Why Comparing Your Financial Plans Is the Key to Better Decisions

One of the hardest parts about financial planning isn’t running a plan, it’s knowing which plan is right.

We see it all the time. You build a plan, feel confident about your retirement age, your spending, maybe even when to take CPP or OAS… but then that lingering thought creeps in:

“What if I tried something different?”

Should I retire a year earlier? What if I downsize sooner? What if I spend more while I’m still healthy? Each question creates a new version of your future, and until now, it’s been hard to see those versions side by side.

That’s why we built Compare Plans, a new way to not only test your ideas but truly understand how they shape your financial future.

The Problem: One Plan Can’t Tell the Whole Story

Before this feature, you could run as many analyses as you wanted in Optiml, Max Spend, Max Value, Custom Plan, or any scenario you could dream up, but you could only view one at a time. It worked well for single-scenario testing, but real planning isn’t about one static result. It’s about comparing possibilities.

Let’s say you built two plans:

• 🏡 Plan A: Keep the family home until age 90, leave it as part of the estate.
• ✈️ Plan B: Downsize at 70, freeing up equity for more travel and spending.

Both options are realistic. Both align with your values. But they lead to very different financial outcomes and emotional ones too. Compare Plans helps you see exactly how those differences play out, side by side, in real numbers.

How It Works

You’ll find Compare Plans on the Insights page inside Optiml. Here, you can choose any two saved analyses from your Analysis Hub or even compare your current active plan to an older one, and view them together in a single, interactive report.

Compare Plans doesn’t just show two totals. It breaks down your entire financial picture including key outcomes like:

• 💰 Pre-tax and after-tax estate values
• 📈 Lifetime income and spending
• 🧾 Total taxes paid and average tax rate
• 🏦 Withdrawals and contributions
• 🎯 And more contributing to each plans overall success

Each data point is displayed side by side, along with the difference between them so you can immediately see which plan performs better in each area.

See What Changed, Instantly

One of the most powerful aspects of Compare Plans is how it automatically identifies what actually changed between the two plans.

The Input Comparison page highlights every difference, from retirement age and annual spending to inflation assumptions and growth rates so you can see exactly what drove the change in your results. Sometimes, a single small adjustment, say increasing annual spending by 5% or delaying CPP by a year can completely shift your estate value or tax profile over time.

Compare Plans makes those ripple effects visible in seconds.

EVA: Your AI Co-Pilot for Smarter Analysis

And because we know not everyone wants to dig through every number, we’ve built EVA, your AI assistant, directly into Compare Plans.

Ask questions like:

• “Which plan gives me more after-tax income?”
• “Why did my estate value drop when I retired earlier?”
• “What are the three biggest differences between these two plans?”

EVA doesn’t just read your data, it interprets it. It helps you connect cause and effect, explaining why certain decisions lead to certain outcomes, and how to improve them. It’s like having your own financial analyst sitting beside you, translating complex planning results into plain language insights.

Real Use Cases from the Community

Early users are already putting Compare Plans to work in creative and impactful ways. Here are a few examples we’ve seen so far:

• 👥 Tracking progress over time: Compare last year’s plan to today’s and see how you’ve stayed on track (or where adjustments are needed).
• 🕐 Testing retirement timing: Run two versions of your plan, retire at 63 vs 65 and instantly see how it affects your income, taxes, and estate value.
• 🏠 Home vs. downsizing: One plan keeps the family home for legacy; the other sells it for liquidity. Compare both and see which fits your goals better.
• 📉 Spotting errors or surprises: Compare a recent plan to your original, it’s an easy way to catch data entry mistakes or realize why subtle assumption changes had such a big impact.

It’s these kinds of “aha” moments that make planning with Optiml more than just running numbers, it’s about understanding why your plan behaves the way it does.

The Power of Context in Financial Planning

Most financial tools give you one answer: a single line, a single outcome, a single projection. But that’s not how real life works. Every financial decision you make creates new possibilities, and Compare Plans lets you explore those possibilities clearly and confidently.

It’s not just about which plan is “better.” It’s about understanding the trade-offs, more spending now versus a larger estate later, lower taxes today versus higher flexibility tomorrow. These are the insights that drive truly confident financial decisions.

Looking Ahead

Compare Plans is only the beginning. Soon, you’ll be able to save multiple comparison sets, add more side-by-side metrics, and track your progress automatically over time, creating a living, evolving record of your financial journey.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve ever wondered how small changes — like retiring a year earlier, gifting to family, or adjusting your spending — might impact your future, this feature is for you. It’s the ultimate way to turn uncertainty into clarity.

Run your first comparison today under the Insights tab and see how Compare Plans helps you make more confident, data-backed financial decisions for your future.

👉 And if you want to see it in action, check out our new YouTube video walking through Compare Plans step-by-step.