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Retirement Calculator
How much you need to retire, what your savings will grow to and how long they will last, in today's dollars.
Calculated in your browser – nothing you enter is sent or stored.
How much do I need to retire? This retirement calculator answers that with your own numbers. It projects your savings at retirement, works out the nest egg you need for the income you want after Social Security, shows how long your money will last, and – if you are short – tells you how much more to save each month. Every result is also shown in today's dollars.
How to Use the Retirement Calculator
- Enter your age, the age you want to retire and the age to plan until (90–95 is a safe choice).
- Enter your income, current retirement savings and how much you save each month, including any employer match.
- Enter the income you will need as a share of today's income, and your estimated Social Security benefit from your my Social Security account at ssa.gov.
- Adjust the returns and inflation assumptions if you like.
How the Calculation Works
- Savings at retirement: your balance grows monthly at the pre-retirement return, with contributions rising each year.
- Income needed from savings: the share of income you need, minus Social Security, grown with inflation to your retirement date.
- Nest egg needed: the amount that pays that income – rising with inflation each year – until your plan-until age, while the rest stays invested at the retirement return.
Example: a 35-year-old earning $80,000 with $50,000 saved puts away $1,000 a month (raised 2% a year). At 7% before and 5% after retiring at 67, savings reach about $2.23 million – about $1.01 million in today's dollars. Needing 80% of income ($64,000 today) with $2,200 a month from Social Security leaves $37,600 a year to draw from savings. Funding that to age 90 takes about $1.48 million at 67, so this saver is on track with a cushion.
Rules of Thumb
- The 4% rule: withdrawing 4% of your savings in the first year, then adjusting for inflation, has historically lasted about 30 years. $1 million supports about $40,000 a year.
- 25× expenses: the flip side of the 4% rule – save 25 times the yearly income you need from your portfolio.
- Savings milestones: a common guideline is 1× your salary by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8× by 60 and 10× by 67.
- Save 15% of income, including any employer match, from your 20s.
Social Security and Retirement Age
Full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. You can claim from 62 with a permanent reduction of up to 30%, or wait until 70 for a bigger benefit – about 8% more for each year after full retirement age. Your benefit replaces roughly 40% of pre-retirement earnings for an average earner, so most people need savings too.
Ways to Close a Gap
- Raise your saving rate by 1% a year, or put every raise toward retirement.
- Get the full employer match in your 401(k) and add a Roth IRA.
- Work a year or two longer: more saving years, fewer withdrawal years and a larger Social Security check.
- Plan for health care: Medicare starts at 65, and costs before then can be high.
Sources
- Social Security Administration – Retirement benefits and full retirement age
- Social Security Administration – my Social Security account
- IRS – 401(k) and IRA contribution limits for 2026
Last reviewed: October 2026 by the ShrinkBee team. Results are estimates for planning and education, not financial, tax, legal or medical advice.
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