Introduction
Planning for retirement can feel overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. Our Retirement Calculator helps you figure out how much money you'll need to retire comfortably and whether you're on track to get there. Just enter a few basic details, like your age, income, savings, and how much you put away each month, and the calculator does the calculations. It shows you how your money can grow over time and what your nest egg could look like when you're ready to stop working. This tool gives you a clear picture of where you stand so you can make smarter choices with your money today.
How to Use Our Retirement Calculator
Enter details about your age, income, savings, and investment assumptions to see if you are on track for retirement. The calculator has four modes that each answer a different question about your retirement plan.
Current Age: Enter how old you are right now. This is the starting point for all projections.
Retirement Age: Enter the age when you plan to stop working. This must be older than your current age.
Life Expectancy: Enter the age you expect to live to. A good rule is to plan for age 85 to 95 so you don't run out of money. This must be older than your retirement age.
Current Annual Income: Enter your total yearly income before taxes. This is used to figure out your retirement income needs and contribution amounts.
Annual Income Growth: Enter the percentage you expect your salary to grow each year. The average is about 3% to 4%.
Desired Retirement Income: Choose whether to enter this as a percentage of your current income or as a fixed dollar amount per year. Most people need about 70% to 80% of their pre-retirement income.
Current Total Retirement Savings: Enter the total amount you have saved for retirement right now across all accounts. You can also click "Itemize by Account Type" to break this down by 401(k), Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Brokerage, and Other accounts.
Regular Contributions: Enter how much you put toward retirement each year, either as a percentage of your income or a fixed dollar amount.
Additional Monthly Contributions: Enter any extra monthly savings you make beyond your main retirement plan, such as contributions to a separate IRA or brokerage account.
Employer Match: Enter the percentage of your salary that your employer contributes to your retirement plan. For example, if your employer matches 50% of your contributions up to 6% of your salary, that equals a 3% match.
Pre-Retirement Return: Enter the average annual return you expect your investments to earn before you retire. A moderate estimate is 7%, which accounts for a mix of stocks and bonds.
Post-Retirement Return: Enter the average annual return you expect after you retire. This is usually lower, around 4% to 6%, because retirees often invest more conservatively.
Inflation Rate: Enter the expected average annual inflation rate. The historical average is about 3%. This adjusts your future income needs upward to reflect rising costs.
Expected Social Security (Annual): Enter the yearly Social Security benefit you expect to receive in today's dollars. The average retired-worker benefit was $2,085.98 per month in July 2026.1 That is about $25,000 a year. Enter $0 if you want to plan without it.
Target Retirement Savings (How Should I Save tab): Enter the total dollar amount you want to have saved by the time you retire. The calculator will tell you how much you need to save each month and year to reach that goal.
Current Portfolio Balance (How Much Can I Withdraw and How Long Will It Last tabs): Enter the total value of your retirement portfolio at or near retirement. This is used to calculate safe withdrawal amounts or how many years your money will last.
Desired Monthly Withdrawal (How Long Will It Last tab): Enter the monthly amount you want to take out of your retirement savings in today's dollars. The calculator will show you what age your money will run out.
What Is Retirement Planning?
Retirement planning is the process of figuring out how much money you need to save so you can stop working someday and still pay your bills. It means looking at your income today, deciding when you want to retire, and making a plan to grow your savings over time. The earlier you start, the more time your money has to grow through compound interest, which is when your investment earnings start earning their own returns.
How Much Money Do You Need to Retire?
A common rule of thumb is that you will need about 70% to 80% of your current income each year in retirement. So if you earn $75,000 a year now, you might need between $52,500 and $60,000 per year once you retire. However, this number changes for everyone. Your actual needs depend on where you live, whether you still have a mortgage, your health care costs, and the lifestyle you want.
To figure out the total savings you need (often called your retirement nest egg), you multiply your yearly spending needs by the number of years you expect to be retired. You also have to account for inflation, which is the gradual rise in prices over time. Something that costs $50,000 today could cost over $100,000 in 25 years at a 3% inflation rate.
Key Factors That Affect Your Retirement Savings
- Your current age and retirement age: The gap between these two numbers is your saving window. A 30-year-old retiring at 65 has 35 years to save, while a 45-year-old has only 20.
- Rate of return: This is how fast your investments grow each year. Stocks have historically returned about 7% per year after inflation, while bonds return less. Before retirement, many people invest more aggressively. After retirement, they shift to safer investments with lower returns, typically around 4% to 6%. A quick way to estimate how fast your money doubles is the Rule of 72 Calculator.
- Inflation: The long-term U.S. average is roughly 3% per year. Inflation quietly eats away at your purchasing power, which means you need more money in the future to buy the same things you buy today.
- Social Security: Social Security retirement benefits can start as early as age 62, and full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.2 The average retired-worker benefit was $2,085.98 per month in July 2026.1 That is about $25,000 a year. This reduces the amount you need to pull from your own savings, but it usually is not enough to live on by itself.
- Employer match: Many employers will match a portion of your 401(k) contributions. For example, they might contribute 50 cents for every dollar you put in, up to 6% of your salary. This is essentially free money and one of the fastest ways to grow your retirement savings.
- Life expectancy: U.S. life expectancy at birth was 78.4 years in 2023.4 Many people live into their 90s, and planning for a longer life, say age 90 or 95, helps make sure you don't run out of money.
The 4% Rule for Withdrawals
One of the most well-known guidelines in retirement planning is the 4% rule. It says you can withdraw 4% of your total savings in your first year of retirement, then adjust that amount for inflation each year after that. Under historical market conditions, this approach has a strong chance of making your money last at least 30 years.3 For example, if you have $1,000,000 saved, you could withdraw about $40,000 in your first year.
The 4% rule is a useful starting point, but it is not perfect for everyone. If the stock market performs poorly early in your retirement, or if you live longer than expected, you may need to withdraw less. If your portfolio earns strong returns, you might be able to take out more.
Types of Retirement Accounts
There are several common accounts used to save for retirement, and each one has different tax rules:
- 401(k): Offered by employers. You contribute pre-tax dollars, which lowers your taxable income now. You pay taxes when you withdraw money in retirement.
- Traditional IRA: Similar to a 401(k) in that contributions may be tax-deductible. You pay taxes on withdrawals.
- Roth IRA: You contribute money you have already paid taxes on, but qualified withdrawals in retirement are tax-free.5 This is especially helpful if you expect to be in a higher tax bracket later.
- Brokerage accounts: These are regular investment accounts with no special tax benefits, but they also have no contribution limits or withdrawal restrictions.
Why Starting Early Matters
Time is the most powerful tool in retirement planning. If you save $500 a month starting at age 25 with a 7% return, you would have about $1,200,000 by age 65. If you wait until age 35 to start saving the same amount, you would only have about $567,000. That 10-year head start more than doubles your money, not because you saved twice as much, but because compound growth had more time to work. The concept behind this is sometimes called Coast FIRE: reaching a savings amount early enough that investment growth alone carries you to your retirement goal.