401(k) Calculator
Your 401(k) at retirement with your employer’s match modelled tier by tier, and how much match you leave unclaimed by contributing less than it covers.
Result
Balance at retirement: $910,579.70Estimate
On your assumed return, before fees and tax, and assuming the match vests. Not a forecast.
- Employer match this year
- $3,200.00
- Match left unclaimed this year
- $0.00
- Your contributions to retirement
- $144,000.00
- Employer contributions to retirement
- $96,000.00
- Total going in, as a share of pay
- 10%
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Results are arithmetic on the returns, rates and horizons you enter, not a forecast and not investment, tax or retirement advice. The site supplies no expected return, inflation rate, contribution limit, tax rate or withdrawal rate. Real returns vary from year to year, and fees, taxes and the order of returns all change the outcome. Check anything that matters with a qualified adviser. Read the full disclaimer
How to use the 401(k) Calculator
- Enter your salary, the share of it you contribute, and your employer's match tier by tier from your plan documents.
- Enter your current balance, your age now and at retirement, and the annual return you want to assume.
- Read the balance at retirement, this year's match, and any match you are leaving unclaimed.
How the match is modelled
Your employer’s match is entered as tiers, each one a slice of pay and the rate it is matched at. The page walks through them in order: your contribution fills the first slice, then the next, and each slice earns its own rate. Contributing beyond the last tier adds nothing to the match. A single flat percentage cannot describe “100% of the first 3%, then 50% of the next 2%”, which is why tiers are used.
The projection
Each month, a twelfth of the year’s contributions, yours and your employer’s, is added, and the balance earns the annual return divided by 12. If you enter a yearly raise, both contributions rise with your pay. Nothing is rounded along the way.
No limit is assumed
The IRS sets a yearly limit on what you can defer, and it changes every year, so none is built into this page. If a limit matters to your plan, enter the one for your year in the advanced options and it caps your contribution. Catch-up contributions, the separate limit on total contributions and true-up payments are not modelled.
With your numbers
- This year: you put in $4,800.00, your employer matches $3,200.00 of a possible $3,200.00
- 30 years at 6%, compounded monthly: $910,579.70
Quick reference
On your assumed return, before fees and tax, and assuming the match vests. Not a forecast.
| Example | Balance at retirement |
|---|---|
| 80,000 salary, 6%, match to 5% | $910,579.70 |
| Contributing 3% | $642,709.03 |
| Contributing 2% | $508,773.69 |
| Contributing 10% | $1,178,450.38 |
| Not contributing | $240,903.01 |
| 50% of the first 6%, 3% raises | $1,348,492.04 |
Common questions about the 401(k) Calculator
- How does employer matching work?
- Your employer adds money in proportion to what you contribute, up to a limit. A common shape is 100% of the first 3% of pay and 50% of the next 2%. On an 80,000 salary, contributing 5% or more earns the full 3,200 a year. Contributing 3% earns 2,400. The rows on this page follow your plan's own tiers, whatever they are.
- What does match left unclaimed mean?
- The match you would get by contributing enough to reach the end of the tiers, less the match you actually get. Contributing 2% in the example leaves 1,600 a year on the table. At a 6% return that is worth about 134,000 over 30 years, before counting the extra growth on your own higher contributions.
- What is vesting?
- Many plans make the employer's money yours only after you have worked there a set time. Leave before then and you may forfeit some or all of the match. This page assumes the match is fully yours; check your plan's vesting schedule.
- Should I contribute more than the match?
- That is a personal decision this page does not answer. It depends on your other savings, debts, tax position and plans. The arithmetic the page can settle is that contributing less than the match covers gives up money your employer would otherwise pay you.
- Traditional or Roth 401(k)?
- The difference is when you pay tax: on the way in for a Roth, on the way out for a traditional account. The Roth IRA calculator compares the two on the same out-of-pocket cost, and the answer turns on your tax rate now against your tax rate in retirement.