Your setup checklist
Work through these in order, top to bottom, and your plan will be built on your real numbers with nothing missed. The planner checks off each item itself as it sees the information go in — press Go → to jump straight to the right place.
Yearly check-up
Once a year — ideally in January, when your year-end pay stub arrives — refresh these so your plan stays accurate.
Accuracy checks
Things that are easy to get wrong and quietly throw off your projection. If one is intentional, dismiss it.
Personal information
The facts about you that the whole planner uses — entered once, here. Other tabs show them with an “Edit” link back to this page. Nothing here leaves your browser.
About you
Used to label your plan and your backups.
The day you stop flying — every projection pivots on it.
Today is — to go ( days).
Household & taxes
The state where you'll live in retirement. Rates are approximate starting points for a typical retiree's income — check yours and edit.
Pilot profile
These set your pay from the NJASAP contract tables. Your base schedule, extra pay and pay stubs are on the Income tab.
Account summary
Manage accounts (rename, add, remove)
Current allocation (computed)
Live prices
Optional — fetches current (delayed) quotes directly from Finnhub for whatever you're holding, so the numbers here can move between CSV imports. Free key at finnhub.io — it stays in this browser only and is never sent anywhere but Finnhub.
Finnhub's free tier allows about 60 requests per minute. A single refresh is paced to stay under that, so it takes 20-30 seconds for a full portfolio rather than finishing instantly — that's expected, not a hang. Clicking Refresh several times in a row within the same minute can still trip the limit, since it's a shared per-minute allowance; if you see "too many requests," just wait a minute and try again rather than clicking repeatedly.
Individual holdings
Tag each holding's asset class once; the tool remembers that tag by symbol from then on. Re-importing a CSV replaces only that one account's rows — every other account is left untouched.
Enter shares and Refresh prices (Live prices, below) keeps this holding current. Leave it blank for funds without a public price quote — many 401(k) core funds — and update their value by hand.
| Symbol | Description | Account | Asset class | Shares | Market value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand total | ||||||
| Net worth, including assets not counted toward retirement | ||||||
Pre-retirement contributions
From the 401(k) match schedule below. It matches your regular contribution plus the standard catch-up — not the extra age 60–63 catch-up, and not flight pay.
Flight-pay 401(k) contribution — not matched
Edit 401(k) match schedule
Per the plan document's 29.4 "Increases to 401(k) Match" schedule — edit if the plan changes again.
Starting point
Your starting balance for every projection is the total of everything entered on the Holdings tab. Add or edit holdings there — this tab only covers what gets added going forward, each year, until retirement.
Projected income
Pilot profile & schedule
The base schedule is what every bid period uses unless you change it in the table below. Your seat, aircraft, date of hire and retirement date come from the Personal Information tab.
A typical year — extra pay
Rough annual estimates are fine — last year's pay stubs are the best guide. Each one is spread evenly across the year at whatever daily or hourly rate is in effect.
PTO: you earn 12 days a year. Unused days over your 24-day Active bank are cashed out each January — 110% of your daily rate for 5 or more days, 100% under 5 (10.6). What's left in your bank is paid at your daily rate when you retire (10.7).
Fill in from a pay stub
Drop a NetJets earnings statement (the ADP PDF) and the planner reads its year-to-date totals — extended days, overtime, FDP, night pay, holidays, tour slides, PTO cash-out — and turns them into the "typical year" numbers above. A year-end (December) statement gives the best picture; a mid-year one is scaled up to a full year. The PDF is read on this device only — it is never uploaded or saved. Set your date of hire, seat and aircraft category first.
Enter your date of hire above to see your projected income.
Schedule by bid period
Set a schedule for each bid period of the year and it applies every year through retirement. Then change any single period in the table below. The "vs. base schedule" figures compare against flying your base schedule every period. 8-day tours (Crew Choice only) and the Tour Slide Program (7&7 / 8&6 only) add their premiums. CC52 in a large-cabin fleet gets the 3% override automatically.
Income by year
How this is calculated
Base wage comes from the Section 27.1 tables for your schedule, seat, aircraft category, service year and contract year. Contract raises take effect May 1. Service years step up on your hire anniversary, and pay stays at the year-14 rate after that. Each day earns 1/365th of the annual rate in effect that day, so mid-year changes prorate exactly. After the 5/1/2029 table, each May 1 applies the raise you pick above.
