Boldin is the stronger option for detailed US retirement decisions such as Roth conversions, Social Security claiming and Medicare costs. Zenarios is a better fit when you want a monthly life plan, local financial data and no account, particularly outside the US. That is a difference in scope, not proof that one forecast is more accurate.
Boldin was previously called NewRetirement. Both products go beyond a retirement calculator: they connect income, spending, assets and future decisions into a long-term forecast. The useful question is which one models the decisions you actually need to make.
Boldin’s overview ↗
Choose for the decisions ahead of you
For a US household approaching retirement, Boldin brings IRA withdrawals, Roth conversions, Social Security claiming and healthcare planning into dedicated workflows. These are areas where Zenarios requires simpler assumptions or lacks an equivalent tool.
See the PlannerPlus tools ↗
Now consider a couple in Germany deciding whether to buy a home, have a child and reduce working hours. Zenarios models the month each event happens, includes German pension and health-insurance rules, and can start from local cost estimates. Its broader tax coverage also matters for people living elsewhere. You can refine the estimates rather than starting with a blank spreadsheet. Read how the Zenarios model works for the scope of those calculations.
Monthly event timing is not unique to Zenarios. Boldin also accepts monthly income and expenses with start and stop months. The distinction here is Zenarios’ monthly inspection workflow and local rules, not an assertion that Boldin only models annual events.
Boldin’s monthly inputs ↗
Privacy can settle the choice too. Zenarios keeps financial plans on your device and needs no account. That also means no automatic sync or account recovery. Boldin’s online account, optional bank connections and document storage offer conveniences Zenarios does not. Keeping data local and keeping it conveniently available across devices solve different needs.
Boldin Document Vault ↗
The feature comparison
Unless a row says otherwise, advanced Boldin capabilities refer to PlannerPlus. Basic has fewer inputs and tools. Zenarios entries describe the current app, including the browser version. On a small screen, scroll each table horizontally.
Everyday planning and life decisions
| Feature | Zenarios | Boldin |
|---|---|---|
| Whole-life forecast | Monthly balances, cash flow, debt and net worth, through retirement and beyond. | Income, expenses, assets and retirement projections, with coaching alerts. Source ↗ |
| Individuals and families | One person or a couple, shared accounts, children and dependent adults. | Household planning for you and a partner; future expenses can include family costs. Source ↗ |
| Monthly timing | Inspect monthly balances and cash flows, with milestones applied in the month they happen. | Monthly income, pensions and expenses with start/stop months; annual and quarterly budgeting options. Monthly event timing is not exclusive to Zenarios. Source ↗ |
| Scenarios | Fork and compare alternatives; up to five separate plans, each with scenarios. | PlannerPlus maintains and compares up to ten scenarios. Source ↗ |
| Career and life changes | Templates and custom milestones for children, marriage, part-time work, sabbaticals, care, inheritance and more; date or condition triggers. | Model changes through income, expenses, real estate, longevity and scenarios; no claim of matching Zenarios’ template library. Source ↗ |
| Housing and rental income | Buy and sell property, model mortgages, rent, rental income, relocation and housing costs. | Home purchases and sales, multiple relocations, renting out a former home, refinancing and rental income. Source ↗ |
| Reverse mortgages | No dedicated reverse mortgage model. | Dedicated reverse mortgage modeling. Source ↗ |
| Debt and saving | Loan schedules, extra repayments, avalanche or snowball debt plans, emergency cushions and rules for surplus money. | Debt and mortgage planning, transfers and account withdrawals; do not assume it has the same avalanche/snowball workflow. Source ↗ |
| Spending and income | Recurring and one-off flows, pay changes, self-employment, pensions, annuity payouts and scheduled purchases. | Work and business income, bonuses, pensions, annuities, windfalls and detailed future expenses. Source ↗ |
| Local starting estimates | Bundled living-cost levels for 153 countries and housing estimates in 12; all can be replaced with your numbers. | US healthcare estimates and detailed retirement inputs; no comparable worldwide living-cost library verified. Source ↗ |
Retirement, taxes and investment decisions
| Feature | Zenarios | Boldin |
|---|---|---|
| Country coverage | 38 income-tax systems, with different levels of detail; manual effective-rate option elsewhere. Local plan currencies. | Based on US tax and retirement rules. Non-US tax systems and local retirement accounts are not natively supported. Source ↗ |
| Tax estimates | Income, contributions and simplified investment taxes. US states are supported; US investment tax lacks separate short/long-term gains rates and NIIT. | US federal and state estimates, standard or itemized deductions, and lifetime tax analysis in PlannerPlus. Source ↗ |
| Retirement accounts | Taxable, tax-free and tax-deferred accounts, local presets, contribution limits for presets, access ages and early-access penalties. These are simplified rules. | US retirement account handling, early-withdrawal penalty modeling and tax-aware retirement planning. Source ↗ |
| Roth conversions | Roth IRA account preset, but no dedicated conversion explorer or conversion optimizer. | PlannerPlus has a Roth Conversion Explorer. Source ↗ |
