We maximize your plan by finding settings that produce the highest Lifetime Discretionary Spending amount, but in some cases this may mean Discretionary Spending in specific years is reduced when compared to your Base Plan. This reduction is an example of cash constraint. You may not want this temporary reduction in your living standard even if it means higher lifetime spending, i.e., lower spending in the near term and higher spending in the future years.
These settings in the maximization report allow you to limit the spending reduction in any given year to a level that is acceptable to you. For example, if you set the limit to 25%, spending in each year in your Maximized Plan will never be reduced more than 25% compared to spending in your Base Plan in that year. If you set the limit to 0%, spending in each year in the Maximized Plan will always equal or exceed spending in your Base Plan in the year. Our default setting of "Consider all possible plans" means that you will see the plan with highest Lifetime Discretionary Spending regardless of how much it reduces spending in any given year. Learn more about cash constraint.