Retirement Savings Calculator

A common rule of thumb is the "4% rule" (from the 1998 Trinity Study, building on William Bengen's 1994 research): multiply your desired annual retirement spending by 25. If you need $60,000/year from your portfolio, aim for roughly $1,500,000. This is a planning guideline based on historical 30-year US market returns — not a guarantee, and it doesn't account for taxes, healthcare shocks, or a retirement much longer or shorter than 30 years.

The 4% rule says you can withdraw 4% of your starting portfolio balance each year (adjusted for inflation) with a low historical probability of running out of money over a 30-year retirement. Since 1 ÷ 0.04 = 25, "save 25x your annual spending" is the accumulation-side version of the same rule. Some planners now suggest 3.5% (28.5x) for extra safety given lower expected future returns, or a higher 5% for shorter retirements.

Fidelity Investments publishes widely cited age-based salary-multiple guideposts: save 1x your salary by 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, 8x by 60, and 10x by 67 (assuming retirement around Social Security full retirement age). These are a secondary sanity check, not a replacement for a personalized target based on your actual desired spending — someone planning an early or lean retirement needs a different number.

You can — it reduces how much your portfolio alone needs to cover. This calculator nets your estimated annual Social Security benefit against your desired spending before applying the 25x multiple. Use the /social-security-benefits-calculator/ to estimate your benefit from your earnings history, or the /social-security-break-even-calculator/ to decide when to claim.

Many long-run US retirement projections use 6–8% nominal (before inflation) for a diversified stock/bond portfolio, or roughly 4–5% "real" (after subtracting 2–3% assumed inflation). Using a real return directly — as this calculator does for its headline figures — keeps the target and the projection in the same, easier-to-reason-about "today's dollars." Past returns don't guarantee future results.

"Nominal" dollars are the actual future dollar amount your account will show; "real" (inflation-adjusted) dollars express that same balance in today's purchasing power. A $2,000,000 balance in 30 years buys much less than $2,000,000 today. This calculator's headline figures are in real (today's) dollars so they compare directly against a spending target you're also thinking about in today's terms.

For 2026, the IRS 401(k) elective-deferral limit is $24,500 (under 50), $32,500 with the standard age-50+ catch-up, and $35,750 for the age 60–63 "super" catch-up. The IRA limit is $7,500 (under 50) or $8,600 (50+). Contributing consistently up to your employer match — and beyond, if you can — is one of the biggest levers in this calculator's projection.

The calculator estimates the extra level monthly contribution needed to close the gap by your target retirement age. Other common levers: delaying retirement a few years (more time to compound + fewer years of withdrawals), increasing your savings rate after a raise instead of your spending, catching up via IRS catch-up contributions once you turn 50, or adjusting your target with a lower spending assumption or higher assumed Social Security benefit.

Income replacement targets a percentage of your current salary (commonly 70–90%) as your retirement spending goal, then applies the same 25x multiple. The 25x-of-desired-spending method instead starts directly from what you actually plan to spend — often more accurate once your mortgage is paid off or your household composition changes by retirement. Both feed the same 4% rule; they just differ in how the target spending number is estimated.