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Retirement Calculator

Whether your savings last — and if not, at what age they run out and what would fix it.

Enter your age, salary and the income you want in retirement to see whether the plan holds.

You

Planning to 95 is prudent.

All retirement accounts.

Contributions

Of salary

50 means 50¢ on the dollar

Up to this much of salary

Retirement income

In today's dollars. This gets inflated to your retirement date automatically.

In today's dollars. Your ssa.gov statement gives an estimate. Leave at 0 to exclude it.

Return and inflation assumptions

Usually lower — portfolios get more conservative.

Projection. Depends on the future. Useful for planning, never a promise. Figures are for tax year 2026.

How this calculator works

Two phases, simulated month by month. In the accumulation phase your balance grows at the pre-retirement return while you and your employer contribute. In retirement, withdrawals begin at your target income and rise with inflation, while the remaining balance keeps earning at the (usually lower) post-retirement return.

The employer match is capped at the match limit, which is where many projections go wrong. A plan matching "50% up to 6%" does not match a 10% contribution at 50% — it matches the first 6% only. Modelling it otherwise inflates the result substantially.

Your target income is entered in today’s dollars and inflated to your retirement date automatically. That is the only way to think about it clearly: $60,000 of spending today needs about $126,000 a year in thirty years at 2.5% inflation.

The headline answer is whether the money lasts, and if it does not, at what age it runs out — because "the money runs out at 81" is something you can act on in a way that "you are $340,000 short" is not.

The formula

Exactly what happens to your numbers, step by step.

  1. While saving, each month

    contribution = salary × your % ÷ 12
match        = salary × min(your %, match limit) × match rate ÷ 12
balance      = balance × (1 + return ÷ 12) + contribution + match

  2. Withdrawal in the first year of retirement

    withdrawal = desired income (today) × (1 + inflation)^years to retirement

  3. In retirement, each month

    balance = balance × (1 + return ÷ 12) − (withdrawal − Social Security) ÷ 12

  4. The 4% rule, as a cross-check

    target = first-year withdrawal from savings ÷ 0.04

    A historical rule of thumb, shown alongside the simulation rather than used as the model.

A worked example

Age 35, retiring at 65, planning to 95. $90,000 salary, $100,000 saved, contributing 10% with a 50% match up to 6%. Wants $60,000 a year plus $24,000 of Social Security.

What you enter

Age now / retire / plan to
35 / 65 / 95
Salary / saved
$90,000 / $100,000
Contribution / match
10% / 50% up to 6%
Desired income
$60,000 in today’s dollars
Social Security
$24,000 in today’s dollars

The working

Effective saving rate
13% of salary
Years to retirement
30
Target income at 65
≈ $126,000 (inflated)
From savings, year one
≈ $75,600
Balance at 65
≈ $1.6 million

The plan holds to 95 on these assumptions

It holds, but it depends on a 7% return for thirty years and on Social Security arriving as expected. Set the return to 5% and the picture changes — worth doing, because that is the point of a projection.

Assumptions

Every result here rests on these. Change your inputs and the result changes with them.

  • Constant returns and constant inflation for the entire period.
  • Salary grows at the rate you set, and your contribution stays the same percentage of it.
  • Withdrawals rise with inflation each year in retirement.
  • No tax on withdrawals. Traditional 401(k) and IRA withdrawals are taxed as income, so a real plan needs a larger balance than this shows.
  • Social Security is entered by you in today’s dollars and inflated alongside everything else.

What this cannot tell you

  • **Sequence of returns is not modelled.** A run of poor returns in the first years of retirement does far more damage than the same returns later, and it is the single biggest risk this kind of projection misses.
  • Healthcare costs, long-term care and one-off expenses are not included.
  • It does not model required minimum distributions, Roth conversions or tax-efficient withdrawal ordering.

Questions people ask

How much do I need to retire?

It depends entirely on what you want to spend. A common starting point is 25 times your annual spending from savings, which is the 4% rule inverted. This calculator works it out from your actual numbers rather than a rule of thumb.

What is the 4% rule?

The idea that withdrawing 4% of your balance in the first year of retirement, then adjusting for inflation, has historically lasted 30 years in U.S. markets. It is a useful cross-check, not a law, and it comes from a particular period of market history.

Am I contributing enough to get the full match?

If your contribution percentage is below the match limit, no. Raising it to the limit collects the rest, and an employer match is an immediate return that no investment reliably matches. The calculator flags this when it applies.

Should I count on Social Security?

Most planners include it while acknowledging uncertainty about future benefit levels. Your ssa.gov statement gives a personalised estimate. Try the projection with and without it to see how much of your plan rests on it.

Related calculators

Sources and review

Sources

Methodology version 1.0.0 · Last reviewed · Tax year 2026