“Can I retire at 62?” looks like a yes-or-no question.
It is not.
The answer depends on spending, taxes, Social Security, healthcare, debt, portfolio risk, and what happens if the first five years go badly. A green “92% success” badge can be reassuring, but it is not very useful if you cannot see what went into it.
Our short answer: Ask Linc is best when you want a direct answer tied to connected accounts. Boldin is best when you want to build and stress-test the model yourself. Empower is the strongest free dashboard, Fidelity Full View is convenient for existing Fidelity customers, and Vanguard’s calculator is a quick first pass.
- Ask Linc: a direct answer to a retirement decision using connected accounts.
- Boldin: deep DIY scenario building and stress testing.
- Empower: free net-worth and retirement tracking.
- Fidelity Full View: a convenient check for people already at Fidelity.
- Vanguard calculator: a five-minute sanity check, not a plan.
A retirement score is only the beginning
Two households can have the same portfolio and need different answers. One plans to pay off the mortgage before retiring. The other expects to carry it for twelve more years. One can cut travel after a bad market. The other has fixed healthcare and family-support costs.
Good retirement software makes those differences visible. It should show the financial baseline, the assumptions that drive the result, and what happens when you change the retirement date, spending, Social Security claim, or market sequence.
A disclosure: we make Ask Linc. We rank it first for people who want to ask a specific retirement question and inspect the answer. If you enjoy building the model yourself, Boldin gives you more knobs. If you only want a free dashboard, Empower is the more obvious choice.
What to demand from retirement planning software
- A current baseline. Savings, investments, debt, spending, income, and household details should reflect the life you have now.
- Visible assumptions. Returns, inflation, taxes, lifespan, and Social Security should not hide behind one score.
- More than one path. You should be able to compare retiring earlier, working part-time, spending less, or claiming Social Security later.
- Sequence-risk awareness. A bad first five years in retirement can matter more than a bad stretch much later.
- A result you can explain. If you cannot tell what changed the answer, the software is producing theater, not clarity.
Retirement planning software at a glance
| Software | Best for | What stands out | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ask Linc | A specific retirement decision | Connected accounts plus visible assumptions and tradeoffs | No bundled human advisor or asset management |
| Boldin | DIY scenario modeling | Deep controls and multiple retirement scenarios | More setup and a steeper learning curve |
| Empower | Free tracking | Linked-account dashboard and basic retirement tools | Less depth; wealth-management funnel |
| Fidelity Full View | Existing Fidelity customers | Convenient integration with Fidelity accounts | Less compelling outside the Fidelity ecosystem |
| Vanguard Retirement Nest Egg Calculator | A quick sanity check | Fast, simple probability estimate | Manual inputs and one static scenario |
1. Ask Linc: best for a direct retirement answer
Ask Linc starts with the question you are actually trying to answer: Can I retire at 62? What changes if I work part-time for three years? Does delaying Social Security buy enough resilience to be worth it?
It connects bank, investment, and debt accounts on a read-only basis, then shows the facts, assumptions, calculations, and tradeoffs behind the answer. The goal is not to hand you another chart. It is to make the conclusion inspectable.
Pick it if: you want an answer in ordinary language without giving up the underlying math.
Skip it if: you want someone to manage the portfolio or make tax and legal decisions for you.
2. Boldin: best for people who want all the controls
Boldin, formerly NewRetirement, is closer to a retirement-modeling workbench. You can build several scenarios, change claiming ages and spending, add income, and stress-test the plan.
That depth is the product. It is also the cost. A motivated DIY planner may love having dozens of variables. Someone who wants one question answered before dinner may find the setup heavy.
Pick it if: you enjoy building the model and want to compare many versions of retirement yourself.
3. Empower: best free dashboard
Empower gives you a linked-account net-worth view and a basic retirement projection at no cost. For a quick “Are we broadly on track?” check, that is a compelling offer.
The limitation is depth. The planner is not built around an open-ended question, and the free dashboard is also a path into Empower’s paid wealth-management business.
Pick it if: you want a free, always-on snapshot and can do the interpretation yourself.
4. Fidelity Full View: best for existing Fidelity customers
If your 401(k), IRA, or brokerage account already lives at Fidelity, Full View is convenient. Your major retirement balances are already there, and the associated tools give you a readiness check without adding another login.
The value falls as your financial life moves outside Fidelity. External accounts can be added, but the product makes the most sense for people already anchored in the ecosystem.
Pick it if: Fidelity already holds most of the accounts that matter.
5. Vanguard calculator: best for a five-minute check
Vanguard’s Retirement Nest Egg Calculator asks for a handful of inputs and returns a probability estimate. It is fast, free, and useful for learning whether your first-pass assumptions are remotely plausible.
It is not connected to your accounts and it does not maintain a living plan. Treat it like the back of an envelope—helpful before deeper work, dangerous as the final word.
Pick it if: you want a quick check before investing time in a full planning tool.
How we ranked the tools
We gave the most weight to four questions:
- Does the tool start with your real financial baseline?
- Can you see and change the assumptions?
- Can it compare more than one retirement path?
- Can you understand why the answer changed?
Polished charts matter less. Retirement planning is full of false precision, and software can make a fragile assumption look authoritative. The best tool is the one that makes uncertainty easier to reason about, not easier to hide.
A retirement number is not trustworthy because it is precise. It is trustworthy when you can see what would make it wrong.
Which retirement planning software should you choose?
Choose Ask Linc if you want to ask a direct question against connected accounts. Choose Boldin if you want to build and tune the scenarios yourself. Choose Empower if “free and good enough for a broad check” is the priority. Use Fidelity Full View when the accounts are already there. Use Vanguard’s calculator when you need a fast first pass.
Then do one more thing: change an important assumption. Retire two years earlier. Increase healthcare costs. Lower expected returns. Cut flexible spending. A plan that only works under one clean set of assumptions is not much of a plan.
Ask the retirement question you actually have
Connect your accounts and inspect the assumptions, math, and tradeoffs behind the answer.
FAQ
What is the best retirement planning software for individuals in 2026?
Our pick is Ask Linc for a direct retirement question tied to connected accounts. Boldin is better for hands-on DIY modeling, and Empower is the strongest free dashboard.
Is Ask Linc better than Boldin?
Ask Linc is better for asking a direct question and inspecting the answer. Boldin is better for people who want to build and adjust a detailed retirement model themselves.
Can free retirement software be enough?
It can be enough for a broad check. A specific decision involving taxes, debt, healthcare, or a change in retirement date usually needs more detailed assumptions and scenario comparisons.
Is the 4% rule a retirement plan?
No. It is a useful historical rule of thumb for a starting withdrawal rate, but it does not account for your taxes, spending flexibility, Social Security, healthcare, portfolio, or retirement length.
Why does sequence-of-returns risk matter?
A market decline early in retirement can force withdrawals while the portfolio is down, leaving fewer assets to participate in a recovery. Two retirees with the same average return can therefore have very different outcomes.