Planning software for financial advisors
Plot My Money and Income Lab compared
How Plot My Money and Income Lab compare on guardrails, tax planning, Social Security and pricing, from Income Lab's own pages checked November 5, 2026.
Income Lab is retirement income software for financial advisors. Plot My Money is a planning app for households, with an Advisor plan for planners who work with clients. Both use spending guardrails, so this page sets out how they overlap and differ, using Income Lab's own public pages.
Who each one is for
Income Lab describes itself on its home page as software for financial advisors. Its Retirement GPS keeps testing client plans against current conditions and tells the advisor when a plan calls for a change. Clients see the results through their advisor, not as users of the software.
Plot My Money is for US households planning for retirement or already retired. It shows what's safe to spend each month, tests the plan across thousands of simulated markets, and plans taxes, Social Security and withdrawals year by year. It runs in a browser on phones and computers, and has an Advisor plan for planners who work with clients.
Features side by side
“Not published” means we didn't find the feature on Income Lab's public pages. It doesn't mean the feature is missing.
| Feature | Plot My Money | Income Lab | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | No | Pricing |
| Monte Carlo simulation | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| Dynamic spending strategies or guardrails | Yes | Yes | Retirement GPS |
| Federal income tax, year by year | Yes | Yes | Tax Lab |
| State income tax | Yes | Yes | Tax Lab |
| Roth conversion planning | Yes | Yes | Tax Lab |
| Withdrawal order choices | Yes | Yes | Tax Lab |
| Capital gains harvesting | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| Social Security claiming comparison | Yes | Yes | Pricing |
| Spousal and survivor Social Security benefits | Yes | Yes | Pricing |
| Social Security earnings test | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| Medicare premiums and IRMAA | Yes | Yes | Tax Lab |
| ACA marketplace premium tax credit | Yes | Partial | Pricing |
| QCDs and donor-advised funds | Yes | Partial | Pricing |
| Equity compensation (RSUs, options, ESPP) | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| Estate tax, federal and state | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| Life, disability and long-term care needs | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| Deferred compensation (NQDC) | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| Side-by-side scenarios | Yes | Yes | Pricing |
| User-written rules tested in every simulation | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| PDF report | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| CSV or Excel export | Yes | Not published | Pages checked |
| Automatic account linking | No | Yes | Pricing |
| AI assistant | No | Yes | Pricing |
| iOS or Android app | No | Not published | Pages checked |
| Plans for financial advisors | Yes | Yes | Pricing |
| Countries other than the US | No | Not published | Pages checked |
Notes on the table
- Income Lab has no free plan on its pricing page. It offers a 14-day trial with full Pro access, and a credit card is required to start.
- Its pricing page lists stress testing against 130 years of market data. We didn't find Monte Carlo described as a method on the pages checked.
- Its guardrails are “total-risk based guardrails,” per its Retirement GPS page.
- Social Security claiming optimization covers 9,000+ strategies, with divorced-spouse and survivor benefits, per its pricing page.
- IRMAA projections, ACA-to-Medicare planning and a charitable giving optimizer are listed on the Pro plan. ACA and charitable giving are marked Partial because the pages don't describe the premium tax credit, QCDs or donor-advised funds.
- Client account aggregation through Yodlee and the Penny AI paraplanner are Pro features. Core includes an AI assistant for quick plan questions.
- Its pricing page lists client deliverables such as one-page plans, print-ready memos and white-labeled reports. We didn't find a file format stated.
- Plot My Money runs up to 1,000 simulated markets on the free plan and up to 10,000 on Plus.
- Plot My Money on a phone is an installable web app, not a store app.
- Plot My Money doesn't link accounts. You enter balances by hand or import them from files.
Pricing as published
Plot My Money has a free plan and two paid plans. Plus covers your household, at a yearly price of the amount shown before you subscribe. The Advisor plan covers a set number of client households, at a yearly price of the amount shown before you subscribe. Until paid plans go on sale, every feature is included for every household. See plans and billing.
Income Lab (from its pricing page, checked November 5, 2026):
- Core: $199/mo, or $1,990 a year billed annually. Billed monthly, it's $2,388 a year.
- Pro: $299/mo, or $2,990 a year billed annually. Billed monthly, it's $3,588 a year.
- Support staff seats: $80/mo per seat, or $800 a year billed annually.
- Enterprise: contact sales.
- A 14-day free trial with full Pro access, which converts to Pro unless you switch or cancel.
Where Income Lab is stronger
- Ongoing monitoring across clients. Retirement GPS keeps testing plans and notifies the advisor when a change is due.
- AI tools for advisors. The Penny AI paraplanner, plan building from meeting notes and Zoom call updates are on Pro, per its pricing page. AI Scribe captures planning details during meetings, per its AI tools page.
- Practice integrations. Imports from custodians and portfolio systems, and CRM sync with Redtail, Wealthbox and Salesforce, per its pricing page. Plot My Money has none.
- Advisor tax tools. Pro adds 1040 upload, W-4 withholding analysis, NUA analysis and an IRMAA appeal calculator.
- Social Security depth. WEP/GPO analysis and a tax torpedo view, per its pricing page.
Who should pick which
- Pick Income Lab if you're an advisor who wants guardrail-based income plans monitored for every client, with AI and CRM tools built in.
- Pick Income Lab if your practice centers on retirement income conversations in client meetings.
- Pick Plot My Money if you're a household that wants to run guardrails, taxes and Social Security on your own plan.
- Pick Plot My Money if you're an advisor who wants to set up plans and hand them to clients, and you don't need CRM or custodian links.
How to switch
Plot My Money doesn't import Income Lab files, so you set up your plan again. Have your latest balances, pay, spending and Social Security estimates to hand.
- Start a plan and answer the setup questions about your household, income, spending and accounts.
- If you have a holdings file, import it as Excel or CSV on the Accounts screen.
- Add Social Security from your SSA statement, plus pensions and any other income.
- Compare the results with your old plan. Differences usually come from assumptions about returns, inflation, taxes and spending.
You can download your plan as a JSON file at any time. See getting started and importing and exporting.
Sources
Each page below was read on November 5, 2026.