# LifeCashflow

> LifeCashflow is a free UK retirement cashflow planner, with no account needed. It models income, tax, National Insurance, pensions, savings, property and spending year by year, for one person or a couple, in today's money. It is modelling information, not financial, tax, legal or investment advice. It is not a forecast and it does not say what anyone should do. The business behind it is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

People enter their details in the web app at https://lifecashflow.co.uk/app, or load a plan file. A plan file is JSON in the version 3 plan format described below. An AI assistant can help someone make one: read the schema, ask the person for their details, check the plan, and give back a file that the person opens in the app (File, then Open file) or pastes in (File, then Paste a plan). The file is read in the person's browser and nothing is uploaded. Plans are not stored or shared by this site.

## Plan format (version 3)

- A scenario file is { "version": 3, "scenarios": [ { "name": "Base case", "plan": { ... } } ] }. The plan holds one household of one or two people.
- Required: version and people. Each person needs an id ("p1" for the first, "p2" for a partner) and a birthYear. Everything else is optional and has a documented default, so leave out anything the person has not given.
- Money is pounds in today's money. Salary, spending and income amounts are per year. Account contributions, rents, mortgage and loan payments are per month. Percentages are plain numbers (5 means 5%).
- Ages (retirementAge, startAge, lifeExpectancy) are whole years. Calendar years (birthYear, mortgage endYear, property sellYear, event year) are four-digit years, read as tax years.
- Owners of accounts, properties and events are "p1", "p2" or "joint". Every list item needs a unique id.
- The JSON Schemas below carry a description for every field.

## Documents

- [Scenario file JSON Schema](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/schema.json): the full format, with field descriptions
- [Plan JSON Schema](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/plan.schema.json): the same format for a single plan
- [Cashflow modelling: how the retirement planner works](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/how-the-planner-works-out-your-plan): how the model works - tax years, inflation, tax rules used, pensions, couples, inheritance tax and the simplifications it makes. Linked guides cover each part in detail
- [How it works](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/how-it-works): a plain-English walk through the planner

## Example plans

The guides illustrate the rules with invented example plans, not real people. Each is an ordinary version 3 scenario file that can be read directly or opened in the planner (File, then Open a saved file).

- [Pictures in the guides, with their facts](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/img/screenshots.json): every planner screenshot in the guides, with its caption, assumptions, alt text, the figures the engine worked out, the example it was taken from and the planner link that opens it exactly as pictured.
- Example files are at https://lifecashflow.co.uk/examples/NAME.json, for example [Sam's example plan](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/examples/sam-money-lasts-or-runs-out.json). The planner opens one from https://lifecashflow.co.uk/app?example=NAME, and the link can also name the scenario, the results view and, on the Tax view, the tax year.
- The examples and their results are illustrations of what the planner's arithmetic does with the assumptions given, not forecasts. The growth rates in them are assumptions, and the value of investments can go down as well as up.

## MCP server

An MCP server lets an assistant read the format and the model, check a plan, make a plan file and run a projection. It stores nothing and logs no plan contents. Its tools are get_plan_format, explain_model, validate_plan, create_plan_file and run_projection. It also offers the resources lifecashflow://methodology, lifecashflow://schema/scenario-file and lifecashflow://rates/current, and a prompt called build_plan_file that guides an interview.

- Endpoint: https://lifecashflow.co.uk/api/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no sign-in). It is available when the site is served from Vercel. A static copy of the site, such as one on GitHub Pages, has no endpoint.

How to connect from Claude: open Settings, then Connectors, choose Add custom connector, and enter https://lifecashflow.co.uk/api/mcp as the URL. Then ask, for example, "Connect to LifeCashflow and make me a plan file I can upload." Other MCP clients can add the same URL as a remote Streamable HTTP server.

## Guides

Plain-English guides to UK tax, pensions and retirement planning. Each opens with a short answer, cites official sources, and says which tax year it covers and when it was last checked. The full text of every guide is in [llms-full.txt](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/llms-full.txt). Browse them at [https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides) or look up a term in the [glossary](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/glossary).

### How the planner works

- [Cashflow modelling: how the retirement planner works](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/how-the-planner-works-out-your-plan): The planner runs one calculation for each UK tax year, from the current year until the last person in the plan reaches the age they are planned to. Each year it works out income from every source, the tax due, spending, saving or withdrawals, and every account balance. The same inputs always give the same results.
- [What the planner simplifies or leaves out](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/what-the-planner-leaves-out): The planner uses one steady growth rate per account, calculates once a year, and treats each person as living to exactly the age chosen. It leaves out means-tested benefits, income from abroad, divorce, gifts and trusts, and detailed pension rules such as protected ages. It also knows nothing about your objectives, attitude to risk or wider circumstances.

