General Guide: This tool can help build a structured bond ladder using both T-Bills and TIPS. The tool will default to T-Bills in shorter rungs and TIPS in longer rungs thereby creating a blended nominal and inflation protected ladder.

Technical Notes

Coverage rule: Year 1 spending is inflated once and split across 3M (3 months), 6M (next 3 months), and 12M (final 6 months). Years 2…N place the entire inflated annual amount at 2Y, 3Y, …. If cash can’t fully fund the next rung, we stop—your effective ladder length is the last fully funded year. If cash exceeds full coverage, the remainder is allocated to the highest nominal-equivalent yield among the funded rungs.

Basis Mode: Default Policy prefers TIPS when your expected inflation exceeds breakeven (nominal minus real) for maturities ≥3y; otherwise Nominal Treasuries. Nominal only forces Nominal across all rungs.

Yield display & selection: For TIPS rungs we convert the real yield to a nominal-equivalent by adding your expected inflation. We use these nominal-equivalents to compute the weighted average and to choose the remainder destination.