Forecasting lets you project your net worth and cash flow over time based on your real account data, spending history, and life events — letting you model the financial impact of major milestones like retirement, buying a home, or having a child.

📽️ See the Forecasting walkthrough video here!

Table of Contents

• Setting up Forecasting
• Understanding Forecasting
• The forecast chart
• The forecast table
• High-level assumptions
• Account-level assumptions
• Live events
• Forecasting setup checklist
• Frequently asked questions

Setting up Forecasting

When you navigate to Forecasting for the first time, you'll be guided through a short setup flow. Forecasting seeds your projection with data you've already set up in Monarch — so you can start exploring right away and refine from there.

Step 1: Start your forecast

The Forecasting landing screen gives you a preview of what the feature does. As a Monarch Plus member, you can click Build your forecast to begin setup.

Step 2: Confirm your information

To begin, you’ll review a few key details pulled from your existing Monarch data:

• Household members: Your household members appear here with checkboxes. You can disable any participant as needed. If your household has only one member, no checkbox is shown.
• Your age: Forecasting uses your birth date to anchor your financial timelines. If your birth date isn't on file, you'll be prompted to enter it here.
• Assumption summary: A snapshot of your take-home income, living expenses, total assets, and total liabilities is pulled from your Monarch data. You can add additional accounts here, or click “Edit assumptions” to make other changes.

Click Continue when everything looks good.

Step 3: Configure your accounts

Next, you'll see a full list of your connected accounts and which are included in your forecast by default. Select accounts you'll save into, pay down, and draw from during retirement and career breaks. Most people will exclude credit cards that are paid in full each month (since these don’t represent real long-term debt), and for most people real estate will be excluded as well (since this can inflate your net worth and skew retirement calculations). However, if you have a rental property, or plan to downsize and sell your home in retirement, you can toggle it on here.

Click Continue when your account list looks right.

Step 4: Add take-home income

Forecasting models your income as named yearly take-home income sources. Each included member will have this field pre-filled with a default starting value, with the household take-home income from the last 12 months being divided equally among the members. This can be updated as needed.

From here, you can rename a source, update its amount, add additional income sources (a side hustle, rental income, freelance work, etc.), or remove a participant's source entirely if they're not currently earning. You must keep at least one income source to complete onboarding.

Note: Icon editing coming soon!

Click Continue when your income is set up.

Step 5: Choose your retirement age

Use the slider or dropdown to set the age at which you plan to stop working. If you're not sure yet, pick something reasonable, and you can adjust it at any time after setup. When guessing, it’s better to err on the side of an earlier retirement age.

Click Continue. That's the end of onboarding!

Step 6: Explore your forecast

Before you land on your forecast, you’ll see a page with a few suggestions on how to get the most out of Forecasting. After you’ve reviewed these, click Go to Forecasting to see your projection for the first time!

A couple of things may stand out on your first visit:

• Extra Savings: If your projected income exceeds your expenses in a given year, the surplus flows into an "Extra Savings" account, listed with your assets. See Splitting extra savings.
• Retirement contributions: If you contribute to a 401k or similar account through payroll deductions, those won't show up automatically (since Monarch only sees your take-home pay). You can click the Settings icon next to these accounts to set your yearly paycheck contributions.

💡 Our Forecasting setup checklist provides a helpful list of steps for those wanting to dive deeper!

Understanding Forecasting

A note on how to read your forecast: Forecasting is built for directional accuracy, not false precision. The projections are designed to show you the general shape of your financial future: whether you're on track for retirement, how a major purchase shifts your trajectory, or what trade-offs different choices imply. Small changes in assumptions can compound significantly over decades, so treat the numbers as informed estimates, not predictions. The goal is to help you make better decisions today, not to predict an exact future outcome.

When you open Forecasting for the first time, your projection is built automatically using data you've already set up in Monarch, as well as any preferences you configured during the onboarding flow. Here's what it draws from:

Your take-home income and expenses

Forecasting uses the average of your last 12 complete months of income and expense actuals from your Monarch budget as your baseline. That income is broken into named income sources — for example, "Your salary," or in a multi-member household, a separate source for each person. By default, income is split evenly among household members, but you can rename, edit, or remove any source. You can also add income sources that aren't tracked in Monarch, like a side hustle or freelance income. The defaults are a reasonable starting point, but we recommend updating your income sources to reflect your actual situation — the more accurate they are, the more meaningful your retirement projections will be.