### Income tax and National Insurance

- [How much tax will I pay on my pension? A 2026/27 example](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/how-much-tax-will-i-pay-on-my-pension): Pension income is taxed as income above the personal allowance, £12,570 in 2026/27, and up to 25% of a pension can usually be taken tax-free. In Nicky's invented example, the £12,548 State Pension uses almost all the allowance, so £14,978 of the £15,000 taxable part of a £20,000 withdrawal is taxed at 20%: £2,996 of income tax.
- [UK tax rates and allowances 2026/27 used by the planner](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/uk-tax-rules-the-planner-uses): The planner uses the published UK rules for the current tax year plus changes already in legislation. That covers income tax in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, National Insurance, savings interest, dividends, rental income and Section 24, capital gains tax and student loans. The figures come from the same tables the planner calculates with.
- [What is the 60% tax trap? The £100k tax trap explained](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/what-is-the-60-percent-tax-trap): The 60% tax trap is the effective income tax rate on income between £100,000 and £125,140 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The personal allowance falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000, so each extra £1 earned is taxed at 40% and also loses 50p of allowance, costing about 60p in tax.

### Pensions

- [How long will my pension pot last? A £300,000 example](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/how-long-will-my-pension-pot-last): How long a pension pot lasts depends on how much is taken out each year, other income such as the State Pension, investment growth, charges, inflation and tax. In Robin's invented example, with a £300,000 pot, £50,000 of savings and the full State Pension, spending £28,000 a year lasts to 90, while spending £34,000 runs out at 83.
- [Pension drawdown, tax-free cash and the State Pension](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/how-the-planner-treats-pensions): Pension drawdown means keeping a defined contribution pension invested and taking money out as needed. The planner draws pensions from the minimum pension age, takes tax-free cash in one of three ways capped by the £268,275 Lump Sum Allowance, taxes the rest as income, applies the Money Purchase Annual Allowance, and adds the State Pension from State Pension age.
- [What is the Lump Sum Allowance? The £268,275 cap on tax-free cash](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/what-is-the-lump-sum-allowance): The Lump Sum Allowance is the most tax-free cash most people can take from their pensions over their lifetime, £268,275 from April 2024. It replaced the lifetime allowance as the limit on the usual 25% tax-free lump sum. Cash taken above it is taxed as income, and some people have a higher figure through protections.
- [When can I retire? Retiring at 55 vs 67, year by year](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/retiring-at-55-vs-67): There is no fixed retirement age in the UK. Private pensions can usually be drawn from 55, or 57 from 6 April 2028, and the State Pension starts at State Pension age, rising to 67 by 2028. In Casey's invented example, stopping work at 55 runs out of money at 72; stopping at 67 lasts to 90.

### Charges and investments

- [How pension and investment fees add up over time](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/how-pension-and-investment-fees-add-up): Most pensions and investment accounts charge a percentage of the money held each year. Because the money taken stops growing, a charge removes both the amount itself and the growth it would have earned. Over several decades the gap between two charge levels grows faster than the gap between the percentages suggests.

### Couples and inheritance

- [Couples and inheritance tax: what changes after a first death](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/how-the-planner-handles-couples-and-inheritance-tax): A plan holds one person or two, married, civil partners or cohabiting. UK tax is charged on each person separately, so the planner runs two tax calculations a year. It applies Marriage Allowance where the conditions are met, models what changes when the first person dies, and estimates inheritance tax on the estate at the end of the plan.
- [Inheritance tax on pensions from April 2027: what changes](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/inheritance-tax-on-pensions-from-april-2027): For deaths on or after 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and death benefits count towards the estate for inheritance tax. Death in service benefits and dependants' scheme pensions are excluded, and spouse, civil partner and charity exemptions remain. In Pat and Sandy's invented example, the planner's estimate is £252,374 on an estate including £690,843 of unused pension.
- [What happens to a pension when a partner dies?](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/what-happens-to-a-pension-when-a-partner-dies): A final salary pension may pay a survivor's pension. A pension pot can usually be passed on, and is normally tax-free to draw if its owner died before 75. The State Pension stops, though some widowed people inherit extra. In Ray and Viv's invented example, Ray dies at 80, so the inherited pot is taxed as Viv's income.

### Guidance and advice

- [Financial guidance or advice? How they differ and how to check a firm](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/financial-guidance-and-advice): In the UK, guidance explains how things work and what the options are, in general terms. Free, impartial services such as MoneyHelper and Pension Wise provide it. Advice comes from a firm authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, looks at your whole situation, is accountable under FCA rules and is usually paid for. Life Cashflow is neither.

## Optional

- [Privacy](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/privacy): what the site does and does not collect
- [How pension and investment fees add up](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/how-pension-and-investment-fees-add-up): background on investment and pension charges
- [Financial guidance and advice](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/financial-guidance-and-advice): how regulated advice differs from information, and how to check an adviser
- [Glossary](https://lifecashflow.co.uk/guides/glossary): plain-English definitions of the tax and pension terms used in the guides