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Explore the page
- 01
Know when a plan is saved
Owned plans save automatically after edits. The header distinguishes Saved, Saving…, Not saving, and Last change not saved. If a save fails, keep the page open, read the error, and use Retry when offered after restoring the connection or correcting the rejected input.
A failed save is not confirmation that the latest edit reached the server. Download a native plan file when you need a portable copy. Shared plans are view-only, and their indicator says so. The household finances editor has its own explicit Save your finances action; it is separate from plan autosave.
- 02
Manage multiple plans
The plan menu at the top of every plan page names the plan on screen.
Opened, it lists the plans you own on this profile once there is more than one, the one on screen marked “On screen” and the others “Open”, each with a × to delete it, and under them a “Shared with you” group of plans other people have shown this account, marked “View”.
An account keeps up to two plans. Once it holds that many, the three ways of starting another are closed and the menu says to delete one to start, copy or import another. Plans already held stay exactly as they are; the limit is only on starting another, and the API is what enforces it.
- 03
Create, copy, import & download
Start a new plan opens a name field, suggesting a number past the plans already held (“Plan #2” for a second), then walks through the four setup steps. When the household has already described its finances, the new plan starts from those accounts, properties, debts, incomes and spending categories and nothing else.
Duplicate asks for a name like “Copy of Plan #1”, then asks which profile should receive it. A copy kept on this profile includes its plan-specific changes to the household’s cards; a copy sent to another profile uses that destination’s household finances instead. Download writes the plan as readable JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).
Import accepts MoneyWhatIf plan JSON files and previews the accounts, income, spending, properties and debts before creating the plan. The file is read in the browser and the plan is uploaded when you confirm. A first import becomes the untouched account’s first plan; later imports create another plan under the ordinary plan limit.
Files over 5,000,000 bytes and native plan files from a newer version of this app are refused in words. Renaming happens in the menu’s own field; deleting asks first and cannot be undone.
- 04
Compare plans
The What If control beside the plan menu offers “Compare with another plan”. The picker lists every plan on the account, the one on screen muted as “Current”, and plans shared with you are included, since comparing only reads.
Picking one reads that plan back and projects it on this device; its line is drawn dashed under this plan’s on every chart, through the same years, labeled with the other plan’s name. Nothing about either plan changes and everything still saves normally.
The control then reads vs that plan’s name and holds the ways out: stop comparing, compare with a different plan, or, from the projection overview, trade the comparison for What-If, which takes the same dashed line.
- 05
Organize finances with profiles
The menu beside the MoneyWhatIf brand says whose finances the page is showing: it reads “Me” until it is first opened, then carries the chosen profile’s name. It lists the profiles you manage, tagged “Your own” for the account’s own, and under them profiles shared with you, tagged “Can edit” or “Can view”.
An account keeps one profile of its own, so the menu offers no way to add or migrate another; profiles other people share with you still open from it and do not count.
A profile can be renamed or removed together with every plan on it, without a confirming question; the account’s own profile has no remove. Picking a profile opens its most recently saved plan, or starts the walkthrough on a blank plan when it has none.
The plan menu then lists only that profile’s plans, so a parent’s finances kept beside your own stay two short lists.
- 06
Manage your profiles
See all as a table opens the roster: one row per profile showing who it is shared with, how many plans it holds, net worth, assets, what is owed, and when anything was last saved.
Every figure is what the plan says the household holds today, read off the profile’s most recently saved plan; nothing is projected, and a profile with several plans is counted once. A last-saved date older than 182 days is marked as stale. The line above the table sums profiles, plans and net worth across the rows shown, counting only profiles this account manages.
Rows can be searched by name or email and sorted by any column except Shared with.
- 07
Share a plan or profile
Share this plan, in the plan menu, opens a dialog with a link to the page you are on (the projection, when shared from the setup walkthrough or the household’s own pages) and three settings. Who the link reaches is Restricted (only you and the people named) or Anyone with the link (no sign-in needed).
People who can view are added by email address; they sign in as themselves and the plan is there. Nothing changes until Save is pressed, and reading is all that is granted. A plan anyone with the link can read shows a Shared mark by its name.
Let readers save a copy is on to begin with, and decides whether the people you share with are offered Save a copy. Turned off, the plan reads exactly as before and the button is gone; it withholds the offer rather than the figures, which anybody who can read the plan can write down. Your own Duplicate is unaffected, and so is anybody you gave the profile to as Can edit.
Sharing a profile is different: no link, every plan on the profile including ones added later, and each person is Can edit or Can view.
