<klink type="prcdr">How can I experiment with my lifetime plan?</klink>
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<tease>Why?</tease>
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<p>By experimenting with different scenarios, you can add events you're dreaming about (such as taking time off work) or nervous about (a few years of private college) and see how they look, without compromising your existing plan.</p>
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<p>You can experiment with your plan in two ways. Here, you'll learn how to add an event to your actual plan and then review the results. If you don't like what you see, you can leave the event in your plan for later, but exclude it from being calculated in your plan's results. You can also use the Financial Event Modeler to simulate the effects of certain events on your plan and see a graph that details the event's impact on your bottom line. <alink type="prcdr" href="ChooseAScenarioAndSeeHowItWouldAffectMyPlan.xml"/></p>
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<li>On the <emph>Planner</emph> menu, click <emph>Lifetime Planner</emph>.</li>
<li>In the left pane, click the area for the event you want to experiment with.</li>
<li>Enter the information for the event.</li>
<li>In the left pane, click <emph>Results</emph>.</li>
<li>In the left pane, click the area in which you made your changes in step 3.</li>
<li>Highlight the event you added in step 3, and then select the <emph>Exclude this event from my Lifetime Plan</emph> check box at the bottom of the page.</li>
<li>In the left pane, click <emph>Results</emph> again.</li>
<li>Use the difference in the two results to help you gauge whether this event is a good idea.</li>
<li>If the event seems inevitable but you don't like the new results, adjust other parts of your plan.</li>
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<p variant="note">For ideas on how to improve your lifetime plan, click <emph>Results</emph> in the left pane, and then click <emph>Improving Your Plan</emph>.</p>
