How to Use the Income Goal Planner

The planner takes your capital and monthly income target, picks a risk band, finds matching wheel candidates, and allocates capital across the top 5 — diversified, no name more than 20% of the account. This guide explains the math and how to read the output.

Capital allocation, visualized

The capital cube on the left is split into 5 colored bars representing diversified positions. Each bar's height represents the capital allocated; each generates a monthly premium that flows into the green income aggregator at the bottom.

What the planner is doing

The planner runs the wheel screener at your risk level's filter band, takes the top-ranked candidates, and allocates capital greedily until either (a) your target is met, or (b) you run out of capital. Diversification rule: no single name receives more than 20% of total capital. This means smaller accounts get 3-5 positions; larger accounts get 5-10.

The three risk levels

Conservative

Delta 0.15-0.25. DTE 30-45. Large-cap only. Max price $500. This is the "sleep at night" preset. Yields tend to be 10-20% annualized. Suitable for retirement portfolios and risk-averse traders.

Moderate

Delta 0.20-0.32. DTE 21-45. Mid-cap+. This is the default. Yields tend to be 18-35% annualized. Best balance of income and risk for most income-sellers with $25K-$250K accounts.

Aggressive

Delta 0.25-0.45. DTE 7-45. Mid+ cap. Allows weeklies and higher-delta strikes. Yields can be 35-80% annualized but assignment frequency and drawdowns are higher. Best for traders who actively manage positions.

How to read the output

The feasibility banner

One of three states:

Achievable (green) — your capital + risk level can hit the target with the current allocation.
Close (yellow) — within 70-99% of the target. The planner shows the capital needed to comfortably clear.
Requires more capital (red) — below 70% of target. The planner shows what you'd need at this risk level, or suggests moving up a tier.

The stat grid

Required yield: the math is simply (monthly target × 12) ÷ capital. This is what your portfolio needs to earn annually. If this number is above 30%, you're probably aggressive-tier territory.

Achievable yield: what the planner computed from the actual allocation. If this matches or exceeds required yield, feasibility is "achievable".

Monthly income / Annual income: dollar estimates from the allocation, assuming successful cycle repetition.

Capital used / Positions: how much of your account is deployed and across how many names.

Probability of target: heuristic 0-95% based on average position delta + diversification count. Not a true Monte Carlo simulation — it's a rough quality signal.

The allocation table

One row per position. For each name you see the CSP strike + expiration, the CC strike + expiration, contracts, capital used, monthly premium, and assignment probability. Click into the Wheel Screener for more detail on any name.

Worked example

Suppose you input: capital $50,000, target $750/month, moderate risk. The planner runs the moderate-tier wheel screen, gets back ~8 candidates, and allocates as follows:

SOFI: $10,000 (5 contracts at $20 strike) → $210/month
F: $10,000 (7 contracts at $14 strike) → $165/month
GM: $8,000 (1 contract at $78 strike) → $135/month
NKE: $8,000 (2 contracts at $43 strike) → $120/month
PYPL: $8,000 (2 contracts at $40 strike) → $120/month

Total deployed: $44,000 (88% utilization). Total expected income: $750/month. Feasibility: achievable. The planner leaves ~12% cash as buffer for assignment + rolling positions.

Charts

Income vs Capital: sweeps your account size from 50% to 200% and projects monthly income at the achievable yield. Useful for seeing how much more capital you'd need to grow income — or how lower-capital scenarios still produce meaningful results.

Risk vs Return: scatters each of your allocations by risk score (X-axis) and yield (Y-axis). High-yield + low-risk positions sit in the top-left (the ideal). Far-right positions are the risky ones — if they cluster, you may want to swap some for lower-risk names.

Common mistakes

Don't set your target so high that no allocation can meet it. The math will tell you what capital would be needed, but if the gap is huge, raising the risk level may be smarter than waiting years to grow the account.

Don't ignore the assignment probability column. A position with 40% assignment probability is fine if you actually want to own the stock. But if you don't, lower-delta positions are safer.

Don't assume the planner output is gospel. Markets change. Re-run the planner weekly and adjust as your portfolio actually performs.

Try it now

Open the Income Goal Planner →