| Specialized savings and contributions | Generic tax wrappers and pension presets; no dedicated HSA-qualified-expense or 529 education-account engine. | Documents HSA accounts and employer contributions, education funding, income-linked contributions, inherited IRAs, and backdoor/mega-backdoor Roth workflows. Source ↗ |
| Employer equity compensation | Can represent income and investment balances manually; no dedicated stock-grant or vesting workflow. | Documents modeling employer stock and equity compensation. Source ↗ |
| Required minimum distributions | No automatic US RMD calculation. | Models RMDs and excess distributions. Its help page explains an account-aggregation simplification. Source ↗ |
| State pension and Social Security | German pension-point calculation; estimates or entered benefits elsewhere. No dedicated US couple claiming-strategy explorer. | Social Security Explorer compares claiming strategies for you and a spouse. Source ↗ |
| Healthcare in retirement | Health-cost assumptions, country cost estimates and detailed German statutory/private insurance modeling. No dedicated Medicare/IRMAA or ACA subsidy optimizer. | Medicare, IRMAA, healthcare and long-term-care assumptions, with guidance on ACA insurance and Roth conversions. Source ↗ |
| Withdrawal order | Choose which accounts cover gaps first, subject to access restrictions and simplified taxes. | Default or custom account order, exclusions and manual transfers; models tax consequences and RMDs. Source ↗ |
| Flexible retirement spending | Market-fall spending cuts and withdrawal-rate guardrails, with adjustable scope and limits. | Phased future budgets are documented. An equivalent automatic market-linked spending rule was not verified. Source ↗ |
| Allocation over time | Adjust return and volatility assumptions after retirement; this is a simplified change, not a holdings-based portfolio optimizer. | Risk survey and Allocation Path comparisons across six asset classes and life stages. Applying a path to the main plan is not yet available in the reviewed documentation. Source ↗ |
| Actual investment holdings | Account balances and return assumptions; no ticker-level holdings analysis or automatic prices. | Aggregates linked or manually entered holdings and compares allocation with a risk profile. Classification and mixed-account limitations remain. Source ↗ |
| Estate and legacy | Shows remaining assets and can model inheritance received or a partner’s death; no dedicated estate-tax or beneficiary distribution engine. | Estate-value outcomes and a document vault for wills and trusts. Storing a document is distinct from drafting it or calculating every estate-tax consequence. Source ↗ |
Risk, explanations and outputs
| Feature | Zenarios | Boldin |
|---|---|---|
| Monte Carlo | Up to 1,000 seeded market futures, fat-tailed returns and varying inflation; runs locally. | 1,000 iterations using a normal return distribution and variation tied to assumed returns. Source ↗ |
| Shocks and history | 13 stress tests, including job loss, crashes, inflation and longevity, plus historical US market replays. | Stress testing and Monte Carlo are offered. A selectable historical-sequence replay was not verified; historical average rates are a different feature. Source ↗ |
| Charts and cash flow | Net worth, balances, monthly inspections, year tables, money trails and scenario change explanations. No Sankey diagram. | Income, expenses, taxes, savings, contributions, drawdowns and surplus/gap charts. Source ↗ |
| Questions and AI | Ask matches common questions and calculates answers locally. It is not a language-model chatbot or document reader. | Conversational AI can propose plan changes from text or uploaded documents, with review before applying them. Source ↗ |
| Reports and exports | Plan, decision, comparison and stress-test PDFs; forecast CSV; JSON backup and restore. | PlannerPlus supports printable reports and data exports. Source ↗ |
| Keeping a plan current | Manual check-ins, progress history and local phone reminders. No automatic bank refresh. | Connected accounts update daily; manual positions update when you edit them. Digital coach alerts help flag issues. Source ↗ |
Access, privacy and help
| Feature | Zenarios | Boldin |
|---|---|---|
| Devices | Native iPhone app and the full web app. Android is not yet listed on Google Play. | Browser-based planner with documented desktop, iOS and Android browser support. Source ↗ |
| Accounts and storage | No login. Financial plans stay on the device or in that browser. No automatic cross-device sync; move a JSON backup yourself. | An online account gives access to your saved plan and, in PlannerPlus, encrypted uploaded documents. Source ↗ |
| Bank connections | None; enter balances yourself. | Optional connected accounts, alongside manual entry. Some institution data needs correction or manual workarounds. Source ↗ |
| Documents | PDF outputs and JSON backups; no document vault or statement ingestion. | PlannerPlus Vault stores financial and legal documents; AI can read them and propose confirmed plan updates. Source ↗ |
| Language and display | English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Filipino; light/dark themes and four text sizes. | Equivalent language, theme and text-size coverage was not verified in the reviewed pages. Source ↗ |
| Human support and education | Maker support and in-app explanations. No integrated CFP service, coaching program or advisor dashboard. | Classes, community, chat support, coaching and a separately priced CFP retirement checkup. Source ↗ |
Where Zenarios falls short
A US tax system and a Roth account preset do not make Zenarios a complete US retirement tax planner. It lacks automatic required minimum distributions, a dedicated Roth conversion explorer, US claiming-strategy optimization and integrated ACA/Medicare/IRMAA strategy tools. Its investment tax calculation also omits the separate US short- and long-term capital gains treatment and NIIT. Those gaps can materially change a retirement comparison.
