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A scenario is one version of your Financial Plan. With more than one, you can try a different choice, such as investing more, buying a home or retiring earlier, without touching your main plan, then compare the results side by side. finerd can also estimate the earliest age you could stop working, and update a scenario with your actual balances when real life drifts from the plan. Scenarios are part of Financial Plan, a finerd Pro feature for personal spaces on the web and in the iOS app; the Android app doesn’t have it. To build your first scenario, see Build a financial plan.

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Add another scenario

Every new scenario starts from your accounts as they are today, just like the first one. The first scenario you create is your primary one; the ones you add later aren’t.
  1. Open Reports > Financial plan.
  2. Select Scenario: with the current scenario’s name, then Create financial plan scenario.
  3. Choose Month, Quarter or Year, select Apply, and set up the scenario as described in Build a financial plan.
To switch scenarios, select Scenario: and choose another one. The check mark shows the one on screen.
Scenario list open under Scenario: Help test plan, showing Help test plan with a Primary badge and a check mark, Help test early retirement, and Create financial plan scenario.

The scenario list: the primary scenario comes first.

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Copy a scenario

A copy keeps everything you’ve set: rates, payments, contributions and events. Change what you want to test in the copy, and your original scenario stays as it was.
  1. Select the pencil next to Scenario: to open the scenario.
  2. Select ⋮ > Copy scenario. The name gets (copy) at the end.
  3. Rename the copy, such as Invest more, and change what you want to test.
  4. Select Save. finerd saves the copy as a new scenario.
Scenario panel with the ⋮ menu open, listing Copy scenario, Delete in red, and Contact support.

Copy scenario and Delete are in the scenario's ⋮ menu.

Changing Retirement age in a scenario you’ve already saved, including a copy, doesn’t change when your income stops and your pension starts: the plan keeps the age the scenario was first saved with. To compare retirement ages, add a new scenario on the web and set its Retirement age before you save it for the first time. On iOS, a new scenario is saved with the default age as soon as you create it.

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Change the assumptions

Open the scenario to change its assumptions: inflation, the rates of your accounts, loan payments, contributions and events. Select Save when you’re done. You can rename a scenario the same way. The breakdown by month, quarter or year can’t be changed after you create a scenario. To plan with another breakdown, add a new scenario. On iOS, changing Start scenario date fills the scenario in again from your accounts and replaces the amounts you edited.

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Compare scenarios

You need at least two scenarios to compare.
  1. In Financial plan, select the scales icon at the top right (Comparing).
  2. The current scenario and the next one are shown side by side, separated by vs. Select a scenario’s name to swap it for another, or + to add one more.
The chart shows each scenario’s net worth year by year, with an umbrella icon at each retirement. Comparison result lists, for each scenario:
  • Retirement age: the lower age is highlighted.
  • Max net worth: the highest net worth the plan reaches.
  • Net Worth at End of Plan
  • Net Worth at Retirement Age
  • Avg growth: how much net worth grows on average each year.
Financial plan toolbar with the scenario name, a pencil, Year, the scales icon with the tooltip Comparing, and the Actualize plan icon.

Point at the icons to see their names.

Comparing window for Help test independence vs Help test plan: two net worth curves from 2026 to 2090, the first peaking around 2064 and falling, the second rising to $1.33M, and a Comparison result with Retirement age 52 and 65, Max net worth $532.5k and $1.33M, and Net Worth at End of Plan $94,623 and $1.33M.

Retiring at 52 against retiring at 65.

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Find your financial independence age

Instead of you choosing a retirement age, finerd can work out the earliest age at which you could stop working: from then on, your savings and retirement income keep your net worth above zero until the end of the plan, and leave at least the Heritage amount.
  1. Open the scenario. On iOS, tap ⋮ > Scenario details.
  2. Under Calculation type, select Independence. finerd shows We will estimate the earliest age of financial independence.
  3. Select Save.
finerd uses the income in your Retirement event, such as a pension, from the age it finds. Add that income first; see Plan your retirement income. The age appears as Retirement age when you compare scenarios, and the umbrella icon in the chart moves to that year. On the web, if you still see the old age, open the report again. In the example, with a 25-year mortgage, 5,000 USD invested a year and a pension of 12,000 USD a year, finerd estimated 52. Retiring at 52, net worth peaks in the 2060s and ends the plan at about 95,000 USD; retiring at 65, it grows to 1.33 million USD.
Scenario panel Help test retire at 60 with Breakdown Year and Calculation type set to Independence, showing We will estimate the earliest age of financial independence.

Independence mode replaces the retirement age.

To choose the age yourself again, switch back to Projection and enter Retirement age.

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Update the plan with actual results

Real life rarely follows a plan. When your actual results differ a lot from your primary scenario, finerd shows a warning under the chart: Actual results differ significantly from projections. You can update any scenario at any time, with or without the warning. When you update a scenario, finerd fills it in again from your accounts:
  • the balances of your accounts as they are now,
  • your income and expenses over the last 12 months,
  • Start scenario date set to today.
Your rates, loan payments, contributions and events stay as they were. Accounts you added since are included but turned off.
  1. Select Actualize plan under the warning, or the icon to the right of the scales icon.
  2. The scenario opens with (recalculated) added to its name. Check the amounts.
  3. Select Save.
Saving replaces the scenario with the updated one. To keep the old version, first select ⋮ > Copy scenario and save the copy. Remove (recalculated) from the name if you don’t need it.
Scenario panel titled Help test early retirement (recalculated) with Calculation type Independence and Start scenario date Oct 8, 2026.

An updated scenario starts today.

The warning can appear for a scenario you’ve only just created. If your accounts haven’t changed since, there’s nothing to update.

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Choose the primary scenario

The primary scenario opens first in the report and on the dashboard widget, and only it shows the warning about actual results. On iOS, open the scenario you want, tap ⋮ > Mark primary, then Save. Remove primary mark does the opposite. On the web, the first scenario you create is the primary one, and you can’t change it there.

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Save the view as a report

To come back to a scenario and its view in one tap, save it as a report: on the web, select ⋮ > Save settings; on iOS, tap ⋮ > Save settings. The report keeps the scenario and how the chart is set up, and appears in Reports with your other saved reports. See Customize a report.

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Delete a scenario

Deleting a scenario removes it and its events for good.
Open the scenario with the pencil, select ⋮ > Delete, then confirm with Delete.