- 08
What a viewer sees
A plan shared with you opens on the page the link named, or on the projection when the link pointed into the setup walkthrough. The status by the plan’s name reads “Shared with you · view only”. Every control that would write is left off: there is no plan menu, no What If, no plot builder and no Roth conversion simulator.
The one move is Save a copy, or Sign in to save a copy for somebody without an account — and only when the owner has left copying on; otherwise the plan is there to read and there is no copy button. After naming it, you choose which profile you manage should receive it. The copy is yours outright, shared with nobody, uses the destination profile’s household finances, and stops following the original; the owner is not told.
It counts as a plan of your own, so an account already holding two plans is refused. A link to a plan not open to you shows “This plan is not open to you”.
What changes what
Controls & settings
Check what each control changes and whether it recalculates your forecast.
Renames the plan on screen, up to 100 characters; the name is saved with the plan and used for file names, the share dialog and the comparison label.
Moves the page to that plan under its own URL; a plan shared with you opens read-only and does not become the plan this account is working on.
Asks for a name, then creates a plan on this profile: through the four steps from the household’s finances, or from the contents of a downloaded plan file. Closed once the account holds two plans.
Asks for a name and then which managed profile should receive the copy. Choosing another profile uses that profile’s household finances; profiles shared with you are shown but cannot receive a new plan.
Writes the plan on screen to a JSON file named after the plan; nothing on the account changes.
Shown once this profile holds more than one of your plans. Asks to confirm, then removes that plan and everything in it. Deleting the plan on screen opens the account’s most recently saved other plan, or a blank one when it was the last.
Projects the chosen saved plan and lays its dashed line under this plan’s charts through the same years; stopping only takes the line off.
Restricted or Anyone with the link, plus a list of email addresses who may read the plan; nobody’s access changes until Save is pressed.
Whether somebody you shared the plan with is offered Save a copy. On unless you turn it off; turning it off leaves the plan just as readable, and never affects your own Duplicate or a profile editor’s.
Opens the chosen profile’s most recently saved plan, or starts the walkthrough on a blank plan when the profile has none.
Reading the result
Read the results
“Shared with you” in the plan menu means read-only. The only way a plan somebody else owns becomes editable on your account is a profile shared with you as Can edit, or a copy you save.
The roster’s Net worth is today’s balance sheet read off one plan, not the projection’s ending value; a profile with a baseline and three what-ifs of the same household is counted once.
The dashed comparison line is the other plan as its own page would project it, to its own horizon. In today’s money it is discounted at that plan’s own inflation rate, which can differ from this plan’s.
The Shared mark beside the plan’s name appears only when anyone with the link can read it; people named by address alone leave no mark, and the share dialog is where to check.
A missing plan menu together with “Shared with you · view only” means you are reading somebody else’s plan; Save a copy is how to ask a what-if of it, where its owner has left copying on. Opened from a link that carried a What-If, Save a copy takes the plan with those changes.
One plan, several readings
Related pages
Account & security →
Manage the sign-in account and its authenticator separately from household sharing.
Projection →
The What If control that starts a comparison is offered at the projection overview, and the compared plan’s dashed line appears on every chart the projection draws.
Overview →
The balance sheet in Dashboard belongs to the profile and is dealt into every plan on it; a plan link shared from Dashboard or History opens the plan’s projection rather than the household’s page.
Plan resilience →
Keeping a dealt run as a plan of its own is another plan, which needs room under the limit of two, and a viewer reading somebody else’s plan cannot keep one.
Start a plan →
A new plan goes through the same four setup steps; when the household has already described its finances, those cards open folded and the steps ask only what this plan adds.
Keep following the math
Key concepts
Keep in mind
Model limits
There is no editor role for a single plan: sharing a plan grants reading only. Letting somebody write means sharing the whole profile as Can edit.
The roster shows what each household holds today, summed from its most recently saved plan; it never projects, and profiles shared with you are left out of its totals.
A downloaded plan file is plain, unencrypted JSON holding everything the plan does; a file exported by a newer version of the app is refused rather than half-opened.
Import supports MoneyWhatIf plan files, including older native backups. Account-wide exports from other applications are not supported.
A copy a viewer saves does not follow the original afterwards, and the owner is not told; the copy is shared with nobody, and a duplicate of a shared plan does not carry the original’s sharing.
The plan limit is enforced by the API; the menu closes the three ways of starting another plan only so the refusal arrives before a name is typed, and plans already held stay.
This guide documents the page as built. The figures on it follow the plan’s own assumptions; none of it is individualized tax, legal, Medicare, or investment advice.