Retirement Calculator
Project your retirement savings and estimated monthly retirement income.
Projected Savings at Age 65
$1,475,835
$524,487 in today's dollars
The 4% rule is a guideline suggesting you can withdraw 4% of your savings annually in retirement. This is an estimate, not financial advice.
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How Much Should You Save for Retirement?
Fidelity's benchmarks (based on maintaining your current lifestyle in retirement):
| Age | Savings Target |
|---|---|
| 30 | 1x your annual salary |
| 40 | 3x your annual salary |
| 50 | 6x your annual salary |
| 60 | 8x your annual salary |
| 67 | 10x your annual salary |
These are targets, not minimums. Your actual need depends on your expected expenses, Social Security benefits, any pension income, and how early you want to retire.
Why Starting Early Matters More Than Saving More
Consider two people, both earning $70,000/year and saving $500/month at 7% annual returns:
Person A starts at age 25 and stops at 65 (40 years): ends with ~$1.32M
Person B starts at age 35 and stops at 65 (30 years): ends with ~$606K
Person A contributed only $60,000 more over their lifetime but ends up with $714,000 more. That's the power of compound growth over time. Use our investment return calculator to model your own scenario.
The 4% Rule
The 4% rule, from the Trinity Study, suggests you can withdraw 4% of your portfolio in your first year of retirement and adjust for inflation each year, with historically high probability of not running out of money over 30 years.
For example: a $1M portfolio would generate $40,000/year in initial withdrawals, or about $3,333/month. The calculator above uses this rule to estimate your monthly retirement income.
Some planners now suggest 3–3.5% for longer retirements or low-yield environments. The 4% figure is a useful starting benchmark, not a guarantee.
- Verified: results checked against independent formulas on every release
- Last reviewed:
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How this is calculated
The calculator grows your savings month by month until retirement, then restates the result in today's money.
Formulas
Savings compound monthly: interest on the balance, then your contribution.
FV = P × (1 + i)ⁿ + deposit × ((1 + i)ⁿ − 1) ÷ i, with i = rate ÷ 100 ÷ 12
The value in today's money divides by inflation compounded over the years to retirement.
real value = FV ÷ (1 + inflation)^years
The monthly income figure is the 4% rule of thumb: 4% of the balance a year, divided by 12.
income per month = value × 4% ÷ 12
Sources
- Investor.gov (SEC), Compound interest glossary entry. Defines compound interest: interest earned on both principal and previously earned interest.
- Investor.gov (SEC), Compound interest calculator. The SEC's investor education calculator for the same compounding model.
How we test this
This tool is checked against independent formulas every time the site is released, and a release does not ship if a check fails. Example from the test suite: Age 25 to 65, $400 a month, 8% return, 3% inflation, no savings today gives $1,396,403 at retirement, $428,077 in today's money. The test computes the closed-form value and the inflation adjustment itself and checks the calculator agrees.
The test is “retirement: age 25 to 65 at $400 a month, 8% and 3% inflation” in tests/golden-calculators.test.mjs. More on how all tools are tested: our testing approach.
Assumptions and limits
- Constant returns and constant inflation. Real markets vary, and a few poor early years can change the outcome a lot.
- The 4% figure is a common rule of thumb for yearly withdrawals, not a guarantee or a prediction.
- No taxes, fees, Social Security or pensions.
- A projection for planning, not financial advice.
Last reviewed , the date of the latest change to this tool's calculation or content.
Worked examples
A retirement projection depends on a handful of assumptions. These examples show how the calculator turns them into a future balance and into today's money.
Starting at 30 with $50,000
Retiring at 65 (35 years), with $50,000 saved, $500 added each month and a 7% annual return, the balance reaches $1,475,835. Of that, $260,000 is money you put in ($50,000 plus $500 × 420 months).
Adjusting for inflation
At 3% inflation, $1,475,835 in 35 years buys what $524,487 buys today (divide by 1.03 to the 35th power). The inflation-adjusted figure is the one to compare with today's living costs.
A rule-of-thumb income
A commonly used planning rule withdraws 4% of the balance in the first year. On $1,475,835 that is $59,033 a year, or $4,919 a month before tax. It is a rule of thumb, not a guarantee.