Each income source has an owner (you, or a second participant if you’ve added one). This matters for retirement: when a retirement event fires, Forecasting automatically stops all income sources belonging to that owner. Other income events — like a recurring side hustle — assigned to the same owner will also appear in the retirement event, so you can choose whether to end them at retirement too.

If you have fewer than 12 complete months of history, Forecasting uses whatever complete months are available to compute an “average month,” then annualizes it. If you’re new to Monarch or prefer to set a flat number, you can override the income baseline in your High-level assumptions.

Note: Icon editing coming soon!

Your assets

Forecasting includes all accounts enabled in your Monarch net worth report and projects their growth over time using default rates by account type. You can adjust these individually during onboarding or later — see Account-level assumptions.

Your liabilities

Forecasting includes all accounts in your Monarch Debt Paydown tab, seeded with the interest rates and payment amounts you've already set. If you update those values in Debt Paydown, Forecasting will reflect them automatically — unless you've manually overridden them in Forecasting. You can adjust these individually during onboarding or later — see Account-level assumptions.

How the simulation works

Each year in your forecast builds on the prior year's ending balances. Income, expenses, and life events are calculated fresh for each year in the projection — only your starting balances carry forward from the year before. When your projected income exceeds your projected expenses, the surplus is allocated to an "Extra Savings" account that grows at a default rate of 3% (adjustable). The extra savings can also be split among existing accounts if preferred. When your projected expenses exceed your income, Forecasting draws from your accounts in a specific order (which you can adjust at any time). See Expense withdrawal order below.

Debt payoff

As your forecast plays out, liabilities are paid down according to their interest rates and payment amounts. Once a loan reaches a zero balance, Forecasting can automatically reduce your projected expenses by that monthly payment amount — freeing up cash that flows into Extra Savings. This is on by default. To adjust it, open the account's settings in the Accounts tab and use the Already included in living expenses toggle.

Shortfall

A shortfall occurs whenever your projected income and assets can't cover your projected expenses in a given year — whether due to a life event or broader spending patterns. Forecasting will still model this — your net worth may dip or go negative in that period, which is a meaningful signal about the feasibility of your plan.

Inflation

Take-home income, living expenses, all life event amounts (including one-time upfront costs and recurring costs from their first year), and paycheck contributions are adjusted for inflation over time. Inflation is applied as cumulative growth from today through the year each cost or income occurs — so if an event starts in 10 years, its amounts reflect 10 years of compounding at your inflation rate. Recurring event amounts continue to inflate each year after that. The default inflation rate is 3%, and you can change it in your High-Level Assumptions.

The forecast chart

The main chart shows your projected net worth as a line over time, starting from this year and extending to the end of your plan (default: age 90).

Reading the chart

• The net worth line rises when your projected savings and investments grow faster than your expenses, and falls during periods of high spending or drawdown (like retirement).
• Event markers appear on the timeline wherever you've added a life event. You can click on them to view or edit the event details.
• Tooltips show you a summary of your projected net worth and cash flow for any given year when you hover over the chart.
• Goals and debt paydown annotations appear on the chart timeline to mark your goal target dates — giving you a quick visual read on how your milestones align with your net worth over time.
• The statistics bar above the chart displays four key metrics at a glance, which update live as you make changes to the chart — for example, dragging a retirement event to a different age will immediately update the relevant stats.
  • Your net worth (EOY): The total value of all assets and debts in your forecast at the end of the current year
  • Net worth at retirement: Your projected investable net worth when you retire
  • Retirement age: Your planned retirement age
  • Net worth at end: What's left at the end of your plan

Dragging to explore

You can drag left and right along the chart to understand the impact of different timelines and see how the timing of key life decisions shapes your financial future.

The forecast table

Below the chart, the Forecasting table gives you a year-by-year breakdown of your financial projection. It has three tabs:

Accounts Shows the projected balance for each of your connected accounts over time, broken out by asset type. You can drill into any account to see a full breakdown of how that balance is computed year by year — including starting balance, deposits, growth, withdrawals, and contributions. To edit an account's assumptions (like growth rate or payment amount), click the settings icon next to the account name to open its sidebar.

Cash Flow Shows your projected income and expenses for each year.

