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The Nest Egg Game

Make money

Go into debt

Buy stuff

Get fried

Published Sept. 16, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. ET

Navigating life’s financial decisions can be hard.

This is the game of your nest egg. Help guide it through 10 financial milestones: Will you rent a home or buy? Stay single or get married? Have kids or get a puppy? Each step can grow or shrink your nest egg. The goal is to make it through without getting fried.

We want to put you in the shoes of a young(ish) person, so you’ll be graduating college in 2010 at the age of 22. The numbers in this game come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics. All figures have been adjusted to 2010 dollars. (See our methodology at the end for FAQ.)

And remember, this is a game, so your options are more limited for egg life than in actual life. For real life financial planning, here’s an actual retirement calculator for humans.

Let’s get cracking.

Methodology:

Q: Why does the game begin in 2010?

A: Many define a millennial as a person born between 1981 and 1996. Our game assumes the player was born in 1988, graduating college in 2010 at the age of 22.

Q: How does my job affect my income?

A: We used data from the Census Bureau’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey to calculate what is known as synthetic work-life earnings. This figure estimates the amount of money a person with a bachelor’s degree might earn over the course of 40 years, given their occupation, if they maintain full-time, year-round employment the entire time. The estimates are “synthetic” because they are calculated from a cross-section of workers at a single point in time. We compute earnings for nine age bands that cover a working life, then add them all up. We’ve adjusted all other expenses in the game to 2010 dollars, since you’ll be receiving your lifetime earnings in 2010 dollars. While in real life your paycheck goes directly into your bank account, in our game we first take out living expenses and debt payments. So what shows up in your assets depends on how you answer the question on savings.

Q: Why did my savings allocation make my assets and retirement saving amounts jump?

A: For the purposes of our game, we’re going to assume that anything you’re not saving for retirement or your savings account is spent on living expenses (including rent, groceries, commuting, etc.), student loan debt payments and mortgage payments if you choose to buy a home. So if you opt to save 10%, 10% of your income goes into your assets every year.

Q: What happened when I got married in the game?

A: We deduct the average cost of a wedding according to The Knot, adjusted to 2010 dollars. On the upside, if you get married we double your income.

Q: What happened when I bought a house?

A: Since our game assumes you spend anything you’re not saving on living expenses, choosing to rent won’t affect your balance sheet. But if you choose to live with your parents, you’ll be getting some money in the bank. If you choose to buy a home, we assume you spend assets on a 20% down payment, and you’ll get the price of the home in your assets and 80% in your debt. After 30 years, we’ll give you the value of your home appreciation (using the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index) minus the interest on your 30-year mortgage.

Q: How does a child affect my assets?

A: Children also cost money! Per BLS estimates from the 2018 Consumer Expenditure Survey, 17% of your income will be deducted each year to account for the childcare costs you’ll face for 17 years.

Q: Why isn’t there an option to have more than one child?

A: We want to illustrate the effect of having a child on your assets. There’s some debate over whether the cost of a second child drops slightly or increases. For simplicity, we opted to only show the cost of one. We also adjusted the age at which you have a child, because the median age at first birth for women with a bachelor’s degree is 28, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

Q: How are retirement and withdrawals calculated?

A: We’re putting away a percentage of your income that you specified in the savings question toward retirement and compounding it by 5% every year. When you reach 62, your retirement savings will be added to your assets, and then you’ll withdraw from your assets during your golden years. Your assets will continue to compound at 5% a year as you withdraw, and you’ll find out whether you saved enough to last until age 82.

Q: What happens if I don’t have enough saved for retirement?

A: Unfortunately, that happens to many people. More than 40% of households headed by people aged 55 to 70 don’t have enough saved to be able to maintain their current living standard when they retire, according to an analysis from The Wall Street Journal. When this happens, people often continue working past retirement age or rely on their families for financial support. In the game, you do just this — you continue working past retirement age and rely on Social Security to make ends meet.

Q: What’s with the egg?

A: It’s just for fun. But we hope you learned a thing or two! A nest egg is something everyone should think about growing.

By Elbert Wang Jessica Kuronen Julia Carpenter Kara Dapena Hanna Sender Bourree Lam James Benedict and Elisa Cho

Randy Yeip, Charles Forelle and Anne Tergesen contributed to this piece.