Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for calculating an optimal retirement plan based on income needs, incomes sources and federal income tax impacts for individuals and married couples is disclosed. Financial information of the user(s) is used to create a user profile(s) which comprises retirement income requirements, available income sources and investment risk tolerance of the user. The user profile is used to calculate a suggested strategy which balances the income requirements of the user impacted by taxes to the available income sources and accounting for investment risks of the user and a set of all possible life and death variables. A life plan is created using the suggested strategy, the set of all possible life and death variables and the user profile, and presented as output to show the optimal retirement plan.