Consumption smoothing is what makes ESPlanner like no other planning software. It evaluates all of your financial inputs, past, present, and future, including your federal and state taxes, home mortgage, contributions to retirement, Social Security benefits--indeed, all of your inputs--and uses our patented dynamic algorithms to calculate your smoothest and highest sustainable discretionary spending (consumption) and present it to you in today's dollars for your entire life. This output allows you to compare one "what if" scenario against another to see the real impact financial decisions have on your financial life. See also: Living Standard.