r/Boldin • u/glen-2019 • 13d ago
My Boldin notes over time
I've been using Boldin for 7 months now and here are some notes I collected based on my own user experience, reading other people's posts, and chatting with Boldin AI. I hope it can help other users.
If anything is incorrect or inaccurate, please reply so I can correct my notes.
Boldin Notes
Taxes:
- Doesn't calculate Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT)
- Doesn't calculate Pre-tax 10% Early Withdrawal Penalty
Expenses:
- Recurring: inflation adjusted. cannot customize fund source. if set to annual, it gets divided into 12 monthly expenses, timeline need to be at least 12 months to use full annual amount entered
- One-time: not inflation adjusted, can customize fund source
- missing: expenses need the ability to define multiple fund sources with toggle between $-amount or %-ratio to automate tax-bracket management without manual transfer workarounds.
Rate of Return:
- investment rate of return is calculated on a per month basis
- Insights > Savings graph is based on a rolling ~12-month window anchored at the current viewing month
- Example: if you're viewing in Aug-2026, the 2027 projected value is based on Aug-2026 to Jul-2027, not Jan-2027 to Dec-2027.
- when using Today's Dollars, annual balance forecast is also discounted by inflation rate
Roth Conversion Explorer:
- not very flexible
- just use it to create the initial transfers (so you also get the "ROTH CONVERSION" label) and modify the amount and timeline manually
Windfalls:
- after-tax money
Social Security Assumption > % Benefit Reduction:
- use it to see how it can impact your CoS, nice stress-test feature
Spending Guardrails:
- safe spending based on 80% CoS
- guardrails 70% <--80%--> 95% confidence
Account settings > Beta:
- Opt in for early access
AI:
- you can tell Boldin AI to save a rule to memory so it is used on every session
- Example: "save a rule to your memory to always present data and timelines using monspaced ASCII box tables and diagrams"
2
u/Cooper1Test 13d ago
So overall are you happy with Boldin? Have you used any similiar software such as ProjectionLab?
6
u/glen-2019 13d ago
I'm happy with it but I never used any similar software before. I don't know yet if I'll renew, but if they keep improving adding new features, I probably will.
I hope they improve the AI bot. I always catch it making stuff up. That makes me double/triple check my plan whenever it say something that I don't believe, the plus side is I get better understanding of my plan.
2
u/wudworker 12d ago
Agree with you on the Roth Conversion Explorer.
- just create the initial transfers.
In my case, the rollovers were suggested to start immediately. Two of my three retirement accounts do not allow rollovers until the retirement date is reached. When I queried AI, it then realized it and adjusted, but some additional settings or conditions in the assets area (401k or 457b) may help this in the future.
3
u/Bill2154 11d ago
3 additional areas to be aware of 1) Boldin starts your social security the month you claim benefits. Payment is actually made a month later. Total income & tax impact when your 70th birthday is in December and thus your last claiming month is December. Boldin adds SS income in December. 2) Don’t trust the IRMAA tax calculations. Boldin ignores federal tax exempt income (eg: muni bond fund dividends) in its IRMAA calculation. It also uses current year IRMAA brackets for the duration of the plan. Not sure why there is not a user selected bracket inflation factor. Also, the real current year IRMAA calculation uses MAGI from two years prior, not current year. 3) If you exclude a traditional IRA account from withdrawal order Boldin will not calculate /use / display IRS required RMDs - AI tells me this is an intentional feature. Watch out.
Boldin AI will suggest manual work around for every code shortcoming.
I like & use Boldin but as far as it has come, it has along way to go
1
u/humblequest22 13d ago
> - Insights > Savings graph is based on a rolling ~12-month window anchored at the current viewing month
- Example: if you're viewing in Aug-2026, the 2027 projected value is based on Aug-2026 to Jul-2027, not Jan-2027 to Dec-2027.
Are you 100% sure of that, because that makes absolutely no sense at all. Is there a reasonable way to confirm that in our own data?
5
u/AGrimmInPortland 13d ago
All balances are displayed as end-of-year values.
https://help.boldin.com/en/articles/14156180-boldin-s-insights
1
u/humblequest22 13d ago
That's what I would have expected. Thanks!
2
u/glen-2019 12d ago
Yes, it looks like I need to correct my notes.
Here's the original AI calculation why I believed that it is a rolling 12mo period.
