Retirement Savings Projector

What this estimate assumes

• It assumes a constant monthly contribution and constant annual returns, both before and after retirement — it doesn't model raises to your contribution, year-to-year market volatility, or the real-world "sequence of returns" risk of a bad year hitting right when you start withdrawing.
• The "sustainable income" figure is the level monthly withdrawal that would exactly deplete your projected nest egg by the age you enter in Plan through age — not a permanently sustainable amount you could withdraw forever.
• It doesn't account for Social Security, a pension, rental income, or any other income source you might also have in retirement — this is purely what your savings and contributions alone can produce.
• It doesn't adjust for inflation. Both your desired income and the sustainable income are shown in today's dollars, so a fixed monthly withdrawal will buy less in year 25 of retirement than it does in year 1.

How to use this calculator

1. Enter your age today in Current age and the age you plan to stop working in Planned retirement age.
2. Enter what you've already saved toward retirement in Current retirement savings ($) — total across all retirement accounts is fine.
3. Enter how much you add every month, on average, in Monthly contribution ($).
4. Enter the annual return you expect while you're still contributing in Expected annual return before retirement (%) — a diversified stock-heavy portfolio has historically averaged somewhere in the 6-8% range before inflation.
5. Enter a more conservative annual return for after you retire in Expected annual return during retirement (%), since most people shift toward bonds and cash as they draw the balance down.
6. Enter the age you want your savings to last through in Plan through age — a common planning horizon is 90 or 95, to cover a longer-than-average lifespan.
7. Enter the monthly income you'd like your savings to produce in retirement in Desired monthly income in retirement ($).
8. Click Project my retirement to see your projected nest egg, the monthly income it can sustain, and whether that covers what you're asking for.

Worked example

Take the calculator's own defaults: currently 35, retiring at 65 (30 years, or 360 months, of contributions), $50,000 already saved, $500 added every month, a 7% expected return before retirement, a more conservative 4% expected return after retirement, planning through age 90 (25 years, or 300 months, of retirement), and a target of $4,000/month in retirement income.

Step 1 — grow the nest egg to retirement. The monthly pre-retirement rate is 7% ÷ 12 ≈ 0.58333%. Compounded over 360 months, (1.0058333)^360 works out to roughly 8.116. Your current $50,000 grows to about 50,000 × 8.116 ≈ $405,800. Your $500/month contributions, growing at the same rate, add roughly 500 × ((8.116 − 1) ÷ 0.0058333) ≈ 500 × 1,220 ≈ $610,050. Added together, that's a projected nest egg of roughly $1,015,850 at retirement — call it about $1.02 million, with some rounding in the exponential math above.

Step 2 — find the sustainable withdrawal. During retirement the monthly rate is 4% ÷ 12 ≈ 0.33333%, and the balance needs to last 300 months. Using the same amortization-payment formula you'd use to calculate a loan payment — just run in reverse, paying the nest egg down to zero instead of a loan balance — (1.0033333)^300 works out to roughly 2.714, and the sustainable monthly withdrawal comes to approximately 1,015,850 × (0.0033333 × 2.714) ÷ (2.714 − 1) ≈ 1,015,850 × 0.005278 ≈ $5,362/month.

Step 3 — compare to the target. The sustainable amount, roughly $5,362/month, comfortably covers the $4,000/month target, leaving a monthly surplus of about $1,362. At these defaults, the plan is on track with real room to spare — which also means there's flexibility to retire a little earlier, contribute a little less, or plan for a higher standard of living in retirement. (These figures are hand-rounded approximations of the exponential terms; the calculator above computes the exact values.)

Frequently asked questions

Why is the expected return during retirement usually set lower than before retirement?

Most people shift toward a more conservative mix of investments once they start drawing down savings instead of adding to them — fewer stocks, more bonds and cash — to reduce the chance of a market downturn forcing you to sell at a bad time. That more conservative mix typically earns less on average, which is why this calculator asks for the two return rates separately instead of using one for your whole life.

What happens if I plan to retire earlier than I entered?

Lower the "Planned retirement age" and rerun the numbers. Retiring earlier does two things at once that both work against you: it gives your contributions fewer years to compound before retirement, and it stretches the number of years your nest egg has to support withdrawals. Try a few different retirement ages side by side to see how sensitive your plan is to the date.

Does this projection include Social Security or a pension?

No. This tool only projects what your savings and contributions grow into, and what monthly income that balance alone can sustain. If you expect Social Security, a pension, or rental income on top of this, your true "desired monthly income" from savings is likely lower than your full target spending — subtract those other income sources first and enter the remainder here.

What if the market crashes right after I retire?

This calculator assumes a constant annual return every year, so it can't show what a crash in your first few retirement years would do to your plan. In reality, a sharp loss early in retirement — while you're also withdrawing money — can permanently damage a portfolio in a way the same loss later wouldn't, because you're selling into a down market. This is called sequence-of-returns risk, and it's a real limitation of any constant-return projection, including this one.

Why does the calculator show a "sustainable" income instead of just telling me if my plan works?

The sustainable figure is the actual answer to "how much could I safely spend?" — it's the level monthly withdrawal that exactly uses up your projected nest egg by the age you plan through. Comparing that number to what you actually want to spend tells you not just whether your plan works, but by how much, so you can see your cushion or your gap in dollars.

What if I miss some monthly contributions before I retire?

The projection assumes the same contribution every single month until retirement. Missing contributions, or increasing them over time as your income grows, will move your actual nest egg away from this estimate — treat the result as a target path rather than a guarantee, and rerun it periodically with your current balance as the new starting point.

Does this account for inflation?

No. Both the desired monthly income you enter and the sustainable income the calculator produces are in today's dollars with no adjustment for rising prices over a multi-decade retirement. A fixed dollar withdrawal that looks comfortable today will buy less 20 years from now, so many retirees plan to increase withdrawals over time rather than holding them flat — something this simplified projection doesn't model.