Spreadsheet Version

The spreadsheet tool is very configurable, allowing you to modify inflation assumptions, and Centrelink indexing. Changes to Centrelink pension amounts, thresholds, and rates (as happens regularly) can be updated simply by updating the tables in the "Caps and Thresholds" tab.

It works for singles,couples (including partners of different ages), homeowners and non-homeowners. Conditional formatting highlights input errors based on super rules and thresholds, helping to minimize mistakes. 

 IMPORTANT:  To use the spreadsheet, make your own copy of the spreadsheet — don't try to edit the shared one.

1. Open the Google Sheet

2. Click File in the menu

3. Select Download

4. Choose your preferred format (e.g. Microsoft Excel) to save a free copy for your own personal use

View Only Preview of the  spreadsheet version of the Planning tool:

How to use this spreadsheet

Everything you need to touch lives on the "THE PLAN" tab. The other five tabs (Your Calculations, Your Partners Calculations, Centrelink Calculations, Graph Calculations, Caps and Thresholds) are the engine room: they do the maths behind the scenes. You don't need to open them; just don't edit anything in there or it'll break the formulas.

Step 1: Your current situation (top of "THE PLAN")

Fill in the blue-shaded input cells:

• Marital status and home ownership (dropdowns), which drive the Centrelink Age Pension rules used later.

• Your age and retirement age (and your partner's, if a couple).

• Desired income: what you want to live on each year in retirement.

• Assets: super balance, shares, cash, cars/contents, investment property, and your home's value.

• Income streams: salary, rental income, other income, and typical tax deductions.

• Loans: home loan and investment loan balances and repayments.

Step 2: Assumptions (top right)

This is where you set the growth rates the model uses to project forward: salary growth, super growth, share growth and dividends, cash interest, loan interest rates, inflation, and Centrelink/tax indexing. Sensible defaults are already filled in; you only need to change these if you want to stress-test different scenarios (e.g. lower super returns).

Step 3 & 4: Future planning (further down)

This is a year-by-year grid (one column per year) where you can enter one-off or ongoing changes to your plan:

• Deposits are positive numbers, withdrawals are negative, e.g. a lump-sum super contribution is positive, a lump-sum withdrawal is negative.

• You can model things like downsizing your home, selling an investment property, paying off or increasing a loan, or making non-concessional super contributions.

• Step 3 is for you, Step 4 is the identical grid for your partner.

If you don't touch these rows at all, the spreadsheet just projects your situation forward using the Step 1 balances and Step 2 growth assumptions, with your desired income drawn down each year.

Worked example already in the template, the downsizer

The template comes pre-populated with one example worth understanding, showing how a downsizer contribution can be entered. In 2033, three things line up: the Primary Residence Loan reaches $0 (fully paid off by regular repayments), the "Renovate or Sell" row shows –$300,000 against the home (it's sold), and the "Downsizer" row shows +$300,000 into super (the full proceeds go in). This is just one illustrative case, with the loan already cleared. You can just as easily enter a downsizer while a mortgage is still outstanding; there's nothing in the spreadsheet that requires the loan to be paid off first.

The results

Below the Step 1 &2 input area, "THE PLAN" tab shows a set of charts that update automatically as you change any input:

• Income Plan: where your income comes from each year (salary, super drawdown, Age Pension, etc.)

• Financial Assets Balance: how your super, shares and cash track over time.

• Net Worth: your total position (assets minus loans) year by year.

• Calculated Withdrawals: how much you're drawing from each asset.

• Combined Debit/Credit Plan: the net cash flow each year.

• Loans: how your loan balances reduce over time.

• Tax: Positive Return: a tax summary.

A few practical tips

• All figures are entered as today's dollars. The model handles inflation and indexing internally using the assumptions in Step 2.

• Rates and thresholds are current as at 1 July 2026, and Centrelink/tax rules do change over time. The "Caps and Thresholds" tab holds these figures, so when new rates are released each year, update them there and the whole model recalculates from them.

• The parameters in this spreadsheet match those in PlanLens, the web app version of this same modelling. There's a video tutorial that walks through what each parameter means, which applies equally to filling in this spreadsheet. 

• This is general information, not personal financial advice. For anything you're about to act on, run it past a licensed adviser.