This report shows ESPlanner’s saving, consumption, and life insurance recommendations for the current year and compares these recommendations with your family’s actual (referred to as current) consumption, saving, and holdings of life insurance. This report only shows current year accounting and is not showing you the annual living standard over time, which is the most important piece of information provided. Annual living standard is revealed in the Annual Recommendations Report (described in the next section).

Most users only become interested in this report after first looking at the Annual Recommendations report.

Current saving is the projected increase over the course of the year in regular assets. Current saving is calculated based on your family’s inputs entered on the saving tab in the Assets and Saving Folder. Note that current saving does not include the increase in your household’s housing equity associated with paying off mortgages on your principal residence or vacation home. Mortgage payments, as well as all other housing expenditures (including down payments on the purchase of new homes), are treated as spending. Current saving also excludes contributions to retirement accounts.

Current consumption is calculated as the household’s current total income minus the sum of its current saving, its current special expenditures, its current taxes, its current life insurance premiums (assuming your household purchases the amounts of life insurance recommended), and its current housing expenditures.

Current holdings of life insurance for you and your spouse/partner are calculated based on responses to the life insurance questions in the Estate Folder. Note that these holdings include life insurance purchased on your or your spouse’s/partner’s behalf by employers.

The first column of this report specifies current year recommended amounts for saving, consumption, life insurance premiums, and holdings of life insurance for you and your spouse/partner. The second column specifies the current amounts of these variables. The third column specifies the recommended change in these variables. The values in the third column are calculated by subtracting the values in the second column from those in the first. If the recommended change in a variable, such as saving, is positive, ESPlanner is recommending an increase in that variable. If the recommended change in a variable is shown in parentheses, the program is recommending a reduction in that variable.