Disclosures and assumptions

Not investment advice

Buttercup is not a registered investment adviser, and nothing in Buttercup is advice concerning securities.

Buttercup projects, compares and explains. It does not recommend buying, selling or holding any security or fund, does not recommend an allocation, and does not tell you which of your options to choose. Decisions are yours; consider a qualified professional for advice about your situation.

Projections are hypothetical

Anything about the future (a balance at an age, a date when work becomes optional, the effect of a choice) is a hypothetical illustration calculated from the information and assumptions in your plan. It is not a prediction, a promise, or a statement of likelihood.

Where a projection depends on markets it is shown as a range, because the future is uncertain. Real outcomes can fall outside a range. Markets can lose value, including over long periods.

What today's projections assume

Every figure the service projects today rests on one of these assumptions, stated beside the figure where it appears and listed in full on the assumptions page: withbuttercup.com/disclosures/assumptions

• The comfortable amount: income arrives on the pay days you entered; every commitment, debt payment and goal amount you entered leaves as entered; the reserve is kept apart; nothing you did not enter is counted.
• Debt payoff: interest accrues monthly at the annual rate you entered, the payment stays what you set, and no new charges are added. Without a rate, the service shows that a real projection needs one rather than assuming a rate.
• The calendar: commitments recur on the dates and cadence you entered; a yearly commitment is set aside evenly each month.
• Recurring charges: a charge repeats at the cadence the history shows and at its recent average amount; the annual figure multiplies that average by the cadence.
• Goal funding: the monthly amount you set goes to the goal every month from today; the months to reach the target are the remainder divided by that amount, rounded up.
• Career comparison: total compensation is salary plus the employer match at the rate you entered plus the yearly value of benefits you entered; hours a year are hours a week over 52 weeks less paid days off. Nothing is taxed, discounted or weighted.
• Retirement: returns after inflation of 2%, 4% and 6% a year (cautious, middle, more room), compounded monthly in whole cents; contributions continue as entered until the target age; once work is optional, 4% of the balance a year is withdrawn; everything is in today's dollars; no tax, Social Security, pension or market sequence is modeled. The age when work becomes optional is the first age at which 4% of the balance a year covers the monthly need you entered.
• Taxes, where a pay figure is compared as take-home: federal income tax from the published brackets and standard deduction for the tax year named on the figure, Social Security and Medicare at their published rates and limits, and a state rate you confirm; pre-tax retirement contributions reduce income and state tax, a pre-tax health premium reduces payroll tax too, and military allowances are untaxed. No credits, dependents, itemized deductions, local taxes or other income are counted.
• No other growth, inflation or market assumption is in use. Investing projections do not exist yet.

Figures depend on what the service knows

Amounts are calculated from what you entered and what your institutions reported, as of the last time each was updated. A connected figure carries the moment it was reported; one more than three days old is called stale rather than shown as current. An account you have not added is not counted.

Examples on this site are fictional

The people, amounts and plans shown on marketing pages are invented to illustrate the product. They are not customers and not results.

No tax, legal or accounting advice

General explanations of concepts are educational. They are not advice about your taxes or legal position.