I had watched a bunch of videos on the timing of claiming social security and had concluded I was taking Social Security early (62), because you don't know how long you are going to live (party now!) and I would not pull that money out of my portfolio for the 8 years i was claiming SS from 62 to 70, thereby getting the full growth of that portfolio money for those years.

Boldin AI is telling me I can increase my chance of success by taking SS at 70, and that my 'breakeven' on taking it later is dying at 80. I also asked what portfolio rate of return would make claiming at 62 better than 70, and it said i'd have to average over 11% return annually for my portfolio to beat later SS.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had AI tell them to claim later, and if you've cross-verified that is the right thing to do? AI's explanation looked right to me btw, but i'd love to hear others' experience as is a big change from what I thought I 'knew'.

I won't mention this specific advisor's name. Pretty much all the advisor did was seem very NON personable, NEVER once asked us for our goals, never really gave any guidance; bare minimum suggestions verbally but literally nothing written in a plan other than the downloadable PDF that was the software creates. The "advisor" view is pretty much copied and pasted from one of our other scenarios. I'm really not seeing the value in the $$ we spent for the session other than they confirmed our plan will "likely" work if we are flexible in case of a severe market downtown. Um, ok thanks?

Anyone else have a super lukewarm experience? I really don't feel more prepared or more confident. Still fuzzy on lots of details.

39M, married (38), with 2 kids (2 and 4). Have started playing around with retirement software and seeing if it would be feasible for my wife and I to retire early around 50-55. I know the Monte Carlo calculators and software are only as good as the inputs that you feed in, but I am currently getting fairly different results in the calculators when trying to set up a similar plan between Boldin and ProjectionLab. Boldin gives my current plan a 75% success rate whereas ProjectionLab gives it a 93% success rate.

Is this difference common? Is it because I'm still about 10-15 years out and the numbers will line up better as I approach my goal retirement? I know the default rates can be adjusted, but I currently have the rate of inflation at 3% on each, with the rate of investment returns kept at the software defaults (Boldin actually has a higher default rate of return than PL, so odd that the Monte Carlo is lower in Boldin).

Just started using Boldin, so I appreciate any and all input.

My question is, I have some taxable accounts and have imported them as such. The problem is, without knowing the cost basis, I fear Boldin is going to assume the entirety of the account is taxable, when in fact there is some cost basis to each. Fidelity doesn't seem to report the cost basis, or I cannot easily find it.

Has anyone using Fidelity found a solution to this issue?

TIA!

I have been tripped up by two quirks in Boldin related to retirement plans of which I think many users may be unaware. Falling prey to them made my retirement plan overly optimistic and could have led me to spend more in early years jeopardizing chances for a safe retirement.

Quirk 1 - Boldin may lead the user to think that by indicating they plan to use real estate equity to cover long term healthcare some action will be taken to reflect that in the plan - by, for example, adjusting the future value of their home to reflect using it to pay those expenses.

In actuality, Boldin does absolutely nothing when that option is selected. IMO at a minimum it should explicitly tell the user that they need to modify their plan by, for example, selling the home or borrowing against its value to increase assets and then adding corresponding expenses in their plans.

Quirk 2 - Boldin considers expenses entered as "One-Time Expenses" to be future value - not adjusted for inflation over the intervening years. So, for example, if a user models a long-term care expense of $120K per year for 3 years prior to end-of-life, Boldin assumes that the actual expense in those years will be $120K each year in then-year dollars. Obviously, this is wildly optimistic given the historic rates of inflation for such services. IMO it should treat all expenses (both recurring and one-time) as current year dollars and adjust them for inflation.

Falling prey to either of these quirks could result in an overly optimistic retirement plan - potentially wildly so.

I've pointed out these issues to the Boldin AI and was told it would notify the developers.

Is it possible to move Vanguard Tax Managed Balanced fund VTMFX from Vanguard taxable brokerage to Fidelity taxable brokerage account. But I don’t see VTMFX in Fidelity at all.
I have VPMAX in Vanguard Roth account. When I search for VPMAX in Fidelity, it is available with a transaction fees. Why is the difference?

I would like to consolidate into Fidelity but would like to retain VTMFX. Is it possible at all? Thanks for any replies

I’m a new user to Boldin. Created login with email with Boldin.com. When I login it says I’m Pure Financial Advisors (PFA) user and logs into website which shows PFA logo at the top. Was able to create an initial plan to review with an upgrade option to “Planner Plus”.

My question is Boldin and PFA are they the same?
Please let me know. Thanks

I’ve been modeling scenario after scenario on Boldin to find a Roth conversion strategy that makes sense. And it seems that no Roth conversions makes the most sense. Am I missing something?

My husband just turned 60 and retired. We have about $1.5 million in a tax-deferred 401k. We’ve been modeling three Roth conversions over the next three years and all but the $100 K per year causes a reduction in net worth at longevity. And the $100 K per year scenario only adds about $45 k in net worth and $200 K less in lifetime taxes.

Unless we are missing something it feels like we should just accept the higher IRMAA fees and taxes.

We have our ages at longevity set to 75 for him and 85 for me but even when we extended the ages it did not move the bar much.

Just found out that boldin does not recognize the fact that PA does not tax IRA withdraws (or conversions). This seems to me to be a pretty big bug that can multiple over the years on the withdraws from our Traditional IRAs. I am a very big proponent of Boldin - but this has dampened my faith in it greatly as to me, this is a key issue. Now, maybe the AI is wrong? I hope so, but if that's the case, how does it get something so straightforward wrong.

https://preview.redd.it/iatbg63st4jh1.png?width=866&format=png&auto=webp&s=adb74bf0124294e8d02c1010072710bed4825fde

Hi. Just got the program and first post here. Punched in all the numbers and got a 99% chance of success even on the pessimistic setting.

