Retirement Savings Calculator
What your savings and monthly contributions could grow to by retirement, in future money and in today’s, on the return and inflation you choose.
Result
Balance at retirement: $803,386.28Estimate
A projection at a steady return you chose, not a forecast. Real returns vary year to year.
- Total contributed, including current savings
- $230,000.00
- Growth
- $573,386.28Estimate
- Years to retirement
- 30
https://calcgallery.com/retirement-planning/retirement-savings-calculator/
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 Retirement Savings Calculator
- Enter your age now, the age you plan to retire, what you have saved and what you add each month.
- Enter the annual return you want to assume, and optionally how much your contribution rises each year and an inflation rate.
- Read the balance at retirement, and the same balance in today's money.
How the projection works
The page steps forward one month at a time. Each month the balance earns the annual return divided by 12, and your contribution is added. If you enter a yearly increase, the contribution rises once a year, the way a raise does. Nothing is rounded along the way, so the result is exact for the assumptions you entered.
Future money and today’s money
The balance at retirement is in the money of that year. Dividing it by one plus inflation for every year between now and then converts it to today’s money, which is the number that means something: it is what the balance would buy if it were handed to you today.
The return dominates
Over long periods, the assumed return matters more than almost anything else you enter, because it compounds. That is exactly why the site does not supply one. A projection is arithmetic on your assumption, not a forecast, and real returns go up and down from year to year rather than arriving at a steady rate.
What is not included
Fees, taxes, employer contributions and changes to your plans along the way. The 401(k) calculator adds an employer match, and the Roth and traditional IRA calculators add tax.
With your numbers
- 360 months at 6% ÷ 12 a month, starting from $50,000.00 and adding $500.00 a month
- Balance at retirement = $803,386.28, of which $230,000.00 was put in
- In today’s money = $803,386.28 ÷ (1 + 2.5%)^30 = $383,008.53
Quick reference
A projection at a steady return you chose, not a forecast. Real returns vary year to year.
| Example | Balance at retirement |
|---|---|
| 35 to 65, 50,000 and 500 a month at 6% | $803,386.28 |
| Nothing saved yet, 500 a month | $502,257.52 |
| 50,000 and no more contributions | $301,128.76 |
| At a 0% return | $180,000.00 |
| Contribution rising 6% a year | $1,025,937.01 |
| Starting at 25, 300 a month at 5% | $515,543.79 |
Common questions about the Retirement Savings Calculator
- What return should I assume?
- This page does not say, and no one can tell you what markets will return. What the page can show is how much the answer depends on it: over 30 years, 50,000 plus 500 a month grows to about 513,000 at 4%, 803,000 at 6% and 1.29 million at 8%. Try a cautious figure alongside a hopeful one, and plan around the cautious one.
- Why show the result in today's money?
- Because a million in thirty years will not buy what a million buys now. At 2.5% inflation, prices roughly double in 28 years. The figure in today's money tells you what the balance will feel like, and it is the one to compare with what you spend now.
- Does the order of returns matter?
- While you are only adding money, less than you might think: the average matters most. Once you start withdrawing it matters a great deal, because a fall early in retirement forces you to sell more at low prices. That is called sequence-of-returns risk, and the safe withdrawal rate calculator explains it.
- Start or end of the month?
- Money added at the start of each month earns one more month of growth than money added at the end. Over 30 years at 6% the difference in the example is about 2,500. Payroll contributions usually land at the end of a pay period.
- How much do I need to retire?
- That depends on what you will spend, other income such as a pension, and how long the money has to last. The FIRE number calculator turns spending into a target, and the safe withdrawal rate calculator turns a balance into income.