Retirement Savings Calculator

What does a retirement calculator work out?

A retirement calculator takes what you have saved, what you add each month and an assumed return, and projects the balance at your retirement age; then it turns the income you want into the nest egg that income requires and compares the two.

The difference is your surplus or shortfall, and the extra monthly contribution that closes a shortfall is the one number you can act on today.

At the defaults — age 30, $25,000 saved, $500 a month, 7% a year, $50,000 of income wanted from 65 — the projected balance is $1,188,181 and the 4% rule needs $1,250,000, a $61,819 shortfall that $34 a month more would close. Switch to the draw-down tab and the same savings drawn to age 90 at 5% need only $712,750, a $475,431 surplus — the two methods answer different questions, which is why both are always shown.

How much do I need to retire?

The withdrawal-rate method (the 4% rule) sets the target at the first year's income from savings divided by the rate: $50,000 ÷ 4% = $1,250,000, or 25 times the income. It comes from Bengen (1994) and the Trinity study (1998): 4% of the starting balance, raised with inflation, survived most historical 30-year periods.

The 4% rule is a starting point, not a guarantee, and it implicitly plans to leave much of the balance behind. The draw-down method asks a narrower question: what balance, earning the post-retirement return, can pay the income — rising with inflation each year — from the retirement age to the age you choose and run out exactly then? For $50,000 a year from 65 to 90 at 5% that is $712,750. It is cheaper because it spends the capital; it is riskier because living past the age you chose, or a bad run of returns early on, breaks it.

Neither is a forecast. The assumptions drive the answer — the return, the inflation rate, the age — which is why every one of them is visible and editable, and why the "other method's target" tile always shows the alternative.

How does inflation change my retirement number?

You enter the income you want in today's dollars, and Social Security and a pension in today's dollars too. The calculator inflates the gap between them to retirement-year dollars at the inflation rate under Advanced, so the target and the projected balance are compared in the same dollars.

At the default 0% they are identical; at 3% the default $50,000 of income becomes $140,693 a year 35 years out, the 4% target rises to $3,517,328 and the shortfall becomes $2,329,147 — $827,740 in today's money.

During retirement the draw-down method raises each year's withdrawal with inflation as well, so its target is the present value of a growing stream, not a level one. The projected balance is also shown in today's dollars beside the nominal figure whenever an inflation rate is set.

How do Social Security and a pension change what I need to save?

The gap your savings must cover is the income you want minus guaranteed income. If you want $60,000 a year and expect $18,000 from Social Security, savings need to fund $42,000; at 4% that is a $1,050,000 target instead of $1,500,000.

Enter the monthly Social Security estimate from your my Social Security statement at ssa.gov — this page does not estimate the benefit from earnings history; the Social Security benefits calculator on this site does.

Enter a monthly pension the same way. The model is deliberately simple here: it nets guaranteed income against desired income without modelling benefit taxation, survivor rules or a pension with no cost-of-living increase; the retirement income calculator on this site stacks the sources year by year once you are retired.

Am I saving enough for retirement?

The "closing the gap" line answers that against your own inputs: it is the extra monthly amount which, invested at your accumulation return from now until retirement, grows to exactly the shortfall. It uses the future-value-of-annuity factor — at 7% over 35 years each $1 a month grows to $1,801, so a $61,819 gap needs $34.32 a month.

The same gap at age 50 with 17 years left needs far more, which is the cost of waiting. Fidelity Investments publishes a widely quoted guideline — about 1× salary saved by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8× by 60 and 10× by 67 — that is one firm's rule of thumb, not a regulation or a study, and it assumes saving about 15% of pay from your mid-20s and retiring at 67. The scenario strip runs your return two points lower and higher so you can see how much of the answer is the return assumption.

What can this retirement calculator not do?

The accumulation model uses a fixed return compounded monthly with contributions at the end of each month, not a sequence of returns. Sequence-of-returns risk — bad years early in retirement draining the balance before good years can recover it — is real and not captured here; Monte Carlo and historical simulations are the tools for that.

Taxes are not modelled. Whether your savings sit in a traditional 401(k) or IRA, a Roth or a taxable account changes the after-tax value of the same balance. The IRS limit note compares your total monthly contribution with the 2026 401(k) employee deferral limit from the dataset, as a reminder that very large monthly amounts must be spread across accounts.

This calculator gives an estimate under the assumptions you enter — the return, inflation and life-expectancy figures are yours — and is not financial, tax or investment advice or a prediction; markets, the law and your circumstances will differ. Your Social Security statement and your plan administrator hold your actual figures.