The Method
How you generate your MACH RUN.
How a MACH RUN works
Jump right in on the OODA Loop! OBSERVE is family and accounts. ORIENT is paychecks and spending. DECIDE is contributions into those accounts. Then ACT and calculate -- charts, the ledger, and the MACH OODA Financial Analysis. Change an input after that and ACT holds the last run until you Calculate again. Run the OODA Loop as many times as you need -- iterate, refine, repeat.
Rates
In Family you type a nominal return and a default COLA -- keep both realistic for best planning. Fresh plans start at 7% return and 2.5% COLA. Each account can override the main return. Each paycheck can override the COLA. Today $ shows buying power assuming the inflation rate set in OBSERVE. Future $ shows the dollars the simulation and calculation actually grew to, assuming your nominal rate of return also set in OBSERVE.
Compounding
The engine is a monthly loop from your as-of month through the age you set in Family (project through longevity age). Each month it converts an annual percent to an equivalent monthly rate — (1 + annual)^(1/12) − 1 — and applies that once. Leave the box at 7% and the account is grown twelve times a year at that monthly equivalent. Or change your nominal return based upon your personal preference, portfolio, risk tolerance, investment strategy and types, etc. Available now for Individual Unlimited or Advisor plans -- Monte Carlo analysis to execute thousands of runs with one button push, with returns that vary. With Monte Carlo you see the odds the plan holds, not just one assumed path.
Paychecks
Each income is a named block: amount, start, end, kind. Kind tells the engine whether it is earned (salary, bonus, other income) or guaranteed (pension, military retired pay, VA, Social Security, other retirement). Guaranteed paychecks show up in the cash-flow strip as the floor. Blank end date means it keeps paying through the primary user's longevity age (set in Family).
Military, VA, and Social Security
Those figures are what you type, or what the built-in tables estimate from what you type. They are not SSA, DFAS, or VA determinations. Confirm the real check with the agency.
Social Security can follow a family member and a claiming age. Start is that birthday plus the claiming age. If you type a PIA, the engine applies SSA-style early / delayed factors around FRA 67.
VA can use a percent rating, spouse, and children. Pay comes from the 2026 VA basic schedular tables. When a child turns 18, that add-on steps off until it is veteran and spouse only. COLA still applies on top, the same as other paychecks. Always check VA compensation against current information on VA.gov.
Contributions
The engine invests leftover after a simple tax haircut and spending. Leftover = income − tax − spending. It will not invent cash if you don't have it. If leftover is short of what you asked to contribute, it funds what leftover allows, in the order of the rules. Employer match is extra — not from take-home — and only when the destination is a 401(k), Roth 401(k), or TSP and you marked the match. IRS yearly caps can warn in the form. Check “cap to the legal limit” and the sim stops that person’s own dollars at the cap, then still matches what actually went in.
Required minimum distributions are modeled in the background when the account kind, owner’s age, and work status say so. Roth and Roth 401(k) have no lifetime RMD here. Traditional IRAs follow SECURE 2.0 ages (73 if born 1951–1959, 75 if born 1960+). A workplace 401(k) or TSP skips RMD while salary/wages is on and that account is still receiving contributions. The analysis notes when that happened.
OODA AI
OODA AI reads small portions of the MACH RUN. It does not predict markets or deep dive into your data. It does not guarantee outcomes. It is entertainment and illustration on the numbers you typed. It uses xAI (aka Grok) on the server side and is a great tool built into the MACH RUN.
Fill Observe, Orient, and Decide. Hit Calculate and Act. Then change, and run the loop again. That is the method.