All the Numbers

Scenarios and life events

From the All the Numbers wiki · The plan itself

The Scenarios page holds a copy of the active plan. On it you drop cards for things that could happen, place them in a month, give them an amount, and see the plan's net worth re-drawn. The real plan is not changed until you add the copy to it or save it as a new plan. Comparing two plans side by side means changing one thing at a time.

Each event is a dated change to the plan that goes through the ordinary projection, the same one used by the other pages and by the stress tests. Tax, withdrawals and borrowing respond to it as they would to any other month.[1]

The events

  • One-time cost. A car, a roof, a wedding. A cash event in its month.
  • Money in. An inheritance, a gift, a bonus. A cash event in its month.
  • Pay change. An amount added to, or taken from, the yearly pay in effect for its span. It never gives pay back to a month that has none, such as a gap in work or the years after retirement.
  • Pay stops. Nil pay for its span, such as a job loss or parental leave.
  • Spending change. An amount added to monthly living costs for its span, such as a child or a car payment.
  • Markets drop. Sets the return of every investment account for the calendar years chosen. Savings earn interest and are not touched.
  • Rate jump at renewal. Every mortgage renews in that month at the starting rate plus the jump, over the amortization left. See mortgage payments.

Amounts

Changes over a span, such as a pay or spending change, are typed in today's dollars. They follow the plan's indexation, like the pay and living costs they change; see inflation and today's dollars.

A one-time or repeating cost or money in, such as a trip or a gift, is also typed in today's dollars: a $20,000 cost in 2028 shows as $20,000 with today's dollars on, and is grown with the plan's inflation to what it costs in 2028. A payment into or out of an account is booked at the amount you type, in its own year, because contribution room and withdrawals are counted in the dollars of the day.[2]

What it deliberately does not

  • A pay stop does not add Employment Insurance benefits, which the engine does not model. A plan with a job loss therefore shows less income than a real one would.
  • It does not say how likely any event is. For a spread of market outcomes see Monte Carlo.
  • The household types every amount. Nothing here is a typical cost.

See also

  • Events outside the plan's horizon · An event, purchase or sale dated before the plan starts or after it ends is ignored rather than clamped into range, and the plan says which one it dropped.
  • How a mortgage payment is worked out · A fixed-rate Canadian mortgage compounds its interest twice a year, not monthly, so the monthly payment comes from a rate slightly lower than the quoted rate divided by twelve. The default rate is 4.27%, and the rate stays fixed for the whole amortization.
  • Inflation and today's dollars · The default inflation rate is 2.5% a year. A future dollar amount can be shown as is, or divided by (1 + inflation) for each year to show what it would buy today.
  • Monte Carlo: many market histories · The Simulation page runs the plan 500 times with investment returns and home prices drawn at random each year, then shows the spread of net worth and how many runs finish, borrow or run out of money.
  • Net worth, as the plan counts it · Net worth is everything the plan holds (cash, investment and registered accounts, homes at market value) minus mortgages, credit lines, debts and tax owing. It is not reduced for selling costs or for tax on money still in an RRSP.
  • Renting versus buying · All the Numbers compares a plan that buys a home with the same plan that never buys, and the money the home would have taken stays in your accounts and is saved like any other leftover cash. It shows when owning pulls ahead on net worth, if it does. It is a comparison under assumptions, not a verdict.
  • Stress tests · A stress test reruns the whole plan with one thing made worse, such as a higher mortgage rate at renewal or a year of lost income, and reports how far final net worth moves and whether the plan still pays its bills. It carries no probabilities.
  • When the plan runs short of cash · When a month needs more money than the plan has, it draws savings in a set order, then borrows on a home equity line at 5.13% and an unsecured line at 8.38%, as far as a lender would lend. When no lender would lend more, the projection stops.

References

  1. ↑FP Canada / IQPF Projection Assumption Guidelines (projections run on the planner's chosen assumptions); our convention · A simulated event is a dated change to the plan run through the ordinary simulation, like a stress test: a one-time amount is a cash event in its month; a pay change adds to (or takes from) the monthly pay in effect for its span and never gives pay back to a month without it (a gap, or after retirement); a pay stop is nil pay for its span; a spending change adds to living costs for its span; a market drop sets the return of every invested account (savings earn interest and are untouched) for its calendar years; a rate jump renews every mortgage in its month at the starting rate plus the jump, over the amortization left. Amounts are typed in today's dollars and follow the plan's indexation like the salary and living costs they change · effective 2026-09-30
  2. ↑Our convention: an amount a person has in mind now is in today's dollars and is restated to a later year by inflation, as the Bank of Canada inflation calculator restates one · A one-time or repeating cost or money in that is not tied to an account is typed in today's dollars and grown each January at the plan's inflation rate to its own year, as pay and living costs are; a payment into or out of an account is booked at the amount typed, in its own year's dollars, because contribution room and withdrawals are in nominal dollars · effective 2026-10-31