Events Shows a list of all life events in Forecasting, organized chronologically. Click any event to drill in and see its details, edit its inputs, or remove it entirely.

High-level assumptions

Your high-level assumptions are the baseline inputs that shape every year of your projection. To view or edit them, click the Settings icon from the upper right.

Note: If you have fewer than 12 complete months of history, Forecasting uses whatever complete months are available to compute an “average month,” then annualizes it (e.g., 3 months of data → average those 3 months, then extrapolate to a 12‑month baseline).

Participants

The participants included in your forecast are based on what you configure during the onboarding flow. If your household has more than one member, you can add a second participant — which unlocks the ability to add separate retirement, Social Security, and end-of-plan events for each person.

Account-level assumptions

Assets

Growth rates

For each asset account included in your forecast, Monarch applies a default annual growth rate. You can adjust these individually by clicking on the setting icon next to the account name in the Accounts tab of the Forecasting table.

These defaults are based on historical averages and forward projection research. The 3% savings rate reflects expert projections for the average interest rate on cash savings in the US over the next decade. The 7% investment rate is based on what financial experts project for a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds over the next 10 years (also called a "forward projection"). Real estate defaults to 3% — matching the inflation rate — because for most homeowners, a primary residence is a place to live, not an investment vehicle. The 3% inflation rate aligns with the Federal Reserve's long-term historical average; while inflation ran lower in the 2000s and 2010s, it has since returned to the ~3% long-term norm.

All rates are adjustable. If you expect different returns, or want to model a higher-inflation scenario, you can change any of these at the account level or in your high-level settings.

Please Note: Day-to-day checking accounts and credit cards that you pay in full each month are generally worth excluding from your forecast. Because Forecasting compounds balances over time, keeping short-term transactional accounts included can skew your projected net worth over the long run. To exclude an account, disable it in your Net worth report (for assets) or Debt pay down tab (for liabilities).

Expense withdrawal order

When your projected expenses exceed your projected income in a given year, Forecasting draws from your accounts in this default order:

1. Extra Savings
2. Cash accounts
3. Taxable brokerage accounts (default gain % at withdrawal: 80%; default tax % at withdrawal: 15%)
4. Tax-deferred accounts after age 59½ (traditional IRA, 401k, 403b, 457) (default tax % at withdrawal: 20%)
5. Roth accounts (Roth IRA, Roth 401k)

You can change the withdrawal order by clicking the Settings icon in the upper right corner of the Forecasting page, and then clicking Change withdrawal order.

Splitting extra savings

When your projected income exceeds your expenses, the surplus is automatically allocated to "Extra Savings" — a projected account that grows at 3% annually by default (adjustable). You can also split this surplus across your existing real accounts — using either a percentage or an absolute amount. This lets you project how those accounts will grow with the added contributions.

Splitting extra savings is off by default. To set it up, click the Settings icon next to Extra Savings, then click Change savings splits. From there, assign a percentage or dollar amount to each account in priority order. You can also get to this from the tooltip menu on the chart, the global account settings, or any individual account's settings.

When you set up splits, percentages work on a cascading basis — each percentage applies to what remains after the previous allocation, not to the original total. For example, if you have $100K in surplus and assign 50% to Account A and then 50% to Account B, Account A gets $50K and Account B gets $25K (50% of the remaining $50K). You can also assign absolute dollar amounts. Any surplus not explicitly allocated continues to flow into Extra Savings.

Please Note: When you set an absolute dollar amount for a savings split, that amount grows with inflation over time, so the real contribution stays consistent in today's dollars. Percentage-based splits are not affected by inflation.

Tax settings

Forecasting applies tax assumptions when withdrawing from certain account types. These are used to estimate the after-tax value of withdrawals during periods when your expenses exceed your income (such as retirement). The defaults are based on common US tax scenarios and are adjustable.

These defaults reflect typical US tax rates for people in or near retirement. The 15% capital gains rate applies to most long-term gains for middle-income earners. The 80% taxable gain assumption accounts for the fact that a portion of a brokerage withdrawal is typically return of principal (not taxable). The 20% income tax rate on tax-deferred withdrawals reflects a common effective rate in retirement. You can adjust any of these to reflect your actual tax situation.

