Do you ever wonder how you will maintain your lifestyle after retirement?
The question is obvious as we move forward in our lives. Considering soaring market prices and future uncertainties, proper planning is essential. Google Sheets offers best-in-class tools to manage finances and skyrocket savings.
Having a good retirement plan is also equally important in this fast-paced life, where financial stability is crucial.
Spreadsheet programs like Google Sheets to manage your retirement are no less than a blessing here.
In this article, let us discuss the best retirement planning spreadsheet templates. We will also delve into the process of creating a retirement planning template in Google Sheets from scratch.
Read the article until the end to discover the template that best suits your needs.
Why Should You Use a Retirement Planning Spreadsheet Template in Google Sheets?
Google Sheets is one of the best online spreadsheet platforms to track and plan finances efficiently. Additionally, plenty of ready-to-use templates by experts make your life much easier when it comes to retirement planning.
Many use Google Sheets templates to grow businesses, track their daily routine, and more.
Here are some benefits of using Retirement Planning Templates by Google Sheets:
- Collaboration – Google Sheets templates can be shared with unlimited users. Simply put, sharing your Retirement Planning template with family and friends is a breeze. It allows you to get suggestions to improve budgeting, savings tracking, and goal setting.
- Security – All your data is stored in Google Cloud, which is backed up with security features like data encryption, two-factor authentication, and access controls. In other words, your sensitive financial information is completely protected from unauthorized access.
- Accessibility – The Retirement Planning Google Sheets templates can be accessed from anywhere; you only need an active internet connection. You can edit the data from your desktop, mobile, and tablet.
- Customization – Google Sheets offers extensive customization tools. Users can change the font styles, background color, and more within seconds. Advanced users can take their retirement planning template to the next level with powerful tools like conditional formatting, pivot tables, data validation, etc.
- Budget-friendly – Unlike other premium tools where you must spend hundreds of dollars down the line, Google Sheets is free. The free plan includes 15GB storage and boasts access to all powerful tools for beginners and advanced users.
This is not it!
The ease of use and availability of hundreds of functions further simplify calculating and analyzing your income sources, relative expenses, savings tracking, etc.
Top 5 FREE Retirement Planning Spreadsheet Templates in Google Sheets
Many retirement planning templates are available online but only for Excel users.
If you are looking for the best retirement planning spreadsheet template in Google Sheets, this is the right place. They are best fit for both beginners and advanced users.
Here is the list of templates that are free to use and can be customized per your unique requirements.
#1 – Retirement Planning Template by SoftwareAccountant
Click Here To Use This Template!
Are you looking for a professional-looking, comprehensive retirement planner?
This template by SoftwareAccountant is a must-try for everyone. It helps you secure your future by tracking your income and expenses weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual.
The template is divided into the following budget categories,
- Income Source
- Housing Cost
- Personal Expenses
- Daily Living Expenses
- Medical Costs
Feel free to add more as needed.
All you need to do is enter weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual details for each budget category, and the template automatically calculates the total using built-in formulas.
Avoid editing the cells containing the formulas, or you will end up with errors, causing disruptions in your calculations.
This is a free-to-use template; you can customize it according to your preferences. You can add additional rows and columns to create different sections very easily.
#2 – Retirement Savings Calculator by CloudHQ
Click Here To Use This Template!
This is a simple yet helpful retirement planning template for individuals planning for their retirement.
This template lets you enter your present age, retirement age, current savings, and anticipated annual contributions. It then calculates an estimate of your overall retirement savings based on this information.
You can also try out various situations and see how they affect your savings to give you a better understanding of what you need to do to reach your retirement goals.
With this template, you can monitor your progress and change your savings plan if you have to.
The template is straightforward. But make sure to spend some time exploring the features.
#3 – Retirement Calculator by Vertex42
Click Here To Use This Template!
Look no further if you are looking for an advanced retirement planning spreadsheet created in Google Sheets.
This is the best template available on the internet.
It accurately estimates how much of your salary should be saved to reach your retirement goal.
The beauty of the template is the Goal tab, which automatically calculates the annual savings based on the information provided by the users.
The main sheet, named “Retirement Calculator,” is where you enter the details such as your age, salary, inflation rate, current retirement savings, etc.
It auto-generates a graph showing the difference between the current and estimated new balances to secure a future after retirement.
The template doesn’t provide you with the professional details of financial calculations but gives a quick estimate of your retirement plan, which may help greatly.
This is also a free template. Make sure you spend some time diving into the details of the template before starting to use it.
#4 – FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) Estimator by Microsoft
Click Here To Use This Template!
This template has both a fancy name and great features. It is ideal for individuals who are planning to have an early retirement.
Using this template, you can take over your goals, evaluate risks, and plan a financially stable lifestyle after retirement.
You will have separate tabs to input your goals and enter your monthly expenses and portfolio assets.
After filling in the details, enter the estimated retirement age to find the result in the RESULT section of the “Input” tab.
It is a basic yet easy-to-use template that helps you plan your ideal retirement.
