V26 Upgrade Notes

Introduction

These notes give a summary of the new features in Mark's Spreadsheet V26. They are written for users that have been using V25. For a full list of new features, improvements and bug fixes, refer to What's New?

This is the fourth year Mark's Spreadsheet has been released and the past year has been the most active yet. In the past year, over 100 users have provided valuable feedback which has driven a number of new features and usability improvements. I hope you will be pleased with the latest version.

License Key

After a free 15-day trial period, you must purchase a license key to continue using Mark's Spreadsheet. Your license key entitles you and members of your immediate family to use Mark's Spreadsheet for one year. Enter your license key on the Start Here worksheet.

Taxation

All federal, provincial and territorial tax brackets have been updated to 2026 with the indexation factors provided by each jurisdiction. Some amounts were not available at release time and were estimated, specifically:

• Non-refundable tax credits

• CPP maximum benefit and CPP flat rate (used in CPP survivor benefit calculations)

• Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) rates

• LIF maximum withdrawal rates (2025 rates continue to apply)

The Liberal's middle tax income tax cut (15% -> 14% on the first tax bracket) has been implemented and the proposed change to the capital gains inclusion rate (25% -> 33% on amounts over $250,000) has been removed.

There have been a few additions to the Data Entry worksheet to support new tax situations:

• You can specify if you or our spouse are claiming the Disability Tax Credit

• You can set the age at which your RRSP converts to a RRIF

• TFSA accounts can be disabled for non-residents

Other Real Estate

• The number of properties has been increased to five. You can specify the rate of increase in annual income for properties that are under rent control and you can arrange to purchase a rental property in the future.

Dashboard

• You can now specify the year and month of retirement and CPP and OAS start ages are calculated to the year and month.

• The Projection Summary, Optimize and Hints and Warnings sections have been rearranged to make them more usable. The Projection Summary now shows the final Estate Tax.

• Net Estate Value has been renamed to Estate and Account Balances to Accounts.

• Optimize now calculates the Retirement Age(s), Budget and Donations options. There is no need to run separate optimizers. Optimize now retains the Registered Retirement Fund (RRSP/RRIF/LIF) contribution and withdrawal strategies set by the user.

• Test now runs four different stress tests against the projection:

  • Account withdrawal (as before), 

  • Total return (new)

  • Inflation (new)

  • Longevity (new)

• You can now zoom in and out on the charts. Use the following buttons:

  • + (zoom in)

  • - (zoom out)

  • 0 (reset)

Cash Wedge Worksheet

A new Cash Wedge worksheet has been added to assist users who wish to follow the Cash Wedge strategy in their accounts.

Hints and Warnings

Hints are suggestions that may improve your projection. Warnings indicate a problem with your projection. 

Hints and Warnings are shown on three worksheets:

• Dashboard: the first hint and/or warning that occurs in the projection is displayed along with the year that it occurs (as before)

• Snapshot: any hints and/or warnings for the Snapshot year are displayed (new)

• H and W (an advanced worksheet): all hints and warnings for the entire projection are shown (moved from Cashflow worksheet)

Here are descriptions of all hints and warnings generated by the spreadsheet.

Menubar

Common operations have been moved to a menubar shown at the top of the simple worksheets:

• Save: saves the Excel file

• Save As: saves the Excel file under a new name

• Simple/Advanced: toggles between simple and advanced modes. In the advanced modethe advanced worksheets are displayed

• Export: exports your data to a text file for use when upgrading spreadsheets (replaces Export button in the Start Here worksheet)

• Import: imports your data from a text file previously created by the Export operation (replaces Import button in the Start Here worksheet)

• Reset: erases all the user data in your spreadsheet and replaces them with the defaults (replaces Reset button in the Start Here worksheet)

• Exit: quits Excel

Upgrading

As described in the Upgrading section on the Start Here worksheet. Use the Export and Import operations to move your data to the new spreadsheet. In V25, the Export button is found on the Start Here worksheet. In V26, the Import button is found on the menubar.

You will need to update your data after upgrading. V26 is designed for the 2026 calendar year so numbers should be entered as of Jan. 1, 2026. Pay particular attention to any events that were scheduled in 2025 and update accordingly. Things to check:

• Retirement Date

• Downsize or Upsize Events

• Sale of Rental Properties

Also adjust any budgets, value of real estate and any real estate income and expenses for the new year. The Cost of Living adjustment for 2025 was 2.2% (multiply by 1.022).

When your data is entered, re-run your optimizations. Some useful comparisons:

• If you started with Jan. 1, 2025 numbers in V25, compare your 2025 end of year numbers in your V25 Snapshot to your 2026 start of year numbers in your V26 Snapshot. How accurate were your predictions?

• Compare your V25 optimized Net Estate Value to your V26 optimized Estate Value, both in future dollars. Has your Estate value improved?