The coach suggested Roth conversions, adding more money for travel and extra spending for home services and wellness. It was still 99% on the pessimistic setting. I live rather simply currently (single) and the suggested spending seems almost extravagant (but fun!).

Is the coach to be trusted? I was asking a bunch of questions and at one point the program doubled my investment figure though I caught it right away and the program reset it. Thanks for your thoughts!

Hey there
I'm curious what the general stance is on a few rates to use, specifically Inflation , Social Security COLA and medical inflation.

I started to use the built in averages, which I believe was 2.5% for inflation. I decided to change that to 3% just seeing how its been the last 8 years.....and also changed COLA to 2.5 from 3.
That made a drastic difference.....going from 99% to 92%, but also in pessimistic mode running out of money...yikes.
I believe these rates are fixed, and so in theory I could change them each year to be more accurate - and I do realize Monte Carlo should be running those kind of scenarios - but was just a little surprised how much a .5% change made ......
In reality its a 'living plan' so I can adjust spending each year, as we should - but still kind of freaked me out....

Thanks
John

I'm 58 and retired and drawing ~$50/year from my trad IRA until 59.5 and paying the 10% penalty. I want to model drawing from the basis of my Roth (so no 10% penalty or taxes) until 59.5 and then switch to the Boldin traditional w/d strategy. This would also reduce my taxable income until 59.5, saving me money on my ACA Health Plan.

Anyone know how to model this for long term impact on my retirement plan?

I may very well end up paying for an annual subscription, but first I want to make the most of the 14-day free trial, which I haven’t yet started, to see if Boldin is right for me.

What prep would you suggest doing to make the most of the trial period before starting it? We keep spreadsheets with retirement savings broken out by account type, our budget, and other basic financials. Any scenarios we’d want to have mapped out? Any videos/posts/tutorials you found helpful to hit the ground running when you have access to the tool?

We’re mid-journey to retirement (~15 years out) and think Boldin may be most useful for figuring out where we should be putting our money, whether to switch some future investments away from traditional and towards Roth or brokerage, and our ability to do Roth conversions in retirement to avoid RMD problems.

Thanks!

Soon to be 56 male and I hate my job, my wife and I want to spend more time in Europe and downsize. I am fortunate that some of my early investments have paid off and Boldin says I have a 93% chance of success in an average market and still about 80 in a pessimistic. I’m even using the new reduced SS feature they have. My biggest cost of living here now will be healthcare since the house is paid off. I think im just blocked from doing it because im reliant on a tool. I did the meeting for $250 already which helped me complete some areas I had wrong. I watch financial planning videos for strategy and to get comfortable I’ve looked at everything. I think now it’s just the mental block of the risk of unknown market turmoil and the anti-society view of you are too young to be retired. How to people switch off all that and mentally get to day one I’m retired???

Edit: LOL that original missing comma! I love my wife. We will be 30 years next weekend. 😂

I can not get the software to accurately reflect my annual 401(k) contributions after entering the deductions under the income tab. The AI agent has blamed everything from using future dollars to the inflation rate to account for huge discrepancies. Meanwhile I keep pointing out that it can't do math and it's answers make no sense. It then apologizes, says I'm right and proceeds to come up with another theory that I've already pointed out is BS. Can anyone from Boldin contact me for a screen sharing so I can show them what I'm talking about.

The new AI functionality is helpful at times - especially if you just need help finding or doing something. However, I've been asking questions about different sceanarios and also questioning some of the calculations, and it has come up with some responses that are just plain wrong. I just don't trust it anymore. I know this AI is likely in early stages and beta mode and being developed in house but, just cautioning that it seems very buggy.

Has anyone heard of any security issues when using Boldin's connections to other accounts? I'm hyper-nervous and always input manually. I hate the terms and conditions for this feature.

Any negative experiences?

I’m having some trouble figuring out the best way to work with Boldin.

Is the best approach to start with a very basic retirement plan and save that as my baseline, then test major decisions one at a time — things like windfalls, Roth conversion strategies, and Social Security timing?

For example:

• Build and save a baseline
• Run the Roth Explorer on that baseline
• Decide whether to apply or disregard the recommendation
• Then move on to another variable or experiment

But this is where I get confused: wouldn’t I need to duplicate the baseline before applying any Explorer recommendation? Otherwise, if I apply the Roth Explorer changes directly to the baseline, I’ve now changed my baseline.

So would the workflow really be more like:

• Baseline
• Duplicate baseline → run/apply Roth Explorer → save as Roth scenario
• Duplicate baseline → test Social Security strategy → save as SS scenario
• Duplicate baseline → test windfall or other assumptions
• Then create additional scenarios combining the strategies that look promising

Basically, I’m trying to build the plan out in layers so I can understand what each decision is actually doing, rather than changing five things at once and losing track of what caused the result.

For those of you who use Boldin this way, what’s the best workflow between the AI tools, Explorers, and saved Scenarios?

How do you go from a basic baseline to a more fully optimized retirement plan without making the model too complicated to understand?

I had so much questions about my inputs and results between scenarios. I asked and it answered with good explanation. Just incredible! It saved me so much time and headaches. For example, I asked it to check all my input and flag any errs and discrepancies and it found a few with dates and amount especially with healthcare costs. Comparing on taxes, income, ROTH conversion, expenses on all scenarios rather just 3 in the scenarios comparison tool. I love this AI feature. It's worth the yearly subscription!

Inheritance cash already entered. I will eventually have a substantial real estate windfall around 2.5m split with my brother. Do I just enter this as projected Cash as well? We will not likely sell the properties until I am passed on.