Daily rate = base ÷ 182 (7&7), 208 (8&6), 156 / 180 / 216 / 228 (CC52 / 60 / 72 / 76) — 27.2(A). Overtime = base ÷ 2,184 × 1.5 — 27.2(B). Company extended days and holidays pay 1.5× the daily rate; voluntary extended days and VAWD pay 2.5× — 27.2(C), (D). An after-midnight return pays 2.5 days' pay — 19.8(B). A company-initiated tour slide pays ½ a daily rate per day slid — 19.6(D).
FDP is $204/hr in 2026, rising to $210 in 2029, then +2% a year — 27.2(G). Night flight, end-of-day and night duty pay start at $50/hr and rise 2% every January 1 from 2024 ($53.06 in 2026) — 27.2(H), (I). 33% of those four goes to your 401(k) as a non-elective contribution, with no match — 27.2(J). The 8-day tour / CC52 large-cabin override adds 3% of base — 27.2(F). The Tour Slide Program adds 2.5% — 19.10(D).
Unused PTO cashed out each January pays 110% of the daily rate for 5–12 days (100% under 5), and the PTO left in your bank is paid at your daily rate when you retire — 10.6(B), 10.7. The longevity bonus is 4% of the prior 12 months' base wage, paid on each anniversary after you complete service year 15, with a pro-rata payment at retirement — 27.1(G). Supplemental duty positions add the 27.2(E) annual wage, $500 per check ride, and $50 (CA/TR) or $75 (EA-D) per FDP hour. A TR is paid as a CA during the TR phase-out. The contract's SDP table has no CC52 column, so CC52 uses the 7&7/CC60 amount.
Not included: per diem, expense reimbursement, training-month extended days, and anything negotiated after the 2024 Amended Agreement. These are pre-tax estimates, not a pay guarantee.
Your Social Security
Step 1Get your estimates from Social Security
Social Security works out your benefit from your own earnings record, so the most accurate numbers come straight from them. It takes about 10 minutes the first time.
- Go to ssa.gov/myaccount and choose Sign in.
You'll sign in through Login.gov or ID.me. First time? Create an account there — you'll need an email, your phone, and a photo ID to verify who you are.
- Once you're in, open the Plan for Retirement section (your retirement benefit estimates).
It shows what you'd get each month depending on the age you start — usually with a slider or table from age 62 to 70. You can also download your full Social Security Statement (PDF), which lists the same estimates.
- Write down your monthly benefit at full retirement age — that's 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.
If you like, also note the amounts at 62 and 70 so the planner can double-check its math against yours.
- Married? Have your spouse do the same in their own account and note their benefit at full retirement age.
If they never worked, or worked very little, that's fine — enter 0 and the planner works out the spousal benefit they can get from your record.
The estimates are in today's dollars and assume you keep earning about what you earn now until you start. The planner grows them with inflation each year (Social Security's annual cost-of-living raise). Nothing you enter here leaves this browser.
Step 3Choose when you'll start
Starting earlier means smaller checks for more years; waiting means bigger checks for fewer. The break-even age is when waiting has paid you the same total as starting at 62 — if you expect to live past it, waiting comes out ahead.
Not sure? Compare starting ages →
If you start before you stop flying, Social Security's earnings test holds back most of the benefit while you're still earning, so the planner counts it from your retirement date (Retirement Goal tab) or your start age, whichever is later.
When should you start? Compare the options
The trade-off: start early and get smaller checks for more years, or wait and get bigger checks — guaranteed for life and raised with inflation — for fewer years. Which pays more depends mostly on how long you live, and on what else your money is doing meanwhile.
Starting early (62–64)
- + Money sooner — you collect for more years.
- + Better if your health or family history points to a shorter life.
- + Lets you draw less from your portfolio in early retirement, leaving it invested.
- − Permanently smaller: about 30% less at 62 than at 67, for life.
- − A smaller check for your surviving spouse, if you're the higher earner.
- − While you're still flying, the earnings test holds back most of it.
Waiting (67–70)
- + Bigger checks: +8% for every year you wait past 67 — 24% more at 70.
- + Guaranteed for life and raised with inflation — insurance against outliving your savings.
- + The larger check becomes your surviving spouse's check for the rest of their life.
- − You draw more from your portfolio until it starts.
- − If you die early, you collect less in total.
- − No extra credit for waiting past 70.
Totals are in today's dollars (yearly cost-of-living raises lift every option alike, so they don't change which comes out ahead). Not tax or legal advice — for big decisions, talk with a fee-only planner.
