If you’ve listened to Rajiv Nagaich even a handful of times, or read articles here on the Blog, you’re guaranteed to have heard the term “financial dashboard.” Rajiv and his colleague, certified financial planner Saket Sengar, often speak of this planning tool as an essential guide to help ensure that clients who use the financial dashboard will greatly increase their odds of retirement success.
But what exactly is a financial dashboard, and what does it do? For some simple insight into that question, we’re asking Saket Sengar to enlighten us.
Where You Are, Where You’re Going, and What to Expect
“A financial dashboard is a computer-based, digital financial planning tool,” Saket explains. “That’s the simple answer. We use custom software to create what we call a dashboard, one that is 100 percent unique to each individual client.”
He goes on, “Think of the gauges and readouts on the dashboard of your car: they tell you how fast you’re going, what direction you’re heading, and how many more miles you can drive without refueling or recharging.” But is that really enough?
When it comes to future planning, the answer is no. “As important as that information is,” Saket adds, “a financial dashboard actually does a lot more. With this planning tool in place, investors have the insight to make adjustments today that will shape their retirement future.”
Built Around the Central Planning Question, “What If?”
Saket calls the financial dashboard “one of the most powerful tools in a financial planner’s toolbox.” That’s because the dashboard is built around a question we all ask ourselves constantly when planning for retirement: “What if?”
“Examples are endless,” he explains. “What if I retire two years earlier? What if I take my pension as a lump sum instead of a monthly check? What if I wait until 70 to claim Social Security? These aren’t small questions — they’re the ones that can shift your retirement by tens, even hundreds, of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.”
A Scalable Planning Tool Anyone Can Use
Sometimes financial advisors like Saket Sengar hear people say that financial planning is only for the wealthy. But that’s entirely untrue.
“One of the biggest reasons some people don’t consult a financial planner is that they believe their investment portfolio is too small,” Saket notes. “But the truth is just the opposite: those with more modest assets can actually benefit even more than the wealthy in many cases.”
He explains one great advantage of the financial dashboard: it is completely scalable.
“That means it’s useful no matter what the size of your bank account,” Saket explains. “We all need to plan for the future, whether we’re managing a small estate or a large one. In my experience, just about anyone can benefit from using a customized financial dashboard.”
A Personalized Planning Journey for Each Individual Client
Saket describes how a financial dashboard differs from retirement calculators and other similar do-it-yourself tools available online.
“The biggest difference is that the dashboard is comprehensive and customized,” he says. “Online calculators and tools of that type can be useful, but they rely on one-size-fits-all formulas to come up with specific answers to very narrow questions.”
By contrast, your financial dashboard is both wide-ranging and completely customized to you, the client.
“When I work with you as a client, we develop the dashboard together,” Saket emphasizes. “I ask lots and lots of questions. The financial dashboard considers your resp0nses and provides useful information specific to your situation. It’s like a financial fingerprint: no two are alike.”
Retirement: Begin with the End Goal in Mind
One of the best ways to plan for the future is to start with the end goal and work backward. Toward that end, one of the key elements in designing a financial dashboard is the question, “When would you like to retire?” Also, what about your spouse’s or partner’s plans, if you’re married or in a long-term relationship?
Saket says, “I realize that every client will answer that question differently. That’s why the dashboard allows you to see what your future could look like at different retirement ages. For example, you may find there’s a big, big difference between your financial health if you work until age 70 versus retiring at 65 or 66.”
He adds, “With a financial dashboard, you can see those differences at a glance. It helps drive the decisions you make.”
How Much Money Will You Have, and Where Will it Go?
Rajiv and Saket remind us regularly that the biggest fear of most retirees is running out of money. A financial dashboard makes it far easier to analyze the assets you will have on hand to fund your retirement.
“When I sit with a client,” Saket says, “we work together to come up with honest answers to the tough questions about retirement income and living costs. You may have all sorts of ideas about how you’d like to spend your money, but the financial dashboard helps you see which dreams are realistic and which ones aren’t.”
Asset Management Tools Help Clients See Future Income
Knowing how much you’ll have to live on when you retire is essential if you want to build a realistic strategy, Saket reminds us.
“Your dashboard is a vital tool for projecting future income,” he states. “For instance, we can see what the impact will be from employer-sponsored retirement plans – your 401(k) or 403(b) – at various contribution levels. We can also look at current savings and investments to see if you’re on track for future goals, or if you need a course change.”
