I can return to this and provide some more details later, but to begin (and others may have advice too):

1. Use a special expenditure in the final year or two. Indicate in retirement assets that you do not intend to spend 100%

2. Wife should inherit the balances of your IRA and other retirement accounts.

3. mortgage is shown in "today's dollars" so those are represented as cheaper every year relative to current year dollars (i.e., today's dollars). Taxes and insurance, however, are presumed to adjust to inflation and thus hold steady down the column or go up if the house value is increasing relative to inflation.

4. Yes, that's an issue.

5. I think some people might find this useful and it will be included in an online version that is under development now. I, however, don't find that kind of thing useful at all--perhaps that's just me. :)

I just downloaded, so very new. How do I put in my normal spending, food, cars, utilities, etc?

OK but where do i enter discretionary spending for a basic example? I see the special expenditures but not even a place to enter a lump sum for discretionary spending. Do i enter it as a special expenditure? BTW i would not call Food, Gas, etc discretionary.

Sure. "Discretionary" is perhaps a term economists use to distinguish it from fixed costs like mortgage, but regardless, you can see in the Total Spending report that discretionary spending is in the first column of that report and it is distinguished as "what's left over" after everything to its right. (i.e., after everything in the columns to its right). Start with "total spending" and subtract taxes along with everything in the total spending report (except discretionary spending) and you end up with discretionary spending.

So the program is solving for your highest available spending pattern (whether you call it discretionary or whatever) after certain off-the-top expenses that you see in the Total Spending Report. You can add anything you like to those "off-the-top" expenses by creating "Special Expenditures."