Enter your details to see your projected retirement balance and whether you're on track to meet your goal.
Start by entering your current age and the age at which you plan to retire. Then enter your current retirement savings — the total balance across all retirement accounts — and your planned monthly contribution. If your employer offers a 401k match, fill in the match percentage and cap, along with your salary, to include that free money in your projection. Adjust the expected annual return (7% is a common historical average for a diversified stock portfolio) and the inflation rate (2.5% is a reasonable estimate). Finally, enter the monthly income you want in retirement, and click Calculate. The tool shows your projected balance, your inflation-adjusted retirement target, and whether you're on track.
The most widely used retirement savings target comes from the 4% rule, derived from the Trinity Study. The rule states that if you withdraw 4% of your portfolio in your first year of retirement and adjust that amount for inflation each subsequent year, your portfolio has a very high probability of lasting 30 years. Working backwards, your savings target is 25 times your expected annual spending. If you want $60,000 per year in retirement, you need $1.5 million. This calculator uses that math, then adjusts the target forward for inflation to express it in future dollars — because $5,000 per month today will cost significantly more in 20 or 30 years.
Employer matching is the single most powerful retirement savings tool available to most workers. A typical match — 100% of contributions up to 3% of salary — is an immediate 100% return on investment. On a $75,000 salary, that's $2,250 per year of free money. Over 30 years at 7% growth, that employer match alone compounds to approximately $227,000. Never leave employer match money on the table — contributing at least enough to capture the full match is the highest-return financial move available to most employees, no matter where you are in your retirement journey.
A million dollars sounds like a lot — but in 30 years, $1 million in today's dollars will only buy what roughly $480,000 buys today (at 2.5% inflation). This is why this calculator shows both your nominal projected balance (the actual dollar amount you'll have) and your inflation-adjusted balance (what that money is worth in today's purchasing power). Your retirement savings target must account for inflation, which is why the calculator inflates your desired income to future dollars before applying the 4% rule. Ignoring inflation is one of the most common and costly mistakes in retirement planning.
Compound interest rewards patience dramatically. Someone who invests $500 per month starting at age 25 and earns 7% annually will have approximately $1.3 million by age 65. Someone who waits until 35 to start the same contributions will have only about $610,000 — less than half — despite contributing for 30 years instead of 40. That 10-year delay costs roughly $700,000. The flip side is equally powerful: starting early, even with modest contributions, creates enormous wealth through decades of compounding. The single best retirement decision most people can make is to start as early as possible, even if the amounts are small.
If this calculator shows you behind your target, the most effective levers are: increase your monthly contribution (even $100 more per month adds up significantly over decades), delay retirement by a few years (which both extends contributions and reduces the number of retirement years your savings must cover), and review your investment allocation to ensure you're not holding too much cash or bond exposure in early career years. Also confirm you're capturing your full employer match — many employees contribute less than the match cap and leave money behind. Consider maxing out tax-advantaged accounts before investing in taxable accounts.
This calculator is a powerful planning tool, but it uses simplified assumptions. A licensed financial planner (look for a CFP designation) can model complex scenarios: variable income, pension income, Social Security optimization, Roth vs. traditional 401k strategy, required minimum distributions, and estate planning. The closer you are to retirement, the more value a professional review provides. A one-time financial plan with a fee-only fiduciary advisor can be one of the best investments you make — it typically costs $1,000–$3,000 and can be worth far more in optimized decisions.