Your dashboard also takes into account your risk tolerance – an important factor as you consider which investment options best suit your needs and your temperament.
Social Security Decisions Become Clearer with a Dashboard
One of the key benefits of a financial dashboard, Saket adds, is that it helps evaluate Social Security claiming strategies.
“I get asked every day about when to start Social Security,” Saket says. “This is a question that requires a personalized answer, since there’s a lot riding on the decision – both for you and often for your spouse.”
Here again, the flexibility of the financial dashboard proves invaluable.
“When we plug the data available from Social Security into your dashboard,” Saket notes, “we can see both the short-term and long-term outcomes from your claiming strategy. That will make the decision [about claiming benefits] much easier, because you’ll be dealing with ‘real numbers,’ not just gut instinct.”
Making an Honest Effort to Project Living Costs
How much will your retirement lifestyle actually cost? This is another place where honest assessment is required, and a financial dashboard will help.
For example, the dashboard lets you plug in basic living expenses, so you can see what might happen if you were to move to a lower-cost home or a lower-tax state. You can estimate a range of healthcare costs – figures that will help you see with clarity how a chronic health condition might derail your spending plans.
Saket adds, “Some clients expect to travel in retirement, so we can budget for that. The dashboard can show them if their dreams are realistic and what steps we can take today to help those future dreams come true.”
Long-Term Care Costs are a “Real Eye-Opener”
Those who are familiar with Rajiv and Saket will not be surprised that planning for long-term care costs is a major focus of utilizing a financial dashboard.
“We know from all the data that at least three-fourths of seniors are going to need some form of long-term care,” says Saket. “We also know that programs like Medicaid are under a lot of fiscal pressure, making those benefits much harder to qualify for.”
He goes on, “That leaves most of us in the uncomfortable position of knowing we’re likely to need long-term care and we’re going to have to figure out how to pay for it on our own. And, believe me, no matter what options you choose, long-term care costs are a real eye-opener!”
This is another area where a financial dashboard shines. By plugging in various cost estimates and factoring in the premiums and benefits of long-term care insurance, making wise decisions about this critical aspect of retirement becomes far clearer and less reliant on guesswork.
Better Odds of Success in Achieving Your Retirement Goals
There’s much more to a financial dashboard, Saket notes, but ultimately it boils down to one objective: retirement success.
“Setting retirement goals is easy,” says Saket. “You can pick a retirement date, dream about how you want to spend your money, and follow the path of least resistance until it takes you right over the financial cliff. That’s wishful thinking, not a strategy.”
After a pause, he concludes, “The question that matters most is, how do you improve the probability of success in meeting your retirement goals? That’s what a financial dashboard is designed to do.”
Rajiv Nagaich – Your Retirement Planning Coach and Guide
Rajiv Nagaich’s newest program on PBS, called Designing Your Ideal Future, is bringing Rajiv’s powerful message to Americans from coast to coast. This engaging and challenging PBS show is prompting thousands to take a fresh look at the type of planning that will help them succeed in retirement.
In this one-hour PBS special, Rajiv Nagaich takes viewers step-by-step through the principles of creating a retirement plan that truly supports the life you want to live. Instead of generic check-the-box paperwork, Rajiv reveals how to infuse your perspective — your values, goals, and priorities — into every legal document and life plan component so your plan becomes a living system for your future.
Designing Your Ideal Future includes insights from real-world planning examples and a live Q&A with Rajiv Nagaich that answers viewer questions about retirement planning, legal readiness, and family communication. It’s perfect for anyone approaching retirement, currently retired, or responsible for a loved one’s future care — and for those who want a clear, effective approach to planning that prioritizes personal choice and quality of life.
What About You?
You’ve heard Rajiv say it repeatedly: 70 percent of retirement plans will fail. If you know someone whose retirement turned into a nightmare when they were forced into a nursing home, went broke paying for care, or became a burden to their families – and you want to make sure it doesn’t happen to you – then these materials are your key to retirement success.
Visit your local PBS station’s schedule to find airtimes and learn how to access companion resources — including a free Legal Readiness Quiz and tools to help build your complete LifePlanning system.
Don’t remain among the millions of Americans sleepwalking their way into a retirement they never wanted. Instead, your retirement can be the exciting and fulfilling life you’ve always hoped it would be. Start by watching, reading and sharing Rajiv’s important message.
And remember, Age On, everyone!
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