I’ve been using Projection Lab for several months now. The initial setup takes a little while (you want to make sure you have accurate numbers from all of your accounts, including assets and liabilities), but once you get that dialed in, it’s so easy to manipulate things and see how your projection changes. My husband and I are considering buying a new-to-us vehicle, for instance, and I easily created scenarios for buying with a loan vs cash to see how it would affect us. It’s so powerful to be able to attach future numbers to financial decisions!
Another really important use for me is in teaching my kids the value of compounding interest. My 12 year old was on the fence about investing her small pot of savings money until I showed her a projection of what that money could turn into if she invested it for the next 10, 20 years. She regularly asks me to help her try out different scenarios in her own projection, and I’m sure she’ll be using the tool herself before long.
This tool is now an essential part of our personal finance planning and one that I plan to use for years. Highly recommend.