Yearly paycheck contributions

For tax-deferred and tax-free accounts — including 401k, 403b, and HSA — you can tell Forecasting how much you contribute each year from payroll deductions. These contributions happen before income hits your paycheck, so they won't appear in your take-home income baseline or in your extra savings splits. They need to be set up manually in Forecasting.

To add a contribution, open the account in the Accounts tab and click the settings icon. Enter your yearly paycheck contribution amount, including any employer match. Once set, the account's year-by-year breakdown in the Forecasting table will show paycheck contributions as a separate line item alongside starting balance, growth, and withdrawals. Contributions automatically pause during any career break assigned to the account owner, and stop entirely when the account owner retires.

Please Note: Make sure your income sources reflect only your take-home income — do not include pre-tax contributions in your income baseline, as this will cause double-counting in your forecast.

Please Note: If an investment account like a 401k doesn't seem to be growing as expected, this is the most likely reason — the yearly paycheck contribution field is blank by default. See the FAQ below for more detail.

Please Note: Paycheck contributions grow automatically at your plan’s inflation rate (which defaults to 3%). This growth rate is not currently adjustable per account.

Liabilities

Interest rates and payments

Liability accounts (loans, credit cards) are seeded from your Debt Paydown tab. If you update interest rates or payment amounts there, Forecasting will reflect those changes automatically — unless you've manually overridden them inside Forecasting.

Please Note: When entering payment amounts for loans, include only principal and interest — do not include taxes or insurance.

Life events

Life events let you model major financial decisions and understand the trade-offs — seeing immediately how each choice shifts your projection. Every new forecast starts with three default events already in place: your Retirement, your Social Security, and your End of Plan (set to age 90). You can edit any of these, and add more from the event menu.

To add a life event, click Add event in the upper right corner. You can also add an event directly from the chart — just hover over any point on the net worth line.

Hint: Customize the color of each life event for easier differentiation!

Retirement

Every forecast also starts with one Retirement event per member. By default, it assumes you stop working at age 65 with no change to your expense level, and automatically stopping all income sources assigned to that owner. You can adjust any of these settings at any time, including modeling a partial retirement where you continue earning some income from hobbies or part-time work.

The retirement event is linked to your income sources by owner. When it fires, all income sources assigned to that person stop automatically. Any other income events (like a side hustle) assigned to the same owner will also appear in the retirement event, giving you the option to end those at retirement too.

Buy a home

This models the full cost of homeownership for a primary residence. Choose how you plan to purchase:

• Finance: You take out a mortgage. Forecasting models your down payment as a one-time expense in the purchase year, then adds an annual mortgage payment (principal + interest) for the length of the mortgage term. Ongoing costs — property tax, home insurance, and maintenance — continue for the life of your plan.
• Pay cash: You purchase the home outright with cash. The full purchase price is modeled as a one-time expense in the purchase year, with no mortgage payment. Ongoing costs (property tax, home insurance, and maintenance) still apply.

All values are adjustable. The monthly mortgage payment is calculated automatically based on your inputs.

All amounts are in today's dollars. Forecasting automatically applies cumulative inflation from today through the year each cost or income occurs.

Have a kid

This models the costs associated with having a child in the future.

All amounts are in today's dollars. Forecasting automatically applies cumulative inflation from today through the year each cost or income occurs.

How do I model expenses for a child I already have?

The "Have a kid" event is designed for future planning, so you can't set a start date in the past. In the meantime, here's how to model your existing childcare costs accurately.

Step 1: Add a "Have a kid" event and adjust the childcare years

When adding the event, update the "Years of childcare" field to reflect how many years of childcare costs you have remaining, not the full default of 13. For example, if your child is 5 years old, set it to 8 years (or more, depending on your plans for school, college, etc.).

Step 2: Remove childcare from your living expenses baseline

This step is critical. Since your current actual spending likely includes childcare, leaving your living expenses as-is will cause those costs to be counted twice, once in your baseline and once through the event. To fix this, go to your forecast high-level assumptions and turn off "Use actual expenses as baseline." Then manually enter your annual living expenses excluding childcare costs.

What this looks like in your forecast

Once set up, your forecast will show the "Have a kid" event adding to your expenses for the remaining childcare years, and then expenses will drop once that period ends. This gives you an accurate picture of how your spending evolves as your child grows up.

Note: Modeling dependents is something we know matters and are actively considering as we keep improving Forecasting.

