Whenever you weigh a big decision, you're already doing scenario planning in your head — running the "what if I stay" against the "what if I leap," usually with vibes for evidence. The trouble is that the head can hold maybe two scenarios at once, can't keep the dollars straight past a few years, and quietly forgets to price the outcomes it doesn't want to think about. Mentat externalizes all of it.
Scenarios as branches, not spreadsheets
In most tools a "scenario" is a separate spreadsheet tab you maintain by hand. In Mentat, scenarios are branches of one tree that share a common root — your real life today. That means every scenario is compared on the same baseline and the same engine, so the differences you see are real differences, not artifacts of two models that drifted apart.
Put odds on the forks
Good scenario planning isn't just best-case and worst-case; it's weighting them. Give each fork an honest likelihood — the promotion, the layoff, the move that doesn't pan out — and Mentat normalizes siblings into probabilities and flows cumulative odds down the tree. The "safe" scenario has to earn the label once its downside is actually priced in.
Compare on both axes
Each scenario carries a net worth trajectory and a wellbeing trajectory. You can rank them by money, by wellbeing-years, or by a utility score weighted to your own priorities — and re-rank instantly by moving one slider. The point isn't to find the "optimal" life; it's to see, clearly, what each future asks of you and gives back.
Re-plan when the facts change
Scenarios aren't a one-time exercise. When something real happens, you re-point the tree from where you now stand and the branches re-project forward. Your scenario plan stays a living comparison of where you could go from here — not a stale document from last year.