How do I model a future large expense (like a home purchase) in PortfolioPilot?
You can model a future large expense in the Retirement planner:
- Open the Retirement planner - Life events tab.
- Click + Add life event.
- For a home purchase, select Down payment. For other large expenses, use Custom event.
- Enter the amount and the expected year.
This lets you see how a large upcoming cash outflow affects your retirement trajectory and whether your current plan can absorb it. To compare two timings (e.g. "buy in 2027 vs 2029") side-by-side, save each variation as a what-if scenario and switch between them on the projection chart.
If you're holding cash specifically for the purchase and don't want PortfolioPilot recommending you invest it, there are three ways to flag it:
- Preferred: Cash account marked as non-investable. In Net Worth, add the cash under Cash and select All cash that you don't want to invest (savings, emergency fund, etc.). It still counts toward your total net worth but stays out of investing recommendations.
- Securities account in its own Asset Group. Add the cash as a Securities account, then move it into a dedicated group in Asset Groups with a conservative risk preference. Useful when you want the cash analyzed separately from the rest of the portfolio.
- Securities account marked as Externally managed. Mark the account's type as "Externally managed (e.g. financial advisor, Robo-Advisor)" via the pencil (Edit) icon. PortfolioPilot will track the holdings but won't generate buy/sell recommendations for that account.