Career break

A career break lets you model a period of time when your income is reduced or paused — whether you're taking a full sabbatical or stepping back to a lower-paying role. Since career breaks vary widely, you control both the duration and the income impact.

All amounts are in today's dollars. Forecasting automatically applies cumulative inflation from today through the year each cost or income occurs.

Please Note:

• Yearly paycheck contributions for accounts owned by the person taking the break are automatically paused for the full duration of the career break. They resume when the break ends.
• If your break is less than a full year, set the start and end years to the same year and adjust the income reduction to reflect the portion of the year you'll be off — for example, 25% for 3 months off, or 50% for 6 months off.

New job

A new job lets you model starting a new role — adding a new income source while winding down your previous one. You can set your new take-home income, account for a signing bonus, and choose how much your existing income sources are reduced when the new job begins.

All amounts are in today's dollars. Forecasting automatically applies cumulative inflation from today through the year each cost or income occurs.

Social Security

Every forecast starts with one Social Security event pre-populated per member. By default, it's set to age 65 with a monthly benefit of $2,000. You can adjust both the start age and your expected benefit amount. If your household has a second participant, you can add a separate Social Security event for them.

End of plan

Every forecast includes an end of plan event, defaulting to age 90. This event marks the end of your financial projection.

Please Note: It's generally better to plan for a longer lifespan than average. If you live longer than your plan's end date, your forecast may show a gap.

Other income

For recurring or one-time income that doesn't fit another event type — like a second job, company buyout, or windfall. Supports two modes: a one-time amount or a recurring yearly amount with an optional end year.

All amounts are in today's dollars. Forecasting automatically applies cumulative inflation from today through the year each cost or income occurs.

Other expense

For life events that don't have a dedicated type — like buying a car, going on an annual vacation, or starting a business. Supports two modes: a one-time expense or a recurring yearly amount with an optional end year.

All amounts are in today's dollars. Forecasting automatically applies cumulative inflation from today through the year each cost or income occurs.

Please Note: You can add multiple life events of the same type — for example, modeling education costs for more than one child.

Forecasting setup checklist

A well-built forecast is only as good as the assumptions underneath it. This checklist walks you through everything you should review when setting up Forecast for the first time, so you can trust the numbers before you start making decisions with them.

Work through each section in order. Most items take under a minute.

1. Participants

Participants are the people whose finances are modeled in your forecast. Age-based events like retirement and end of plan depend on getting this right.

• [ ] Confirm all household members are included. Open the Assumptions sidebar (Settings icon in the top right) and check that all relevant participants appear.
• [ ] Verify birthdays are set for each participant. Missing birthdays will prevent retirement age and end of plan events from working correctly.
• [ ] Review life expectancy. The default is 90. Adjust it if you want a longer or shorter planning horizon.
• [ ] Hide any participants who shouldn't be in this forecast. For example, if a household member has completely separate finances, you can exclude them.

2. Baseline income & expenses

This is the foundation of your entire projection. If this is off, everything downstream will be off too.

• [ ] Check your annual income figure. Open the Assumptions sidebar and review the take-home income number. If you're using actuals as baseline, make sure the last 12 months of income in Monarch are accurate and representative of your ongoing income.
• [ ] Check your annual expenses figure. Make sure the last 12 months of expenses are clean and representative of your ongoing spending.
• [ ] When to consider turning off "Use actuals"—If you just got a raise, changed jobs, or moved, your last 12 months may not reflect your future. Switch to a custom value that better represents your expected baseline going forward.

3. Inflation rate

• [ ] Review the inflation rate. The default is 3%. This affects how your income and recurring expenses grow over time. Adjust it if you want to model a more conservative or aggressive scenario.

Keep in mind that even a 1% difference compounds significantly over a 20- to 30-year projection. The default of 3% is a reasonable long-term estimate for most people.

4. Accounts

Forecast pulls in all your linked Monarch accounts. Each one has its own assumptions about how it grows or gets paid down over time.