Step 4Spouse (optional)
Edit in Personal Information →
A spouse gets their own benefit or, if it's larger, up to half of your full-retirement-age benefit — the planner adds the difference. The spousal part can't start until you've started yours, gets no credit for waiting past their full retirement age, and is reduced if they take it early.
Step 5How it fits your retirement plan
Social Security's trustees project its retirement trust fund will run short in the early 2030s. If Congress doesn't act, incoming payroll taxes would still pay roughly 77–80% of scheduled benefits. Turn this on to see your plan with that cut.
Your retirement goal
How much do you want to spend each year in retirement?
This is the number the whole planner is built around. Enter it in today's money — what that lifestyle costs now. The planner raises it with inflation to the year you retire, and every year after.
Current allocation (from Schwab imports)
What you actually hold right now, computed from every account on the Holdings tab. Together with the expected returns below, it sets how fast your portfolio is projected to grow.
Expected return by asset class
Your assumptions for each kind of investment, before and after you retire. They blend with your current allocation to produce your projected return — and with any mixes you build under Scenarios. Change one here and every projection updates.
Gross vs. net: taxes in retirement
Every dollar you spend in retirement comes from somewhere, and each kind of account is taxed differently. 401(k)/IRA withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. Roth withdrawals are tax-free. From a brokerage account only the gain is taxed — at 0% while your total taxable income stays under about $98,900 (married), 15% above. Up to 85% of Social Security can be taxable, depending on your other income. And from age 75 (73 if born 1951–59) you must take a required minimum distribution from your 401(k)/IRA every year. Which account you draw from first changes how much you have to withdraw to end up with the same spending money.
Your tax picture
The gain share is how much of your brokerage account is growth rather than money you put in. It's worked out from the cost basis in your Schwab CSVs when they include it; type a number to use your own instead.
Your accounts by tax type
Guessed from the account names — correct any that are wrong. A Roth 401(k) or Roth IRA is "Roth"; a regular 401(k), PCRA or IRA is "Pre-tax"; a brokerage account is "Taxable".
Gross vs. net
Over your whole retirement
Your savings over time with each strategy, after subtracting the tax still owed on what's in the 401(k)/IRA — so a dollar in a Roth and a dollar in a 401(k) are compared fairly.
401(k) first
- Shrinks the 401(k) early, so required minimums later are smaller.
- But every dollar is taxed as ordinary income, and it can push more Social Security into tax.
Brokerage first, then 401(k), Roth last
- The usual rule of thumb: low tax early, since much of a brokerage sale is cost basis and gains can be taxed at 0%.
- But the 401(k) keeps growing untouched, and at 75 its required minimums can force large taxable withdrawals.
Fill the 12% or 22% bracket + Roth conversions
- Each year take 401(k) money up to the top of that bracket — even more than you spend — and move the extra into a Roth. Cover any remaining spending from the brokerage account; keep Roth for last.
- Pays tax at a known, lower rate now so less is left for required minimums to push into higher brackets later. With a large 401(k), the 22% fill often wins.
Worth knowing
- Not modeled: Medicare premium surcharges (IRMAA — conversions can raise them), itemized deductions, and state-specific retirement exclusions beyond the notes above.
- Planning estimates on 2026 tax law, indexed for inflation — not tax advice. A CPA can fine-tune this for you.
How “Fill 22% + Roth” works
Optional — for comparing "what if" portfolio mixes. Each card below is a target mix (or, for Custom, a pair of returns). Turn on Show on Growth Projections to draw a mix next to your current portfolio; leave them off and Growth Projections shows only your current portfolio and the Custom line. A mix blends with the expected returns on the other tab, and one mix applies to the whole scenario — only the expected return changes at retirement, using each asset class's post-retirement number.
Conservative
Balanced
Aggressive
Custom returns
Always shown on Growth ProjectionsSkip the asset mix and set the returns directly. Drawn as a dashed line.
Portfolio growth
To compare other portfolio mixes (Conservative, Balanced, Aggressive), turn them on under Retirement Goal → Scenarios.
No holdings yet — add or import them on the Holdings tab to see projections.
Milestones
Show year-by-year detail
Sample portfolio
Loads the made-up example portfolio (four accounts, about $1.2M, a Captain 20 years from retirement) to show someone how the planner works. It replaces everything in this browser, so use Export data at the bottom first if you want to keep yours.
Asset class names
Rename any of the asset classes used throughout the tool — holdings, allocation targets, returns, and legends all update to match. This only changes the label; it doesn't move any money or affect calculations.