Retirement Calculator
Project your retirement savings based on current savings, monthly contributions, employer match, and expected investment returns. This free retirement calculator helps you plan for your financial future and determine if you are on track to meet your retirement goals.
How to Use This Retirement Calculator
This retirement calculator helps you project how much you will have saved by retirement based on your current situation and savings habits. Start by entering your current age and your target retirement age. Then input your current retirement savings balance, which includes all retirement accounts like 401(k)s, IRAs, and other investments.
Enter your planned monthly contribution - the amount you will save each month toward retirement. Input your expected annual return rate based on your investment strategy (historically, diversified stock portfolios have returned around 7% after inflation). If you have an employer match, enter the monthly amount your employer contributes to your retirement account.
Click "Calculate Retirement" to see your projected retirement savings. The results break down your total into three components: your personal contributions, employer match contributions, and investment growth. This breakdown helps you understand where your retirement wealth is coming from.
What is Retirement Planning?
Retirement planning is the comprehensive process of determining your retirement income goals and developing a strategy to achieve them. It involves analyzing your current financial situation, estimating future needs, setting savings targets, and choosing appropriate investment vehicles.
Key factors in retirement planning include your current savings balance, how much you can contribute regularly, expected investment returns, inflation rate, anticipated retirement expenses, Social Security benefits, and how many years until retirement. The earlier you start planning and saving, the more time compound growth has to work in your favor.
Financial experts generally recommend saving 10-15% of your income for retirement, including any employer match. However, the right amount depends on when you start saving, your desired retirement lifestyle, and other income sources you expect in retirement.
The Power of Employer Matching
Employer matching contributions are essentially free money added to your retirement savings. A common match structure is 50% of employee contributions up to 6% of salary. This means if you contribute 6% of a $75,000 salary ($4,500), your employer adds another $2,250 annually.
Always contribute at least enough to capture the full employer match - not doing so leaves money on the table. Over a 30-year career, employer matching alone can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your retirement savings.
Retirement Savings Formula
The formula for calculating future retirement savings with regular contributions uses compound interest:
FV = PV(1+r)^n + PMT x [((1+r)^n - 1) / r]
Where FV is future value (your retirement savings), PV is present value (current savings), r is the periodic return rate, n is the number of periods until retirement, and PMT is your regular contribution including employer match.
Tips for Retirement Success
- Start saving as early as possible - time is your most powerful asset
- Always capture the full employer match before saving elsewhere
- Increase your contribution rate by 1% each year or with every raise
- Keep investment costs low by choosing index funds
- Avoid withdrawing from retirement accounts early
- Diversify investments across stocks, bonds, and other asset classes
- Review and rebalance your portfolio annually