• [ ] Check that all your accounts are included. If an account is missing, add it from the Accounts screen.
• [ ] Review growth rates for investment and savings accounts. The defaults are reasonable starting points, but customize these per account to reflect your actual expected returns.
• [ ] Review interest rates on liability accounts. These affect how fast your liabilities are paid down in the projection.
• [ ] Check payment amounts for all liability accounts. Confirm the monthly payment matches your actual planned payment. Make sure you're entering only principal and interest. Do not include taxes or insurance costs (escrow), as those are modeled separately.
• [ ] Exclude any accounts that shouldn't be in the forecast. Business accounts, accounts that don't reflect your personal net worth, and credit cards you pay in full each month can all be hidden. These don't carry a balance that affects your long-term net worth.
• [ ] Review your savings allocation order. This controls which accounts receive surplus cash flow. Make sure the priority order makes sense for your situation.
• [ ] Review your withdrawal order. This controls which accounts get drawn down first when your cash flow is negative (e.g. in retirement). Make sure it reflects your real priorities.

5. Life events

Life events are what make your forecast personal. They model the big changes that will affect your income or expenses in the future.

• [ ] Add a retirement event. Retirement is usually the most impactful event in a long-term forecast. It’s ok if you don’t know when you want to retire—if you start with a rough guess, you can refine your plan as you go.
• [ ] Map spending goals to events. If you have goals where you plan to spend the money (like a vacation, a wedding, or a home purchase), make sure those are also added as expense events. Without this, Forecast will grow that savings but won't take into account the money getting spent.
• [ ] Think through major upcoming expenses. Buying a home? Having a child? Paying for college? Each of these should be a separate event.
• [ ] Think through major income changes. Career change, raise, starting a business? Add these as income events.
• [ ] Check event timing. For each event, confirm the year it starts and ends. You can drag events directly on the chart to adjust timing and see the effects in real time.

6. Sanity-check the chart

Once everything is set up, take a step back and look at the big picture.

• [ ] Does your starting net worth look right? The left edge of the chart should roughly match your current net worth in Monarch.
• [ ] Does the trajectory make sense? Growing much faster or slower than you'd expect? Check your growth rates or baseline assumptions.
• [ ] Does your net worth stay above $0? If it dips below zero before your end of plan, you may need to adjust your retirement age, savings rate, or spending plans.
• [ ] Does your end-of-plan net worth feel reasonable? Check the statistics bar at the top. If "Net worth at end" is extremely high or extremely low, it's worth investigating why.

You're all set!

Once you've worked through this list, your forecast should reflect a realistic picture of your financial future. From here, the real value comes from experimenting. Try dragging your retirement event earlier, adding a new expense, or adjusting a growth rate and see how the picture changes.

Frequently asked questions

• Is Forecasting available to all Monarch members?
• Why are Goals and Forecasting separate?
• What if I'm new to Monarch and don't have 12 months of history yet?
• Will Forecasting update automatically?
• Can I model different scenarios?
• Why doesn't my 401k (or other investment account) seem to be growing as expected?
• How do I model an inherited IRA with required minimum distributions (RMDs)?
• What if I want to exclude an account from my forecast?
• What do you mean by false precision versus directionally correct?
• Why does my income (or my paycheck contributions) grow over time in my forecast?
• Why does my net worth in Forecasting look different from my Accounts page?
• Why are my loan balances going up (or not changing at all)?
• Is Forecasting available on mobile?
• Can I export my forecast data?
• How do I reset or start my forecast over?
• Why does my account have the wrong tax treatment?
• Does Forecasting support equity, stock options, or RSUs?
• Why does my forecast look wildly wrong (or go negative)?
• Why does Forecasting show year on the chart instead of age?
• What does "Exclude from forecast" mean?

Is Forecasting available to all Monarch members?

Forecasting is available to Monarch Plus members. All Monarch members continue to have full access to Goals, budgeting, Cash Flow, Net Worth, and all core features. Learn more about Monarch Plus here.

Why are Goals and Forecasting separate?

Goals and Forecasting are designed to work together, but they serve different purposes. Goals help you track specific targets (like a down payment, an emergency fund, a vacation) and stay on pace to hit them. Forecasting is the longer view, showing how all of your goals, spending, and life events combine to shape your financial future over decades.

They're also on separate Monarch membership tiers: Goals are available to all members, while Forecasting is a Monarch Plus feature. This is why they live in separate parts of the app.

What if I'm new to Monarch and don't have 12 months of history yet?

No problem. If you have fewer than 12 complete months of history, Forecasting uses whatever complete months are available to compute an “average month,” then annualizes it (e.g., 3 months of data → average those 3 months, then extrapolate to a 12‑month baseline).

