit Capacity alert

When working-year surplus exceeds your retirement accounts' IRS contribution limits and your plan doesn't have a taxable brokerage to absorb the rest, the engine routes the residual into your checking-style account as cash. This pushes allocation off-target and gives up the growth that money would otherwise earn.

The Surplus Deposit Capacity alert in the drawer counts the cycles where this happened and sums the dollars that landed in cash. The recommended fix is to add a taxable brokerage or investment account and place it in your cash-flow priorities — surplus has somewhere to go, and the rebalancer can keep allocation on target.

Snoozing and dismissing

Each diagnostic can be dismissed once you've considered it. Dismissals are scoped per saved simulation and are tied to an evidence hash. If the underlying numbers change in a later run, the diagnostic re-appears so you don't unintentionally hide a fresh problem.

Use the Show dismissed toggle in the drawer to bring previously-dismissed items back into view and undismiss them.

Comparison shortcuts

Many diagnostics include action buttons that wire directly to a virtual A/B comparison:

• Roth Conversions. Runs a "without conversions" virtual sim and opens it in Compare Sims.
• ACA Cap. Runs a virtual sim with the ACA subsidy cap inverted.
• Social Security Timing. Opens the What-If modal pre-loaded for the Social Security Reduced slider.
• FAFSA Optimize. Runs a virtual sim with FAFSA-optimized withdrawals enabled for the affected dependent.
• Defer Roth Conversion. Runs a virtual sim with the offending conversion shifted past the FAFSA base-year window.