#5 – Couple Retirement Planning Spreadsheet
Click Here To Use This Template!
Last but not least, this retirement planning template is ideal for couples planning to have a financial future together.
Using this comprehensive template, you can track your income, investments, pensions, expenditures, and even projections for the future. It provides a clear view of your current financial status, your progress, and what you need to do to reach your retirement goals.
It has different tabs for both partners, including separate income streams, investments, and expenditures. It also has a retirement calculator, which helps you understand how much you need to save for your post-retirement years.
How to Create a Retirement Planning Spreadsheet in Google Sheets
Google Sheets is a very user-friendly platform for everyone.
Since a few Retirement Planning Google Spreadsheets are available on the internet, you can choose to create a new template on your own, which will not take more than a few minutes.
Here is the screenshot of the template we will be creating.
The steps are straightforward, but read until the end because we will discuss the formulas that will automate the calculations.
Step #1 – Creating a Header
A Header is a crucial part of any template. It also makes a template attractive.
Here are the steps,
- Open a new Google Sheet by clicking here
- Select the entire first row
- Increase the height as per your preference
- Select all the cells from “A1” to “I1“
- Go to the toolbar section that sits below the main menu
- Click on the “Merge cells” icon
- Type “Retirement Plans“
- Increase the font size to 23
- Make the font bold
- Change the cell background color to green (Hex Code – #00ac46)
- Change the font color to White
- Change the font alignment to the middle
Here’s how the header should look after following the above steps,
Step #2: Add the Summary Table
In simple words, this is a retirement details table. It includes details such as Age Today, Age at Retirement, and Years to Retirement.
It helps us set realistic goals, make informed decisions, and develop strategies to achieve financial security during retirement.
We will be adding them at the top. Let’s start adding them.
- Select the cell “B3“
- Type “Age Today :“
- Next, select the cell “B4” and type “Age at Retirement :“
- Repeat the above steps and complete the table as shown below,
- Select all the cells from “B3” to “E3“
- Go to the toolbar section and click the “Merge cells” icon. Refer to the following image,
- Similarly, select the cells from “B4” to “E4” and click on the “Merge cells” icon from the toolbar section
- Repeat the above steps for the remaining entries of the Age Details table
- Select the column range “B3:F8” as shown below,
- Hover to the toolbar section and click on the “Borders” icon
- Select the “All borders” option from the dropdown
Step #3: Create the First Budget Category
There are several essential budget categories to consider when planning for a successful retirement.
Here, we will include,
- Retirement Income Sources
- Housing Costs
- Personal Expenses
- Daily Living Expenses
- Medical Expenses
We will track income and expenses weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually.
Let’s start the process by adding the first category, Retirement Income Sources:
- Select the cell range “B11:G11”
- Hover to the toolbar section and click on the “Merge cells” icon
- Type “Retirement Income Sources“
- Increase the font size to 16
- Make the font bold
- Now, click on the cell “B13“
- Type “Social Security Income“
- Complete the table as shown below
- Next, click on the cell “D12“
- Type “Weekly“
- Similarly, complete the table subheader as shown in the following image,
Now, let’s properly format the table.
First, we will apply the borders and change the header color as follows:
- Select the header as shown below
- Change the cell background color to light gray (Hex Code – #f3f3f3)
- Select all the cells from “B12” to “H12“
- Change the cell background color to dark gray (Hex Code – #d9d9d9)
- Select all the cells from “B13” to “D13“
- Hover to the toolbar section
- Click on the “Merge cells” icon
- Repeat the steps for the rest of the cells as shown below
- Finally, select the entire table range
- Go to the toolbar section and click on the “Borders” icon
- Choose the “All borders” option from the popup
The table should look like the one below,
Next, let us make sure that whenever we enter the amount in the above table, it will automatically be displayed as currency with the dollar “$” symbol at the beginning.
Select the table range as shown in the following image,
- Go to the Main menu
- Click on the “Format” tab
- Select the “Number” option from the popup
- Next, click on the “Accounting” option
With this, our table is all ready. I have entered a few figures for your reference. Here’s how it looks,
To auto-calculate the sum of weekly Retirement Income Sources, we will use the SUM function in Google Sheets.
Here are the steps,
- Select the cell “E18“
- Type “=sum”
- Choose the first option from the popup or press the “Tab” key
- Provide the cell range as “E13:E17“
- Complete the bracket “)“
- Press the “Enter” key
- Repeat the above steps for the rest of the cells as shown below,
STEP #4 – Create Remaining Budget Category Tables
We need to repeat the previous step for each budget category table. As mentioned earlier, the budget categories we need to include are,
- Housing Costs
- Personal Expenses
- Daily Living Expenses
- Medical Expenses
Here’s how it looks,
Make sure to follow the same formatting and calculation guidelines discussed in the previous step.
STEP #5 – Formatting The Retirement Planning Spreadsheet
Once all the header and all the tables are ready, we need to play around with the Google Sheets formatting tools.
We have created the following template based on our expertise and formatting skills.
You can download the template created by us through the following link,