Understanding Your Best Life Inputs [Product Guides]

Overview

Welcome to our guide understanding the input's in Your Best and their impact on the projections. This guide aims to provide you with clear and concise information about how the Best Life Trade-off inputs and Allocation strategies affect the projection chart and report in Your Best Life. Understanding these concepts will empower you to make informed decisions about your client's financial future.

We will cover 

• Allocation Strategies and their purpose  
• The Projection report 
• The correlation between the allocation strategies and the report, and what strategy affects which projection. 

Allocation Strategies and their Purpose

Allocation Strategies in Your Best Life are designed to help you manage your financial resources effectively. These strategies serve two primary purposes:

1. Funding Shortfalls: Allocation strategies are used to address any shortfalls in your income requirements. These shortfalls are managed using the "Reduce Shortfall Allocation Strategy," where specified allocations are enabled to cover the required income.
2. Redirecting Excess Cash: Any surplus cash at the end of each year is managed using the "Excess Cash Allocation Strategy." The enabled allocations are used to direct excess funds into appropriate buckets, ensuring your money is allocated efficiently.

Projection report 

The "projection report" provides a detailed view of all the raw inputs for deep dives or administrative work.  This is where you can find everything behind the Monte Carlo and show where all the client’s cash flow and assets are factored and allocated at certain stages in the client’s life. 

For more in-depth information on allocation strategies and the projection report, refer to our comprehensive guide, Understanding Your Best Life.

How do the Input and Strategies impact the projections and the projection report

 To see how the inputs and allocation strategies impact on the projection report, please see the table below as a reference guide. 

Inputs	Allocation strategy	Projection Report - Column
Year		Column A - Date
Household members: Include in projection on/off		Column B - Include Client?
Household members: Age-CFO		Column C - Client - Age
Retirement information; Client Retirement Age/Life Expectancy		Column D - Client - Status
Retirement information; Client Superannuation Balance	Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Superannuation/Aged based pension	Column E - Client - Assets - Superannuation
Household member; Client Income	Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Salary	Column F - Client - Income - Salary
Retirement information; Client Pension Paid From Age	Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Aged Pension	Column G - Client - Income - Age Pension
Household members: Include in projection on/off		Column H - Include Client?
Household members: Age-Non CFO		Column I - Partner - Age
Retirement information; Partner Retirement Age/Life Expectancy		Column J - Partner - Status
Retirement information; Partner Superannuation Balance	Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Superannuation/Aged based pension	Column K - Partner - Assets - Superannuation
Household member; Partner Income	Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Salary	Column L - Partner - Income - Salary
Retirement information; Partner Pension Paid From Age	Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Aged Pension	Column M - Partner - Income - Age Pension
Household Financials; Personal Assets	Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Other Assets	Column N - Household - Assets - Personal
Household Financials; Personal Debt	Excess Cash Allocation Strategy; Personal Debt	Column O - Household - Debt - Personal
Household Financials; Home Value	Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Home Equity	Column P - Household - Assets - Home
Household Financials; Home Debt	Excess Cash Allocation Strategy; Home Mortgage	Column Q - Household - Debt - Home
Household Financials; Investment Properties Total Value	Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Investment Property	Column R - Household - Assets - Investment Properties
Household Financials; Investment Properties Total Debt	Excess Cash Allocation Strategy; Investment property debt	Column S - Household - Debt - Investment Properties
		Column T - Household - Assets - Superannuation
Household Financials; Investments Balance	Excess Cash Allocation Strategy; Invest Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Investments	Column U - Household - Assets - Investments
Household Financials; Household Income		Column V - Household - Income - Other
Household Financials; Household Savings		Column W - Household - Income - Saved
Client Income + Partner income + Household income - Income saved		Column X - Household - Income - Spent
Household Cashflow table; Additional contribution N		Column Y - Additional Contributions
Household Cashflow table; Additional Withdrawl O		Column Z - Additional Withdrawals
Business Information; Business Value		Column AA - Business - Valuation
Retirement information; Required Retirement Income		Column AB - Required Retirement Income
Goals, Additional information; Will have more money/Will have less money		Column AC - Goals Cashflow
	Excess Cash Allocation Strategy; Build cash savings Reduce Shortfall / Fund Retirement Allocation Strategy; Cash Savings	Column AD - Cash Balance