What life events are
In brief: Life events define what happens on your timeline — when you retire, how much you spend, contributions, lump sum costs, and care expenses. At minimum, you need a spending event and a retirement date.
Life events are the entries on your retirement timeline. They define what happens financially in each year of the simulation — when income starts and stops, how much you spend, when you make contributions, and when one-off costs or windfalls occur.
Every event has a type, a date range, an amount, and an owner (Partner 1, Partner 2, or Joint for couples).
Viewing events in a scenario
Open any scenario and navigate to the Life Events section. Events are displayed as a list, typically shown alongside a timeline view showing when each event is active.
Adding a new life event
Select Add event and choose the event type.
Spending events
A SPENDING event represents your annual living costs. It is the most fundamental event in any retirement scenario.
Fields to configure:
- Amount: Annual spending target in today's money.
- Start date: When this spending level begins.
- End date: When it ends. Set an end date if you want to add a different spending level for a later phase. Leave blank to run to life expectancy.
- Per person (couples mode): Toggle this on if the spending amount is per person — it will then scale down to one person when a partner has died. Leave it off for fixed household costs.
- Escalation: Set to CPI or RPI to have the amount rise with inflation each year. Leave at "none" for a fixed nominal amount.
You can add multiple spending events with different date ranges to model how spending changes through retirement. This is one of the most important refinements you can make to a projection — see below for guidance on spending phases.
Retirement event
A RETIREMENT event marks the date you stop working. It is a marker event — it does not have a money amount, but it is used by the engine to determine when employment income stops and to trigger any linked State Pension or drawdown events.
Add one RETIREMENT event per working partner, with the expected retirement date.
Employment income
If you are still working, your employment asset generates an employment income event automatically. You can view and edit it from the scenario's life events list.
If you need to add employment income manually — for example, a part-time income after main retirement — use a MISCELLANEOUS INCOME event.
Contribution events (ASSET_TRANSFER)
Contributions to a SIPP or ISA are modelled using ASSET_TRANSFER events: a recurring transfer from cash into the target account.
Fields:
- Source: The account money moves from (typically Cash).
- Target: The account money moves to (SIPP, ISA, GIA).
- Amount: Annual contribution amount.
- Frequency: Recurring (runs each year the event is active) or one-off.
- Start / End date: The period over which contributions are made.
One-off expenses
A ONE_OFF_EXPENSE event models a single lump sum cost — a home renovation, a large holiday, a car purchase.
Fields:
- Amount: The total cost.
- Date: The year in which the cost is incurred.
One-off expenses are not prorated — the full amount is drawn in the specified year.
One-off income
A ONE_OFF_INCOME event models a lump sum receipt — an inheritance, a bonus, or proceeds from a sale.
Fields:
- Amount: The lump sum received.
- Date: The year in which it is received.
- Taxable: Whether the income is subject to income tax. Inheritance, for example, is not income — it would not be taxable. Employment bonuses would be.
Care costs
A CARE_COSTS event models ongoing care costs — residential care, home care, or live-in support.
Fields:
- Amount: Annual care cost.
- Start date / End date: The period during which care costs are incurred.
- Owner: Which partner the care costs relate to (in couple mode).
Care costs are added on top of base spending for the active years.
Editing and disabling events
Select any event in the list to edit its details. Changes take effect when you re-run the simulation.
You can disable any event without deleting it. This is useful for testing what the projection looks like without a particular event — for example, removing a care cost assumption temporarily to see the difference.
Modelling spending phases
Retirement is not a single uniform period. Most people spend more in their active early years, less as activity slows, and may face care costs later. Using multiple spending events with different date ranges produces a more realistic projection than a single fixed annual amount.
A common pattern is three spending events covering the broad phases of retirement:
Go-Go phase (early retirement): Typically from your retirement date through the late 60s or early 70s. An active period of travel, hobbies, and leisure — spending is often at its peak or close to working-life levels.
Slow-Go phase (middle retirement): Through the 70s into the early 80s. Activity moderates, discretionary spending declines. Research consistently finds that real spending falls through this phase, even as inflation keeps nominal amounts rising.
No-Go phase (later retirement): Later years with reduced mobility. Basic costs remain, but discretionary spending is substantially lower. This phase may also see care costs emerge — residential or home care can cost £30,000 to £60,000+ per year, which can partially or fully offset the reduction in lifestyle spending.
To model these phases in FutureClear:
- Add a SPENDING event for Go-Go years: e.g., age 62–76, £35,000/year, escalating with CPI
- Add a SPENDING event for Slow-Go years: e.g., age 77–85, £25,000/year, escalating with CPI
- Add a SPENDING event for No-Go years: e.g., age 86–90, £18,000/year, escalating with CPI
- Optionally add a CARE_COSTS event for a specific window of care need
The number of phases and the specific transition ages are entirely your choice. The model runs whatever events you configure.
Many retirement calculators use a single fixed annual spending figure. This approach can significantly distort the projection — it overstates spending in later years and misses the interaction between high early spending and long-term fund sustainability.
Events generated from assets
Some events are generated automatically from your asset register:
- Employment income from an employment asset.
- Rental income from a buy-to-let property.
- DB pension income from a defined benefit pension asset.
- State Pension income from a State Pension asset.
These events are labelled with the source asset name and cannot be edited directly. To change them, update the underlying asset configuration.