Retirement Calculator: How Much Will You Have and Can You Retire?

How to use the retirement calculator

Start with the numbers you know.

Put in your current age, the age you want to retire, your current retirement savings, and how much you save each month. Then add an expected return. That means how much your investments may grow each year.

Use 5% for a careful case. Use 7% for a middle case. Use 9% only for a hopeful case. Hope is nice. It should not be the only seatbelt in the car.

Then add inflation. Inflation means prices rise over time. A grocery bill that costs $200 today may cost much more later. The calculator uses 3% by default.

Run the calculator three times:

What the calculator is really telling you

The big number is your projected balance at retirement. That is what your account may grow to if you keep saving at the same pace.

The monthly income number uses the 4% rule. That rule says you take out about 4% of your savings in the first year of retirement. Then you divide that yearly amount by 12.

Plain English: $1,000,000 can support about $40,000 a year. That is about $3,333 a month before taxes.

The inflation-adjusted value matters too. It shows what your future balance may feel like in today's money. A million dollars in 30 years will not buy what a million buys today. Rude, but true.

Your projection, in plain numbers

These numbers move with the calculator above. Right now you're 35, retiring at 65, with $50,000 already saved and $500 a month going in at a 6% return and 3% inflation. Change anything above and this updates with you.

That last line is the quiet hero.

You put in $230,000 total, including your starting balance and every monthly contribution along the way. But the account grows by about $573,386 from returns.

That is compounding. Compounding means your money earns money, and then that earned money starts earning too. It is the only group project in finance where the quiet kid does most of the work.

How much do you need to retire?

A simple starting rule is this: take the amount you want to spend each year and multiply it by 25.

That comes from the 4% rule. If you need $60,000 a year, then $60,000 times 25 equals $1,500,000.

This is not a law. It is a starting point.

If you will have a pension, paid-off home, or strong Social Security benefit, your savings may not need to cover everything. If rent, health care, debt, or family support will be high, you may need more.

The point is not to find one magic number. The point is to stop guessing in the dark.

Are you on track for your age?

Being "on track" depends on income, spending, debt, health, family, and where you live. Anyone who gives one perfect number for every person is selling confidence by the pound.

Still, Fidelity put a rough yardstick on it: aim for 1× your salary saved by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8× by 60, and 10× by 67. It assumes you save about 15% a year and retire at 67, so treat it as a guide rail, not a verdict. If you earn $60,000, here is what that looks like in actual dollars.

Source: Fidelity retirement guidelines. Behind on a line? It is a nudge, not a court ruling.

Age matters because time matters. If you are 30 and save $300 a month for 35 years at 7%, you could end near $541,000. If you wait until 45 and save the same $300 for 20 years, you could end near $158,000.

Same monthly habit. Very different ending. That is not a moral lesson. It is just time doing time things.

If you are behind, the answer is not shame. Shame has never made a 401(k) contribution. Use the levers you still control.

How you actually compare

Here is the part most calculators skip: the average retirement balance is a liar. A handful of very large accounts drag the average up and to the right, so it tells you how the luckiest savers are doing, not the middle. The median — the person standing exactly in the middle of the line — is the honest number.

Widen the lens to every household — not just people with a workplace plan — and the median climbs with age, but stays grounded:

Sources: Vanguard, How America Saves 2025 (balances at year-end 2024); Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances medians by age.

About 54% of households have no dedicated retirement account at all. None of this is a scoreboard. It is context. "Behind the average" usually just means "ahead of the median," and "behind the median" means you are in very crowded company with plenty of runway left.

How much monthly income will your savings create?

The calculator turns your retirement balance into a monthly income estimate.

It uses the 4% rule on your projected balance. That number is useful. But it is not the whole paycheck.

It may not include Social Security. It may not include taxes. It may not include health insurance costs before Medicare. So treat it like one piece of the bridge, not the whole bridge.

If you want $4,000 a month from savings, you need about $1,200,000 saved. Here is the math: $4,000 times 12 equals $48,000 a year. Then $48,000 times 25 equals $1,200,000.

What if your retirement number is too low?

If the result looks low, do not panic-scroll your life.

Change one number at a time.

Try adding $100 a month. In the default example, raising the monthly contribution from $500 to $600 for 30 years can add roughly $122,000 at a 7% return.

Try retiring two years later. More time can help twice. You save longer, and your money grows longer.

Try lowering the monthly income target. Needing $4,500 a month takes about $1,350,000. Needing $3,500 a month takes about $1,050,000. That $1,000 monthly lifestyle gap changes the target by about $300,000.

Also check your employer match. If your job matches 3% of a $60,000 salary, that is $1,800 a year. Over 30 years at 7%, that can grow into about $170,000. Free money is a boring phrase for a beautiful thing.

How much can you put in for 2026?

Before you decide you can't save more, check the ceiling — it went up for 2026. These are the IRS limits on what you're allowed to contribute.

Source: IRS, 2026 contribution limits.

The 401(k) limit rose $1,000 from 2025. Ages 60 to 63 get a bigger "super catch-up" of $11,250 thanks to SECURE 2.0. One catch starting in 2026: if you earned more than $150,000 last year at the same employer, your catch-up contributions have to go into a Roth — paid with after-tax dollars now, tax-free later.

Most people won't max these out, and that's fine. The point isn't to hit the ceiling. It's to know how much headroom you've got before you decide you're out of room.

What return rate should you use?

Use a return rate you can live with if it is wrong.

A 7% return is a common long-term planning guess for a stock-heavy mix. But markets do not arrive in a straight line. Some years are great. Some years look like the economy stepped on a rake.

That is why you should test 5%, 7%, and 9%. If your plan only works at 9%, the plan is fragile. If it still works at 5%, you have more breathing room.

Breathing room is underrated. Especially by spreadsheets.

How Social Security and taxes change the answer

This calculator estimates your personal savings. Social Security is separate.

You can check your Social Security estimate at ssa.gov. Do not guess it from vibes. Vibes are not a benefit statement.

Taxes also matter. Traditional 401(k) and traditional IRA withdrawals may be taxed when you take the money out. That means $4,000 from the account may not be $4,000 to spend.

Want to see what a bigger 401(k) contribution does to your actual paycheck? Run it through the income tax calculator — pre-tax contributions lower your take-home by less than the full amount, because they also lower your tax.

Roth money can be tax-free if you follow the rules. Taxable brokerage money may face capital gains tax. Capital gains tax means tax on investment profit.

The simple move: run your retirement savings number first. Then check taxes and Social Security after. One layer at a time.

Common retirement calculator mistakes

The first mistake is using only one return rate. That makes the future look cleaner than it is.

The second mistake is ignoring inflation. Future dollars are not today dollars with better lighting.

The third mistake is counting Social Security as a rescue plan before checking your real estimate.

The fourth mistake is forgetting health care. A retirement plan that ignores health care is not a plan. It is fan fiction.

The fifth mistake is stopping at the first scary number. The first result is not a verdict. It is a starting line.

After you run it, check these

Once you have a projection you trust, keep the momentum going:

1. Use the Investment Return Calculator to test 5%, 7%, and 9% returns.
2. Use the Budget Calculator to find $50 to $200 a month you can redirect.
3. Use the Savings Goal Calculator if you want to build a monthly contribution habit.
4. Check your employer match and make sure you are not leaving it behind.
5. Check your Social Security estimate at ssa.gov.
6. Rerun this calculator after raises, job changes, debt payoff, or major life changes.

Money plans work better when they move with your life. Static plans are for statues. You are not a statue.