What changes the answer most
Try the same example with a 5% return, a 10 year later start, or $750 a month. Time and the return assumption move the result far more than small changes to the monthly amount.
Helpful answers
Frequently asked questions
- How much do I need to retire?
- It depends on your spending. One common approach is to estimate yearly expenses and divide by 4% (equivalently, multiply by 25). That is a planning rule of thumb, not advice tailored to your situation.
- What return should I assume?
- The calculator defaults to 7%, but real returns vary by year and by what you invest in. Try a few values, including a lower one, to see a range rather than a single number.
- Why show an inflation-adjusted number?
- Prices rise over decades, so a large future balance buys less than the same number does today. Dividing by the inflation factor converts the balance into today's purchasing power.
- Is this financial advice?
- No. It is a calculator that applies the inputs you enter. It ignores taxes, fees, Social Security, employer matches and market swings, and is not personalised advice.
When to use this
You're 30 years old with $45,000 in your 401(k), contributing $500 a month, and you want to know: will I be okay at 65? This calculator projects your savings growth with compound returns and monthly contributions, then shows the inflation-adjusted value — what your money will actually buy in today's dollars. It also estimates your monthly retirement income using the 4% withdrawal rule. The answer might surprise you in either direction.
It's also the tool for "what if" scenarios that shape your financial strategy. What if you retire at 60 instead of 67? What if you increase your contribution by $200/month? What if the market returns 6% instead of 8%? Each scenario produces dramatically different outcomes, and seeing the numbers helps you make intentional trade-offs between spending now and security later.
Use this calculator at every career milestone: first job, raise, job change, marriage, home purchase. Each event changes your contribution capacity and your retirement timeline. Revisiting the projection regularly — not just once in your 50s — is how you course-correct before it's too late to make a difference.
Good to know
The projection formula: FV = PV x (1 + r/12)^n + PMT x [(1 + r/12)^n - 1] / (r/12). PV is your current savings, r is the expected annual return, n is months until retirement, and PMT is your monthly contribution. The inflation-adjusted value divides the result by (1 + inflation)^years to show purchasing power in today's dollars.
The 4% rule is a guideline, not a guarantee. Research by Bill Bengen (1994) showed that withdrawing 4% of your portfolio in year one, then adjusting for inflation each subsequent year, historically survived 30+ years of retirement in almost all market conditions. For $60,000/year in retirement income, you need about $1.5 million saved ($60,000 / 0.04). More conservative planners use 3.5% for longer retirements or volatile markets.
Inflation erodes your savings silently. At 3% inflation, $1 million in 30 years buys what $412,000 buys today. That's why the inflation-adjusted number on this calculator is so much lower than the nominal number — and it's the one you should plan around. A million dollars sounds like a lot until you realize it might provide only $1,400/month in today's purchasing power.
Employer match is free money — always capture it. If your employer matches 50% of contributions up to 6% of salary, contributing less than 6% is leaving money on the table. On a $75,000 salary, that's $2,250/year in free contributions. Over 30 years at 8%, that match alone grows to approximately $279,000.
Starting 10 years earlier is worth more than doubling your contribution. Contributing $400/month from age 25 to 65 at 8% produces about $1,396,000. Contributing $800/month from 35 to 65 produces about $1,192,000. The early start wins with half the monthly sacrifice because compound growth has more time to work.
Quick Reference
| Start Age | Monthly Contribution | At Age 65 (8% return) | Inflation-Adjusted (3%) | Monthly Income (4% rule) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | $400 | $1,396,000 | $428,000 | $1,427 |
| 25 | $750 | $2,618,000 | $803,000 | $2,675 |
| 30 | $500 | $1,147,000 | $408,000 | $1,359 |
| 35 | $750 | $1,118,000 | $461,000 | $1,535 |
| 40 | $1,000 | $951,000 | $454,000 | $1,514 |
| 45 | $1,500 | $884,000 | $489,000 | $1,631 |
Assumes nothing saved today, deposits every month until 65, an 8% annual return compounded monthly and 3% inflation. The income column is 4% of the inflation-adjusted balance, divided by 12. Figures are rounded and are projections, not forecasts.
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