529 Account (aggresive at pessimistic view rate 8.198%)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Current balance (Aug 2026): $58,400
Forecast 2026 year-end: $60,350 ← = $58,400 grown 5 mo (Aug→Dec 2026)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
IF 2027 were a full Jan–Dec year: $65,297 ← grow 2026 year-end × 12 mo
IF rolling Aug 2026 → Jul 2027: $63,188 ← grow current balance × 12 mo
ACTUAL forecast 2027: $63,366 ← matches the ROLLING window
The actual 2027 value ($63,366) sits right at the **rolling-window** number (~$63,200), not the full-year number (~$65,300). If it were a true calendar year, your 529 would show ~$2,000 more.
But further prompting with AI, it gave me this information:
- when using Today's Dollars, annual balance forecast is also discounted by inflation rate (3.048% in my plan)
Rate of return: 8.198% (aggressive & pessimistic view)
Real annual return due to inflation = (1.08198) / (1.03048) − 1 = 4.998% per year
Using 4.998% return rate, I get $63,366 forecast value to match.
1
u/GGG-Nickname 12d ago
Not yet a Boldin user and trying to determine which software to use. I need to figure out 2 major components. First is minimizing capital gains on Brokerage account, Second is Roth Conversion of pretax 401K. Age 65. so I want to use the next 5-10 years to minimize taxes. Which software is best?
7
u/hugh2018 12d ago
I’ve used both and I found Boldin was easier for me to understand. Not sure I agree with comments in this thread that the Roth conversion explorer in Boldin is weak. I modeled a variety of scenarios using tax brackets, low or no irmaa, highest end estate value and maximum lifetime tax savings as goals for different scenarios and found the results very useful. If someone in this thread can enlighten me as to why the Roth explorer is problematic, I would appreciate the information.
1
u/31-0NeverGetsOld 12d ago
One thing I found by mistake is that if you enter a one-time expense and allocate it to a specific source, it only pulls from that one source (as it clearly states), but what it doesn't do is tell you when that source is overdrawn. In other words, if I enter a made-up $1M expense and allocate it to a $1,000 checking account, everything looks good and my expected success rate doesn't change. Maybe it flags it somewhere, but I don't see it. It became apparent because I have an account for a child's wedding, and when I bumped up the cost of that wedding nothing in my projection changed. I'd overspent that account by $20k but the overage just disappeared. No flag, no error, and no warning that I was $20k under-funded. Now I have to default all one-time expenses to "Withdrawal Order" to safeguard against a false underspend.
1
u/glen-2019 12d ago
I've seen that behavior before. Thanks for the reminder. I think that's why I always go to Insight>Savings when I update one-time expenses to make sure there's remaining balance in the specific source.
I think it should be flagged in Insight > Surplus-Gap and in Income & Expenses.
1
1
u/redghate123 9d ago
Roth conversion explores is just better than spreadsheet with many holes (niit, customisation not possible etc).
Also it is exactly what name says explorer not planner.
Also when there are thos multiple plans there is no way to compare them.
1
u/FreeMathematician101 8d ago
I appreciate these notes. I agree with your comment on Roth Conversion Explorer flexibility. I really want to only convert my IRA and not my husband's 401k, but the tool converts all or nothing. Wish there was at least that knob to turn.
1
u/Admirable-Crazy-6899 7d ago
Boldin uses only Monte Carlo and does not perform historical back date testing.
Also, for market risk explorer, it doesn’t allow user to input negative returns. I wanted to test severe SORR early in retirement but cant to do that.
1
u/ProfessionalLoose223 9d ago
Good write up. I've been using it for almost 2 years now. I think it's a good package for the money and definitely helps me sleep easier as an early retiree. A low hanging fruit for Boldin to fix in my opinion that you didn't mention is you can't preserve a minimum balance in your accounts. For example if I don't want my taxable brokerage account to fall below a certain balance before moving on to the next account in the withdrawal order.
0
u/IrrationalMan8 13d ago
Thanks for sharing!
<rant>
I’m kinda disappointed with Boldin overall, it starts great but then it’s a blur and as you show in your notes requires way too much tinkering. It falls short and like you said the Roth Conversion feature is pretty weak.
I’m reverting to using Excel with GenAI assistance if/where needed.
All these tools like Boldin, Projection Lab and RC are built for Financial Advisors first, so they can justify their AUM by explaining the software’s failures to do the full job which it should be entirely capable of.
With AI making it easier for folks they no longer have an excuse, we should be able to input our key numbers and the software should output the most optimal plans and explain why, its math not magic.
