ensō

A retirement planner for a household of two

You keep meaning to look at it. Then you don’t.

ensō projects a household’s income, federal tax, health premiums and account balances month by month, and gives each of the two people a place to say what they think, where the other can find it without being asked.

Watch the introductionRead the documents
The Front Door: the plan lasts to 2060, a coverage score of 104, three tiles, and the balances over the years.

What it is

Describe a household. See the whole plan.

You describe the household: the people, the accounts, the income, the spending, the assumptions. ensō projects the plan month by month, from the first year to the last, working out each year’s tax return, its health premiums, what had to be drawn from which account, and what is left.

Then you describe variations, and it does the same for each, so they can be put side by side. It does not advise. It shows what happens under a plan you describe.

What it is built around

The subject is hard to talk about. The product is built for that.

Two people share a home, an account and a good deal of unspoken hope about retirement. Neither sits down with the other to go through the figures. ensō is where each can say what they think on their own, and where the other can find it.

Picking it up again

A visit is put down and picked up; a month between visits is ordinary. The Front Door answers where was I, and nothing is lost between visits.

Two people, told apart, not kept apart

Every note, mark and reply carries a name and a date. The other person's marks stay folded until you have made your own, so theirs do not steer yours. Where you differ, ensō shows it. It does not settle it.

No grades

A tick is a fact and a count is a count. No screen says you are behind, and every suggestion comes with the words or leave it.

What-ifs are cheap

A scenario is the household with a few values changed, and it stores only the changes. Retiring two years later is a few cells, and the results sit side by side.

Every rate has a source

The report for an advisor states each rate and figure the run used, yours first and then the law's, with the document each is read from.

It explains. It does not advise.

A word on screen explains itself in one sentence. Rōshi answers questions from the handbook and names the passage. It never reads your figures.

Start here

The introduction, in 4:30

The videos and documents are for people the administrator has approved. Ask for access once; after that you are emailed a code each time you sign in, and no password is kept.

4:30
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Videos

A tour of each part

Each video is narrated and captioned, and every screen in it is the real product with a sample household.

4:30

Introduction: working through the hard conversations

How ensō helps two people talk about money for retirement: a gentle way in, house rules, marks that stay folded until you have made your own, and a place to leave each other things.

5:10

The Front Door

Where every visit starts: whether the plan lasts, the coverage score, the balances over the years, and what has changed since the last run.

8:20

The Spending room

What you actually spent, read from a Monarch export, weighed line by line, and offered to the plan only when you ask.

16:10

The retirement planner, feature by feature

Every screen of the Retirement room: describing the household, running it, reading the figures, scenarios, the optimizer, and the report for an advisor.

11:40

How ensō is made: the operating model and the design template

One person who decides and seven roles that start, write in one place and end; why the party measured never writes the measure; how a release happens; and the design template the interface follows.

The screens

What it looks like

The Front Door: whether the plan lasts, the coverage score and the balances over the years, on one page.
The Front Door: whether the plan lasts, the coverage score and the balances over the years, on one page.
Summary: what the plan comes to, in a paragraph; every figure in it explains itself when tapped.
Summary: what the plan comes to, in a paragraph; every figure in it explains itself when tapped.
The charts: balances by kind, what each year cost, the income on the return, and the limits reached, year by year.
The charts: balances by kind, what each year cost, the income on the return, and the limits reached, year by year.
Two people, one list: each marks what matters to them; the lines where they differ are found for them.
Two people, one list: each marks what matters to them; the lines where they differ are found for them.
Scenarios side by side: a star on the best of each line, and the same measure year over year.
Scenarios side by side: a star on the best of each line, and the same measure year over year.
Year by year: every figure behind the charts, one row a year, with the limits each year crossed.
Year by year: every figure behind the charts, one row a year, with the limits each year crossed.

Documents

Written for someone who has not worked the figures out yet

The books the product keeps on its own shelves, each readable here and as a PDF.

All 10 documents