Income - Global

In today’s training, we’re going to review income in the Voyant Global software, including how to enter client income, adjust it over time, and review its impact on the plan.

To begin, go to the plus button in the bottom-right corner of the screen and select the Income tile.

Within this section, you’ll see three different income options:

• Employment Income
• Other Income
• Windfall

A Windfall is designed for one-time inflows, such as an inheritance or other lump-sum event.

We’re going to start by entering Johnny’s employment income.

Under Source, you’ll have several options, including:

• Employed
• Self-Employed
• Company Owner

For this example, we’ll leave the source as Employed.

Next, enter Johnny’s base salary along with any expected bonuses or commissions.

You also have the ability to specify whether income should continue if you are modeling a disability event. This option can be toggled on or off depending on the scenario you are modeling.

Next, let’s look at the Growth Rate section.

This determines how the income grows over time within the plan.

For example, with a 3% growth rate, the software will increase the income amount by 3% each year.

Now let’s review the Timing section.

Employment income will automatically default to beginning at Plan Start and ending at Retirement.

If you need to model significant adjustments to employment income, such as moving to part-time work, you can create a Step.

For example, if Johnny plans to move to a part-time schedule later in life, we can create a salary adjustment step.

You would enter the adjusted salary amount in today’s dollars, then go to the Timing section and specify when the adjustment should occur.

We’ll name this step “Johnny Moves Part-Time” and set the timing to occur at age 61.

Now the software will reduce Johnny’s income beginning at that point in the plan.

Next, we’ll click Save and Add Another to enter Nora’s employment income.

We’ll enter her salary, along with any bonuses or commissions, and review the timing.

Again, employment income will automatically default to ending at Nora’s retirement event.

Once completed, click Done to save.

You’ll now notice blue sections appearing in the plan charts. These blue bars represent inflows into the plan.

Each bar represents a single year in the plan, and you can review:

• Total inflows
• Surplus income
• Total Need
• Basic Need

You can also go to Year View and review income broken down by individual person.

Within the Cash Flow section, you can see how income changes over time.

For example, if you want to verify that Johnny’s income reduces at age 61 as expected, you can compare the income values from one year to the next. In this example, his income drops from $264,000 to $194,000 following the part-time adjustment.

Another important point about employment income is that the software will use the tax assumptions entered elsewhere in the plan to estimate taxes associated with those employment earnings.

Next, let’s review how to enter a future state pension.

Go back to the plus button, select Income, and this time choose Other Income.

Other Income is useful for modeling income sources outside of employment income.

We’ll name this income source “Johnny’s State Pension.”

Enter the expected income amount and specify the taxation treatment, including whether the income is taxable and whether it should be treated as earned income.

You can also use the Growth Rate field as a cost-of-living adjustment for the pension over time.

Next, specify whether the amount should be entered in today’s dollars or as a future value.

In this example, we’ll use Future Value, meaning the pension will enter the plan at $35,000 and then inflate from that point forward.

We’ll set the timing so the pension begins at Johnny’s retirement and ends at his mortality event.

Click Done to save.

You should now see the pension income flowing into the plan in blue during retirement years.

If you turn on Details in the Cash Flow chart, this income will appear under Other Income.

Next, we’ll enter Nora’s state pension.

Again, go to Income → Other Income.

Select Nora as the owner and deselect Johnny.

We’ll also enter this as a Future Value.

The timing will begin at Nora’s retirement and continue until her mortality event.

Click Done to save.

You should now see Nora’s pension income flowing into the plan beginning at her retirement.

If you’d like to verify the timing, you can go to Year View and review the Cash Flow section.

You’ll see Johnny’s pension beginning at age 65, followed later by Nora’s pension when she retires.

I hope this has been helpful.

If you have any questions or need assistance setting up a plan or entering income, feel free to reach out to us at support@planwithvoyant.com.

You can also request support directly from within the plan by entering your question into the support request text box and sharing client access with us.

Thanks for listening.