Retirement Calculator — See Your Number

Calculate My Retirement

This calculator projects your retirement savings balance using compound growth math: your current savings and every monthly contribution earn your expected annual return, compounding monthly, from your current age until your target retirement age. It then shows an inflation-adjusted "real value" figure, since a dollar at retirement won't buy what a dollar buys today.

What the six inputs mean: Current age and retirement age set your investing time horizon — the single biggest lever in the calculation, since compound growth accelerates with more years. Current savings and monthly contribution are your starting balance and ongoing deposits. Expected annual return is the average yearly growth rate you assume for your investments (many long-term stock market projections use 6-8% as a rough historical average, though returns vary year to year and are never guaranteed). Inflation rate discounts your final balance back into today's purchasing power.

A worked example: A 30-year-old with $25,000 saved, contributing $500/month, expecting a 7% annual return until retiring at 65, would see their account grow to roughly $1.1 million in nominal dollars over that 35-year span — the bulk of that total coming from compound investment growth rather than contributions alone, which is why starting early matters more than almost any other factor in this calculation.

What this calculator does not account for: Changes to your contribution amount over time (raises, career changes), taxes on withdrawals (which vary by account type — see our 401(k) vs. IRA guide below), Social Security income, employer matching contributions if not manually added to your monthly figure, sequence-of-returns risk near retirement, or market volatility year to year. Treat the output as a planning estimate, not a guarantee.

How to use the result: Compare your projected balance against a target using the 25x rule (multiply your desired annual retirement spending by 25) — our "How Much Do You Need to Retire?" guide below walks through that calculation in detail. If your projected balance falls short, the calculator lets you quickly test the impact of retiring a few years later, increasing your monthly contribution, or adjusting your expected return assumption.

Common Mistakes People Make With Retirement Calculators

The most common mistake is treating a single result as a fixed prediction rather than a snapshot based on today's assumptions. A calculator run in January doesn't know about a raise in June, a job change next year, or a decision to retire two years earlier than planned — it only reflects the numbers you entered. A second common mistake is picking a return rate that's too optimistic (assuming double-digit growth indefinitely) or too conservative (assuming 0% "to be safe"), both of which distort the picture in opposite directions. A third is comparing the future balance directly against today's cost of living and ignoring the Real Value figure, which makes retirement look more affordable than it actually will be. And a fourth is forgetting to count every retirement account you already have — old 401(k)s from previous jobs, IRAs, and any other savings — as part of "current savings," not just the account you happen to be thinking about.

Why Starting Early Matters More Than the Return Rate You Choose

Of the six inputs, current age and retirement age do the most work, because compound growth needs time to compound. As an example: a 25-year-old who saves $300 a month at a 7% average annual return, starting from $0, reaches roughly $787,000 by age 65 — having personally contributed $144,000 of that total. Someone who waits until 35 to start the exact same $300-a-month habit, at the same return, ends up with roughly $366,000 by 65, having contributed $108,000. The contribution gap between the two savers is only $36,000, but the balance gap is more than $420,000 — the entire difference comes from the extra ten years of compounding. This is why the calculator treats age as a primary input rather than an afterthought.

A Second Example: Catching Up When You Start Later

Starting later doesn't mean the math stops working — it means the contribution and retirement-age levers matter more, since there's less time left for growth to do the work. As an example: a 45-year-old with $20,000 already saved, contributing $500 a month at 7%, would reach roughly $341,000 by age 65. Doubling that contribution to $1,000 a month, with everything else unchanged, brings the projected balance to roughly $602,000 — nearly double the result from doubling the monthly amount alone. If you're starting your retirement planning in your 40s or 50s, use this calculator to test how much a higher contribution rate, or a later retirement age, can realistically close the gap for you.

Revisiting Your Numbers Over Time

Because this is a projection built on assumptions you control, it's only as useful as how often you update it. A sensible habit is to re-run the calculator whenever something changes your inputs materially — a raise, a new job with a different employer match, a decision to retire earlier or later than planned, or simply once a year as part of a broader financial check-in. Treat every result as a current best estimate based on what you know today, not a permanent forecast of what will actually happen.