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Action Plan

Your simulation's per-year internals as a plain-language to-do list: what to withdraw, convert, deposit, and pay, and why.

The Action Plan (a Pro feature) translates a simulated year into concrete steps: withdrawals per account with the reason for each, Roth conversion amounts with their sizing rationale, deposits and contributions, the year's spending target, taxes in calendar language, and suggested quarterly estimated tax payments. Every number is read directly from the simulation's own ledgers, never invented, so each step ties out to the same data the Cash Flow and Events views show.

It is This year's plan on the Proof view's Summary tab. Print / save as PDF expands it into every year of the start year you last picked in the start year bar on Year by year, Taxes or Accounts.

Year 1: steps grouped by color (withdraw, convert, deposit, spend, taxes). A group with several steps starts collapsed to one line with its total; click it to see each step. The four quarterly estimated payments sit on a timeline marked with today.

Two framings: this year vs. historical replay

Year 1 is deterministic. Every historical cycle starts from today's balances, so the first year's planned actions are the same in every history. The card presents year 1 as an imperative list: "This year's plan: do these by year end."

Later years are historical replay, not a forecast. FIREproof does not invent a synthetic "expected" future. Year N is shown per cycle, in the product's native frame: "Year 5 of the 1966 start: what would have happened." To read another history's later years, pick it with the cycle slider on Year by year, then print from Summary: the steps mirror the year detail, rendered as steps instead of ledgers.

What "(estimated)" means

Even in the deterministic first year, a few values depend on how markets move within the year: dividend income (and the withdrawals it offsets) and ACA subsidy reconciliation. Items driven by those values carry an "(estimated)" qualifier; start-of-year planned amounts (withdrawal sourcing, conversion sizing, SEPP, RMD) are exact and identical in every cycle.

Quarterly estimated payments: what's included

This section appears for US plans only; other Tax Countries collect through their own assessment process and get no payment schedule here. The suggested payments implement the US federal safe-harbor rule: pay the lesser of 90% of this year's expected tax or 100% of last year's tax (110% if last year's AGI exceeded $150,000, or $75,000 if you file separately), split evenly across the four IRS due dates (April 15, June 15, September 15, January 15). With Start from today on, the first year splits it across only the due dates still ahead. Simplifications to know about:

  • Federal only. State estimated-payment schedules are not modeled.
  • No annualized-income method. If your income is lumpy within the year, IRS Form 2210's annualized installment method may allow smaller early payments; FIREproof splits the annual figure evenly.
  • De minimis. No payments are suggested when the year's accrual is under the $1,000 safe-harbor threshold.
  • Withholding on job income counts toward the safe harbor in reality; in drawdown years (the card's main audience) there is usually none, which is why the card suggests direct quarterly payments.

Debt milestones

Loan payoffs appear in the year the balance reaches zero, including early payoffs through Cash Flow Priorities. Forgiveness has its own milestone showing whether the forgiven balance is taxable. The household's first debt-free year is marked when all existing loan, HELOC, and mortgage balances are zero. Future borrowing can create a new balance afterward.

Print / save as PDF

The panel's Print / save as PDF button lays out every year of the selected cycle as a single print-styled document and opens your browser's print dialog; choose "Save as PDF" there to export. This is the document to hand a spouse, planner, or client.

The print document: year 1 as a to-do list, later years as the selected cycle's replay.

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For sim-specific issues, open Plan Diagnostics from the Proof view. For everything else, reach out to support.