You can manually set your income and expense values in your High-Level Assumptions rather than relying on your budget history. You'll still get a complete and useful projection.

Will Forecasting update automatically?

Yes. Forecasting is a living projection. Whenever something changes in your connected accounts — your spending shifts, you hit a goal, you add or remove an account — Forecasting reflects it automatically.

Can I model different scenarios?

Currently, you can add, edit, and remove life events to explore different outcomes. The ability to save and compare multiple named scenarios is being considered for a future release.

Why doesn’t my 401k (or other investment account) seem to be growing as expected?

If an account like a 401k or IRA appears to be growing more slowly than you’d expect, it’s most likely because the yearly paycheck contribution hasn’t been set up yet. By default, Forecasting projects account growth based only on the starting balance and growth rate — it won’t automatically factor in ongoing contributions.

To fix this, open the account in the Accounts tab, click the settings icon next to the account name, and enter your yearly paycheck contribution amount (including any employer match). Once set, the account’s projected balance will reflect those contributions going forward.

How do I model an inherited IRA with required minimum distributions (RMDs)?

Forecasting doesn't yet have a dedicated event type for inherited IRAs, but there's a workaround that gets you close.

Step 1: Exclude the inherited IRA from your forecast. Go to the account's settings in Forecasting and disable it. This prevents Forecasting from projecting its balance as part of your future net worth — which would be inaccurate since you're required to deplete it on a fixed schedule.

Step 2: Keep your income baseline as-is. IRA distributions are likely already reflected in your take-home income (you withdraw, pay taxes, and deposit the net amount), so leave your income assumption at its current level. Don't adjust it to remove the IRA income.

Step 3: Add a recurring expense event for the post-distribution years. Once your distributions end — for example, in year 10 if you're drawing down 10% per year — create a recurring Other expense event starting that year for the amount you were previously receiving from the IRA. This accounts for the income drop once distributions end: your expenses effectively increase relative to what Forecasting would otherwise assume.

This approach keeps your cash flow directionally accurate during the distribution period and correctly reflects the reduction in income once distributions end. It's not a perfect model, but it's the most accurate workaround available today.

What if I want to exclude an account from my forecast?

Forecasting includes all accounts enabled in your net worth report (for assets) and your Debt Paydown tab (for liabilities). To exclude an account, disable it in the relevant section first. Learn more about managing accounts here.

What do you mean by false precision versus directionally correct?

We’d rather be generally right than precisely wrong in forecasting your future finances. False precision refers to the idea that statistical likelihoods, exact cash flows, complex taxation rules, and net worth assumptions are only relevant and accurate in forecasts if your life remains exactly the same. We cannot predict what life will look like next week, much less in a decade. What we can do is send you in the right direction. By forecasting using well-researched assumptions and financial best practices, we can help you get closer to your overall goals. Nothing is for certain in life, so we won’t pretend that it’s possible to determine exact outcomes. Instead, being directionally correct allows for flexibility and pivots as new information comes into play.

Why does my income (or my paycheck contributions) grow over time in my forecast?

Forecasting models everything in nominal dollars — meaning it accounts for inflation over time. By default, your income grows at 3% per year (the default inflation rate), on the assumption that your earnings will roughly keep pace with the cost of living. The same applies to paycheck contributions, which also grow at 3% annually.

If your income is flat, variable, or you're near the IRS contribution limit on a retirement account, this default may overstate your long-term balances. You can work around this by manually overriding your income baseline in your high-level assumptions each year, or by adjusting the inflation rate to 0% to hold those inputs flat. Adjusting the inflation rate will affect all inputs, not just one, so it's worth thinking through the tradeoffs before changing it.

Why does my net worth in Forecasting look different from my Accounts page?

This is expected. Forecasting shows your projected net worth at the end of the current calendar year, not your live account balances today. Because it's modeling a full year of income, expenses, and growth from your current balances, the starting projection will often look different from what you see on your Accounts page right now.

If the difference seems larger than expected, here are the most common reasons:

• Account inclusion — Forecasting only includes accounts that are enabled in your Monarch net worth view, not hidden, and not deactivated. Equity accounts are excluded. Check that the accounts you expect to see are included.
• Missing details on liabilities — Loan or credit card accounts that are missing their interest rate or payment fields are excluded from the net worth projection even though they appear in the accounts list. A large credit card balance with missing fields could explain a significant gap.
• Baseline income or expenses — If your income or expense baseline looks off, you can override it manually in Forecasting > Edit assumptions.

