In brief
Life events define what happens on your timeline — when you retire, how much you spend, contributions, lump sum costs, and care expenses. Every scenario requires at minimum a spending event and a retirement date.
Before you start
Open any scenario and navigate to the Life Events section. Events are listed alongside a timeline showing when each is active. Some events are generated automatically from your assets — employment income, rental income, DB pension income, and State Pension income appear here labelled with the source asset name. To change them, update the underlying asset.
Steps
- Select Add event and choose the event type.
Spending event — your annual living costs. Set the Amount (in today's money), Start date, and End date (leave blank to run to life expectancy). Toggle Per person on if the amount is per person in couples mode — it will scale down when a partner has died. Set Escalation to CPI or RPI to rise with inflation, or leave at "none" for a fixed nominal amount. Add multiple spending events with different date ranges to model how spending changes through retirement.
Retirement event — marks the date you stop working. This is a marker event with no money amount. Add one per working partner. The engine uses it to stop employment income and to trigger any linked State Pension or drawdown events.
Employment income — generated automatically from your employment asset. Edit it from the life events list. To add part-time income after main retirement, use a Miscellaneous income event instead.
Contribution event (asset transfer) — models ongoing SIPP or ISA contributions. Set the Source (typically Cash), Target (SIPP, ISA, or GIA), Amount, Frequency (recurring or one-off), and Start / End date.
One-off expense — a single lump sum cost (home renovation, car purchase). Set the Amount and the Date. The full amount is drawn in that year.
One-off income — a lump sum receipt (inheritance, bonus). Set the Amount, Date, and whether the income is Taxable. Inheritance is not income and would not be taxable; employment bonuses would be.
Care costs — ongoing care costs added on top of base spending. Set the Amount (annual), Start date, End date, and which partner the costs relate to.
- Select Save after configuring each event.
- To edit an event, select it in the list and update the fields. To test the projection without a particular event, use the Disable toggle — this removes the event from the simulation without deleting it.
Modelling spending phases — retirement spending typically follows three broad phases. Add a spending event for each:
- Go-Go (early retirement): higher discretionary spending — travel, hobbies
- Slow-Go (middle retirement): activity moderates, discretionary spending falls
- No-Go (later retirement): basic costs remain; add a care costs event for this period if relevant
A single fixed spending figure can significantly distort the projection by overstating costs in later years.
What to check afterwards
After adding events, run the simulation and check the cashflow table. Confirm each event appears in the correct year and the amount matches your input. Check that the retirement event stops employment income at the right date. If you added multiple spending phases, verify the amounts change at the correct transition years.