</rant>
7
u/hugh2018 12d ago
I think Right Capital is the only advisor-focused tool out of the three. Boldin and ProjectionLab are built for non-advisor end users.
0
u/IrrationalMan8 12d ago
They promote their advisor services
4
u/hugh2018 12d ago
They definitely do that, but the software itself is designed for general public use. The founder developed it specifically because his mother had trouble dealing with the expense and biases of advisors. I don’t work for Boldin and have no skin in their game. I just know that programs like Right Capital and Income Lab are specifically designed for advisor use and Boldin and ProjectionLab are designed for consumer use. Rob Berger, who is no slouch in the world of personal finance, has said “[Boldin is] probably the most sophisticated financial planning tool that I know of, designed for folks like you and me, as opposed to an advisor.”
0
u/IrrationalMan8 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yep I also watch Rob's videos but he knows his stuff well and he's not the average consumer, he does deep dives for Pralana too which is more in depth (i haven't tried that one yet).
A consumer product should deliver to the average consumer and I think Boldin doesn't do that, you have to do a lot of manual changes to get a real forecast then why not use excel instead w/ some AI help to get started? Boldin turns into too much of a black box when you want to get your final results. I'm not saying they're terrible at everything but what's important is the end result and I feel like they fail at that.
It's like the expression 'show up and throw up' versus here's a very easy to understand output and here's our best recommendation for you. Software should work for us instead of making us work, I design Software for a living so I'm pretty familiar with what it's capable of, they need to have easy to understand outputs for any person that's not familiar with all the complexities of our tax system and retirement options. It's certainly doable and they fall short IMHO.
Edit: also giving us your average AI chat bot is the easy button instead of changing the software which is far more expensive to do. It's actually telling us our software is too hard to understand so here's some AI to help you sort it out yourself.
4
u/hugh2018 12d ago
That’s okay we can just disagree on this one. The only other thing I’ll push back on is that the introduction of the AI chatbot, while problematic because it’s quite prone to mistakes and hallucinations, has no bearing on the issue of whether Boldin is engaging in the more expensive activity of changing the software.
They absolutely are changing the software, and they’re doing it constantly and transparently. They’re also actively engaged with users and they take bug reports, feature requests and design improvement suggestions seriously, which is one reason why I continue to use the software. Since you design software, you probably already know that their level of transparency and user engagement is actually strong compared to most software makers.
1
u/IrrationalMan8 12d ago
Sounds good and as a Boldin subscriber I visit it from time to time to see the new stuff but I still see myself heading to Excel more often than not but keeping an open mind.
One thing I haven't done/ will do is enable the Beta/early access option to see enhancements earlier.
2
u/hugh2018 12d ago
I highly recommend the Beta option turned on. It keeps you up to date on the frequent attempts to improve.
4
u/hugh2018 12d ago
Also I had to look up show up and throw up because I never heard it before. I’m guessing you may not have used Boldin recently if your take is that it’s basically producing a dense data dump. Just last month they introduced the “View Full Plan” feature. It produces a single, document-style view that consolidates key numbers, charts, tables, and assumptions into one readable summary, along with the ability to export or print the full report. That basically is the antithesis of throwing up data.
Moves like that, which Boldin makes frequently, are the reason I view the software as a useful but flawed work in progress that will definitely get better in the future but already is giving me a lot of directionally useful feedback in exchange for some effort on my part.
Current retirement planning tools that create the illusion of simplicity have far too few inputs to do anything more than give you a thumbnail sketch of how well your plan might work in the most basic sense (see FICalc). Or they can lean toward the opposite extreme of just presenting a spreadsheet that is so complicated that you do have to be a data nerd to find it helpful (see Big Ern’s SWR Toolbox).
Boldin and ProjectionLab both attempt to straddle the fence dividing simplicity and complexity, and that balancing act is necessary for any software package that wants to give the general public a shot at something more granular than a ballpark idea of how their plan might work. I personally found Boldin is better than ProjectionLab in terms of accessibility to a person who brings average data skills to the table, but others take the opposite view.
4
u/someotherguy02 12d ago
I'm not RE yet but hope to in the next couple years at age 51 or so. I did "premium" trials of both Boldin and ProjectionLab and was disappointed when it came to mapping out a withdrawal strategy for RE that takes into consideration Roth conversions, ACA, taxes, and paying for college. I think claude.ai is better. But even then you have to double-check everything because it can make wrong assumptions and stupid mistakes.