Why are my loan balances going up (or not changing at all)?

There are two common issues with loan balances in Forecasting:

If the loan balance is increasing over time: The loan likely has an interest rate set, but the payment amount is missing or too low to cover the monthly interest.

If the loan balance isn't changing at all: The loan is missing its interest rate and/or payment fields entirely, so Forecasting can't project it.

To fix either issue, open the Forecasting page and click the settings icon next to the loan account. Confirm the interest rate and monthly payment are filled in with values greater than zero. If those values look wrong or empty, you can also check Goals > Pay Down — Forecasting pulls from Debt Paydown automatically, but any edits made directly in the Forecasting sidebar are independent and won't sync back to Debt Paydown.

Is Forecasting available on mobile?

Forecasting is currently available in the Monarch web app only and is not yet supported on iOS or Android.

Can I export my forecast data?

Exporting forecast data is not currently supported.

Why does my account have the wrong tax treatment?

Forecasting determines an account's tax classification based on the account subtype set in Monarch — not the account name. If an account is showing the wrong tax treatment, the most likely fix is updating the subtype.

To check or update the subtype, go to Accounts, find the account, click the edit icon, and confirm the subtype matches the real account type (for example, make sure a Roth IRA is set to "Roth IRA" and not a generic "IRA"). Save the update and return to Forecasting — the classification should update automatically.

Here's how account subtypes map to Forecasting tax classifications:

If the subtype looks correct but Forecasting is still showing the wrong classification, please reach out to support.

How do I reset or start my forecast over?

There isn't a one-click reset button in Forecasting. In most cases, the best approach is to revisit your assumptions and account settings — adjusting your income baseline, expense baseline, account inclusions, and life events can get your forecast back on track without starting from scratch.

Does Forecasting support equity, stock options, or RSUs?

Equity compensation (RSUs, ISOs, stock options) is not directly supported in Forecasting yet. As a workaround, you can approximate expected vesting or compensation amounts using an Other income event — either as a one-time amount for a specific vesting date, or as a recurring yearly amount if your compensation is more regular.

Why does my forecast look wildly wrong (or go negative)?

Forecasting is sensitive to its inputs, and a projection that looks off is usually a signal to review your assumptions rather than a bug. The most common causes are:

• Credit cards or loans that shouldn't be modeled long-term — If a credit card you pay in full each month is included, Forecasting may compound that balance over time and significantly distort your net worth. Exclude pay-in-full cards from your forecast.
• Baseline income or expenses that don't reflect your normal situation — If the last 12 months included a job change, a move, or an unusually large expense, your baseline may not represent ongoing reality. You can override it manually in Forecasting > Edit assumptions.
• Assumptions that need adjusting — Growth rates, inflation, or payment amounts that are off can compound into large swings over a long projection. Review these in your account settings and high-level assumptions.

A good starting point is to think about what's changed recently — new job, move, big one-time expense — and whether your transaction history reflects your normal income and spending. If the forecast still looks clearly broken after reviewing your inputs, please reach out to support.

Why does Forecasting show year on the chart instead of age?

Forecasting uses calendar year on the main chart so that the same timeline can represent all members of a multi-person household consistently — since each person may have a different age. Your age is still surfaced in the places where it matters most, like retirement event settings and event details.

What does "Exclude from forecast" mean?

Excluding an account removes it from your projection entirely — its balance won't factor into your net worth or cash flow calculations. You can also exclude a participant, which removes their income sources and associated events from the forecast.If you later re-include them, their default events will be recreated automatically.

If excluding something doesn't seem to change your projection, it may be because that account or participant wasn't materially affecting the plan, or the change didn't save correctly — try refreshing and checking again.

These forecasts show hypothetical outcomes based on your account information and the assumptions in the model, including any changes you have made. Projections do not guarantee future performance. Even small shifts in assumptions can lead to very different results over time. If you are viewing a projected retirement balance or goal outcome, it is based on assumptions such as rate of return, inflation, tax rates, and life expectancy. We show you those assumptions, and you can adjust them. If you change the inputs, the outcome will change too. This tool is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, tax, legal, or financial advice, and it should not be the only basis for a major financial decision.