Prompt details

Tested on

Claude Opus 5.5

Length

568 words · 4 fill-ins

Example input

[About you]: We're Dana and Chris, both 52, married, living in Raleigh, North Carolina. We both plan to retire at 65. We're in good health, and both sets of parents lived into their late 80s. Our two kids are through college.

[Savings and contributions]: Dana's 401(k): $262,000, pre-tax Chris's 401(k): $148,000, pre-tax Dana's Roth IRA: $38,000 Both 401(k)s are mostly in stock index funds. We put in $1,800 a month in total across both 401(k)s, including employer matches. Emergency savings: $25,000 in a savings account, which we keep separate. Home worth about $420,000, mortgage $118,000 left, paid off in 9 years.

[Expected pensions and Social Security]: From our ssa.gov statements (today's dollars): Dana: $1,720 a month at 62, $2,480 at 67, $3,080 at 70 Chris: $1,150 a month at 62, $1,650 at 67, $2,050 at 70 Chris has a pension from an old employer: $410 a month from age 65, fixed, with no cost-of-living increase.

[Spending now and in retirement]: We spend about $6,000 a month now, including the $1,350 mortgage payment. In retirement we expect about $5,000 a month in today's dollars once the mortgage is gone, plus about $6,000 a year for travel in the first ten years. We don't know what Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket health costs will be.

Example output

1. Short answer

On these assumptions you look on track in all three scenarios. You are projected to have about $0.90M (low), $1.11M (middle) or $1.36M (high) at 65, against roughly $715k needed. That leaves an after-tax surplus of about $6k, $13k or $22k a year. The low scenario is thin: health costs above the $10k placeholder, a lower withdrawal rate or a Social Security benefit cut could each turn it into a gap. These are illustrations, not forecasts, and no outcome is promised.

2. Assumptions

Assumption	Value used	Why	How to change it
Retirement age	65 for both	Your plan	Change n (years to retirement) in the projection formula
How long money must last	Age 65 to 95 (30 years)	Good health and parents into their late 80s; 95 adds a buffer	Longer horizon: lower the withdrawal rate
Real return before retirement (after inflation and fund fees)	Low 2%, Middle 4%, High 6%	Illustrative range for stock-heavy 401(k)s; not a forecast	Change r
Inflation	2.5% a year	Used only to shrink the fixed pension into today's dollars	Change i in the pension line
Starting savings	$448,000 ($262k + $148k + $38k)	Excludes the $25k emergency fund and the home	Change P
Contributions	$21,600 a year ($1,800 × 12), rising with pay/inflation, added at year end	Your figure, including employer matches	Change C
Withdrawal rate	4% of savings left after reserves, held constant across scenarios	Common planning rule of thumb for 30 years. At a steady 2% real return, about 4.5% would just run to zero at 95. Bad early returns (sequence risk) argue for less	Try 3.5%: low-scenario surplus drops from about $7.3k to $3.7k gross
Tax on withdrawals	15% effective on 401(k) withdrawals (federal + NC combined)	Rough estimate for a household with about $73k gross income. Social Security and the pension are treated as received net, with their tax folded into this rate. The Roth is taxed the same way here, which is conservative	Change t. Confirm with a tax professional; NC currently does not tax Social Security (confirm with the official source)

Claude Opus 5.5

Retirement Readiness Check – Retirement planning prompt for ChatGPT and Claude

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Claude Opus 5.5

This prompt checks whether you are on track for retirement. Paste your ages, savings, Social Security estimates and spending; you get three projections in today's dollars, the savings you need and what each lever closes.

What you get

An assumptions table you can change: returns, inflation, withdrawal rate, tax and how long the money must last
Your savings projected under low, middle and high returns, in today's dollars, with the formula
The savings you need, including the years before Social Security starts
What saving more, working longer, spending less and claiming later each close, plus questions for an adviser

How to use it

1
Get your real figures
Download your Social Security statement for estimates at several claiming ages, and list every account with its balance and whether it is pre-tax or Roth.
2
Read the assumptions first
Check the return, inflation, tax and withdrawal rates it used, and ask for a rerun with more cautious ones if you prefer.
3
Rebuild it, then ask an adviser
Copy the formula into a spreadsheet, then take the questions to a fee-only fiduciary adviser before any claiming, drawdown or pension decision.

Better results

Ask: "Rerun the middle scenario at a 3.5% withdrawal rate and to age 100." A longer life and a lower rate are the stress tests that matter most.
Replace the health cost placeholder with a real estimate when you can; in our test it was the biggest unknown in the plan.
If you are married, include both Social Security estimates and ask about the survivor benefit, since the higher earner's claiming age affects the survivor.

Questions

Can ChatGPT help with retirement planning?

Yes. ChatGPT can project your savings, estimate the income you will need and show what saving more or working longer changes, if you give it real figures. It cannot know future returns, tax law or benefit rules, so use it to prepare, and decide with a fiduciary adviser.

How do I know if I am on track for retirement?

Compare the savings you are likely to have at retirement with the savings you will need: yearly spending, minus Social Security and pensions, divided by a withdrawal rate. This prompt does that under three return scenarios, in today's dollars, and shows the gap or surplus.

Can AI be used for retirement planning?

AI can handle the arithmetic of retirement planning well: projections, income need and what-if levers. It cannot give personal advice or see your accounts, and its rates are assumptions, not forecasts. Claiming, drawdown and pension choices belong with a fee-only fiduciary adviser.

What is the 4 percent rule?

The 4 percent rule is a planning rule of thumb: take about 4 percent of your savings in the first year of retirement, then adjust for inflation. It is not a guarantee, and many planners test lower rates for long retirements or weak early markets.

Updated 8 Nov 2026