wrs-calculator v1.0.3

Development notes

Selenium notes

Attempting to put the selenium tests into a suite to run them in parallel fails because there is no way to allow them to keep running on failure (including using verify instead of assert) we could capture the std out instead of going through the work of writing out a file, picking it up and deleting it... however, the file output is much cleaner than the std out, so it's nicer to work with.

Survivor file gaps notes:

It appears that the gap years in the survivor files are intended to just split the difference, however it looks like it's not consistent between rounding and flooring, e.g.:

ages 62/58 = .890 (via their calculator)
.885/.896 = 890.5 (via table), which rounds to .891 - so FLOOR is "correct" in this case
vs.
ages 62/64 = .923 (via their calculator)
.917, .928 = 922.5 (via table) which rounds to 923, so ROUND is "correct" in this case. :-(

Therefore we'll have to fill in the gaps by actually running hundreds of selenium tests to actually observe the factors... but that will be tricky because generally it won't use age above retirement age, it'll use normal retirement age. Alternatively, we can just unit test the ones that work, and not sweat the other ones. We could also try to request the full table from WRS. Or we could create two tables one for gaps and one for downloaded data. For now I've filled in the gaps to a new generated table file using round() and can correct the floored ones that pop up as failures manually.

Visualization:

what to graph: income at various retirement ages (years of service) income at various contribution levels (and increase factors/rates of growth)

Todo:

additional options to implement:

• variable-fund adjustment
• money-market comparison

for additional contributions:

• increase rate of additional contribution (percentage and flat)
• start date, stop date (actual or projected)
• retirementDate

More Notes:

Contributing years should be no more than combined workingYears, because you can only contribute during years you are active. However, you may have contributed only the first few years of your active period, or the last few years, which would make a big difference, except that any past performance should be captured in the balance, in which case we always just track from current age to termination age

Ideas for UI:

Limitations 1) Does not currently take into account participation in the Variable Trust Fund. The Variable Trust Fund in deliberately non-diversified across classes (no bonds, real estate, etc), it doesn't include a floor on losses, and it doesn't smooth the stock market volality. On the other hand, its average adjustment 1986-2020 was 5.29% vs 3.35% for the Core fund, so it is outperforming. Additionally you're participation in the Variable fund is fixed at 50%, and so you still get the benefits of the floor & smoothing on the 50% that is invested in the Core Fund. 2) Other unusual things that I'm not worrying about: if you enter a survivor that isn't a spouse, and they're more than 10 years younger than you, different rules apply

Form

First Section

1. Birthday date
2. Spouse's(*) birthday: Can be non-spouse as long as they're no more than ten years younger than you date ( you can leave this blank if you're not married, or you don't want to include spousal retirement options)
3. What age do you plan to start collecting benefits? (optional - can provide graph of possibilities) 55-75 (validate according to job category, etc)

Second Section

First let's rule out some more complicated scenarios: 1. Have you worked more than one job category? y/n 1. Have you worked for two (or more) separate, non-connected periods of time? y/n

Phew! That keeps things nice and simple:

1. What month & year did you start? (this can be in the future if you're considering a job) month

2. What category does this job fall into? general, etc.

3. Do you have a target annual salary you'd like to hit with your WRS benefits? OR

4. Do you just want to see how much you'd make with various retirement & contribution scenarios?

5. So far you've worked for x years under WRS - how many MORE years do you think you'll work under WRS? y (pre-set with number of years until you collect benefits) (optional, can provide graph of possibilities)

6. Summary: You started/will start working for a WRS employer in yyyy when you were/are x years old You will work/worked for a total of x years until you were/you'll be z. You started/plan on collecting benefits in yyyy when you were/you'll be z years old. Does this seem right? y/n

7. Multiple categories or stints: If you've worked across multiple categories or stints, use this section to determine your correct numbers. categorystart year - actively employed OR end month

8. What is the average annual salary of the highest three years of getting paid? Example: Your three higest paid years were $42,000, $42,000 and $36,000 - so you'd add those up, divide by three and enter in $40,000 If you worked part-time, you can multiply it out as if you were full-time (e.g. if you made $15,000 working half-time, enter $30,000) You can feel free to make up a number if you think you'll get paid more in the future - we're not the IRS!

Additional Contributions:

    Did you know that you can permanently increase your retirement income by adding your own funds now while you're working?
    Research has shown that retirement income makes people much happier than a large nest-egg, and in Wisconsin we're blessed with a very stable, fully-funded retirement system.
    Use this section to determine how much you can juice your retirement income by contributing a little with each paycheck while you're working.

1. If you've made any voluntary additional contributions to your retirement, what's the current balance?
2. Monthly contribution amount:
3. Increase this amount each year:
4. Percentage growth: 4%

Variable Fund Participation:

1. Excess or Deficiency amount
2. Money Purchase current balance