Plan Early -Or Suffer the Consequences Feb. 05, 2001 Retirement Planner 2001 by Torrid Technologies will help your to understand retirement plans and how they work, understand the time value of money, develop a personal savings strategy that will prepare you for a financially solid retirement, and finally analyze your options if your current strategy is not as effective as it should be". The program can be down loaded at: Retirement Planner 2001 and it costs $25. U.S. As you can see from the screen image above there are five sections of data for the user to fill out: 1. Personal Data Current Age, Retirement Age, Annual Salary, Estimated Annual Raise,Retirement Goal (in Today's $). 2. Tax Deferred investments (401K or RRSP) Current Balance, Annual Contribution, Company Matching Contribution, Annual Rate of Return 3. Taxable Investments Current Balance, Annual Contribution, Annual Rate of Return, Tax Bracket 4. Pension Social Security or Canada Pension amount and age it starts. 5. During Retirement Period Rate of Return and Estimated Annual Inflation. Fill in the data to the best of your ability and then the fun begins. Start changing some of the basic assumptions; for instance change your retirement age to 50 instead of 65 and see how the chart changes; if the green section depletes over time - you're screwed when it comes to retiring at age 55. If it continues to increase or at least doesn't decrease, then you don't have to wait until 65 to retire. What happens if you contribute a few bucks a month more? What happens if you make a lump sum contribution now? What happens if you rely only on your current pension plan? Chances are this program is going to give you a few rude surprises -but better you should know now. This is a really great learning and planning tool - especially for people in their 20's as this program really shows the effects of compound interest over long periods of time. With a little effort at an early age; a person can knock 10 - 15 years off their retirement age. This program uses "softlock ID", so if you reformat your drive you will need another registration code - but a simple Email or toll free telephone call gets the required code pronto.