Zenarios does include account withdrawal order, market-sensitive spending rules and a post-retirement return change. Describing it as having no retirement tools would be unfair. Describing those tools as equivalent to Boldin’s entire US toolkit would be unfair too.
There is no holdings dashboard, encrypted document vault, statement-reading assistant, advisor service or bank import. Plans require manual updates and backups. The native iPhone app handles local calculations; the web version stores its plan in that browser, so clearing browser data without a backup can lose it.
Where Boldin falls short
Boldin explicitly says its planner is based on US rules and does not implement other countries’ tax and retirement systems. Workarounds for a foreign pension do not turn it into a native German, Australian or Canadian planner. If the country rules drive your decision, this is more consequential than a difference in chart design.
Boldin’s guidance for non-US users ↗
Its newer investment tools have boundaries as well. Investments Today can aggregate holdings, but blended funds may be placed in one asset class, linked accounts can combine different tax treatments, and the allocation shown does not itself change the plan’s return assumptions. Allocation Path is currently a comparison: applying it to the main plan is still described as coming later.
Holdings limitations ↗
·
Allocation Path limitations ↗
Even specialist modeling is not the same as executing a strategy. For example, Boldin documents simplifications in how RMDs can be aggregated between accounts. Its planner does not replace the account-specific work needed to take real distributions.
How Boldin models RMDs ↗
We could not verify a selectable replay of a specific historical market sequence or a spending rule equivalent to Zenarios’ guardrails. We have marked those as unverified rather than absent. Neither the number of features nor the number of Monte Carlo runs demonstrates forecast accuracy.
Pricing and what the free versions include
Zenarios: the full browser app is free for now. That is the current offer, not a promise of permanent free access. Check the App Store listing for your local iPhone price.
Boldin Basic: free, with a personalized plan and basic what-if exploration. Advanced tax, reporting and risk tools are limited by tier.
Boldin PlannerPlus: the current pricing page lists US$168 per year, billed annually after a 14-day trial.
Human advice: the pricing page lists a separate US$3,200 CFP retirement plan checkup.
Prices checked 24 October 2026. Boldin’s pricing page and its “How it works” FAQ disagree: the latter still lists US$144/year. We use the dedicated pricing page and recommend checking the checkout price before paying.
Current pricing ↗
·
Overview FAQ ↗
A fair way to try both
Enter the same household, starting balances, spending, retirement ages and time horizon. Match nominal returns, inflation and investment costs before comparing the charts. Then test one real decision, such as retiring two years earlier, and inspect the cash flows and taxes that changed.
Do not compare a default success percentage in isolation. Boldin documents normally distributed returns; Zenarios uses fat-tailed returns and varying inflation. Different taxes, withdrawal behavior and definitions of success can also produce different results from otherwise similar inputs.
Boldin’s simulation methodology ↗
If your decision depends on US conversion, claiming or healthcare rules, start with Boldin. If you need a local monthly plan for life changes and prefer keeping financial data on your device, try Zenarios. If you need bank transaction categorization, tax filing or automatic investment execution, neither planner is a substitute for a tool designed for that job.
Sources and review scope
The feature links above point to Boldin’s own documentation. Zenarios claims were checked against the current app implementation, including its tax models, account rules, spending rules, forecasts, exports and storage. Our public methodology, privacy policy and web app provide further context. This is a feature review; it does not establish numerical parity between products.
Notable sources for changing features are
pricing
,
AI plan updates
,
Investments Today
and
Investments Future
. Announced features are described as such, not counted as shipped capabilities.
Common questions
Is Zenarios a Boldin alternative?
Zenarios is an alternative for household forecasts, life scenarios and financial independence planning. It has different tax coverage and lacks dedicated US Roth conversion, Social Security claiming and Medicare strategy tools, so check the feature table before switching.
Is Zenarios free to use?
The full Zenarios web app is free for now, with no account required. Check the App Store for your local iPhone price. Future pricing is not guaranteed.
Can I use Zenarios outside the United States?
Yes. Zenarios includes income-tax systems for 38 countries at different levels of detail, local currencies and editable living-cost estimates. Countries and account types have different limitations; a supported country is not a guarantee of complete tax coverage.
Explore Zenarios
See the Zenarios financial planning features, explore life scenarios and financial decisions, or read about how Zenarios calculates your forecast and how your financial data stays private.
Try Zenarios in your browserWritten by the maker of Zenarios, a software engineer. These guides explain planning concepts and the product; they are not a personalized financial recommendation. Illustrative calculations are not results from your plan.