Retirement Savings Calculator

Time in the market matters more than most people intuitively expect, which is precisely what compounding rewards. A dollar invested in your twenties has decades to compound before a dollar invested in your forties does, which is why starting early with modest contributions consistently outperforms starting later with considerably larger ones, even when the later saver contributes more total money over their working years.

A commonly cited target for retirement readiness, often called the Rule of 25, suggests aiming for roughly 25 times your expected annual expenses, which lines up with the widely referenced 4% safe withdrawal rate from the original Trinity study on retirement sustainability.

Enter your current age, target retirement age, existing savings, planned monthly contribution, and an expected annual return rate. The calculator projects your total balance at retirement, clearly separating how much came from your own contributions versus accumulated compound interest.

Historical broad stock market returns have averaged somewhere around 7 to 10% annually before inflation, though a more conservative 6 to 8% is a commonly used planning assumption to account for market volatility. Subtracting a couple of percentage points from your assumed rate is a simple way to see your projection in today's purchasing power rather than inflated future dollars. Your savings figures and projections stay entirely private, calculated locally.