Retirement Calculator

How Our Retirement Calculator Works

Our retirement calculator uses the information you have now to see where you’ll be when you retire. That way, you can see if you’re saving enough money to meet your retirement goals or if you need to make some changes. If you’re already retired, you can calculate how long your retirement savings will last. You can see how your savings can grow year by year, even accounting for less predictable factors like inflation and market performance. Using industry-tested equations and projection models, we estimate what your savings will look like before you retire, at the time of your desired retirement age, and up to 40 years into your retirement.

How to Use the Retirement Savings Calculator

To make the process as easy as possible, you’ll need to input only a few pieces of information: what you know and what you assume.

What You Know

• Your age
• Your annual income
• Spouse’s annual income (if applicable)
• Current retirement savings
• Desired retirement age
• Years of retirement income
• Future Social Security benefits

What You Assume

• Expected annual inflation rate
• Income replacement percentage
• Pre- and post-retirement investment return

Your assumptions can make things a bit trickier, since they aren’t set in stone, but here’s some additional information to consider:

• Inflation: Between 1980 and 2022, the U.S. saw an average annual inflation rate of 3.43 percent1; regardless of the inflation rate you set, our calculator uses this number to anticipate increases in your future income.
• Income replacement percentage: This term refers to the percentage of your current income that you would need to live comfortably in retirement; many experts recommend between 70 and 90 percent for retirees, though you may choose to adjust this figure based on your own needs and preferences.
• Pre- and post-retirement investment return: Retirement savings and investment portfolios tend to be more aggressive while you’re young and more conservative as you age; you can generally use higher pre-retirement earnings and lower post-retirement earnings for your calculations, especially if you plan to move your savings into less risky investment vehicles.

Once you input all of your information and click “Calculate,” you’ll get a summary of your results. For a spreadsheet that breaks down your data year by year, be sure to click the “Detailed Results” button.

Tips to Boost Your Retirement Savings

It’s never too late to start saving for retirement, but the earlier you can invest in your future, the better. Here are a few tips to boost savings in the years leading up to retirement:

• Set a saving schedule that makes sense for you. It may be tempting to put as much toward savings as possible, but if it takes away from the funds you need to pay your bills now, you could do more harm than good. If you need to withdraw funds earlier than expected just to make ends meet, you may incur a penalty for early withdrawal.
• If your employer offers any kind of match on contributions, do your best to maximize your own contributions up to the yearly limit for your account. If you don’t contribute the maximum for a given year, you’re essentially leaving free money on the table.
• Anticipate your cost of living during retirement by studying how much you spend now; while many expenses will remain the same, others will change. If you’re like most seniors, you might see higher health care bills2 and lower housing costs (especially if you’ve paid off a mortgage).