Retirement Savings Planner
Project your retirement nest egg from your age, savings, and monthly contributions, then see what monthly income it can sustainably support.
Last updated: October 2026
Your retirement plan
How the projection works
This planner compounds two things: the money you already have and the money you add each month. Your current savings grow at the assumed return for every remaining year, while each monthly contribution starts compounding from the month it goes in. The result is your projected nest egg at retirement age, split into what you put in and what growth added.
The 4% rule: turning a lump sum into income
A nest egg number is abstract until you convert it to a paycheck. The 4% rule says you can withdraw 4% of the portfolio in your first retirement year, then raise withdrawals with inflation each year, and the money should last about 30 years. Flip it around and you get the 25x rule: you need roughly 25 times your annual spending saved. A $1.2 million nest egg supports about $48,000 a year, or $4,000 a month, before taxes. The rule assumes a mix of stocks and bonds and was built from historical US market data including the Great Depression, so it already bakes in some terrible decades.
Time is the dominant input
Of the five inputs, years until retirement moves the result most. Money compounding at 7% doubles roughly every 10 years, so a dollar saved at 30 is worth about four dollars saved at 50. That is why the planner rewards starting early more than it rewards heroic monthly amounts: $500 a month from age 30 beats $1,000 a month from age 45 at the same return. If you are starting late, the levers that still work are contributing more, earning a bit more return (with more risk), and retiring a few years later: each extra working year both adds contributions and shortens the retirement the money must fund.
Worked example
Age 35, retiring at 67 (32 years), with $50,000 saved and $1,000 a month at 7%: the $50,000 compounds to about $434,000, and the monthly contributions grow to about $1,457,000, for a nest egg near $1.89 million. Total contributions: $50,000 + $384,000 = $434,000; growth does the rest. The 4% rule gives sustainable income of about $75,700 a year, or $6,300 a month before taxes. Drop the return to 5% and the same plan lands near $1.1 million: that gap is your reminder to plan with conservative numbers.
Making the plan real
A projection is only useful if it changes behavior. Automate the contribution so it leaves your paycheck before you see it: willpower is a worse savings plan than payroll deduction. Raise it with raises: diverting half of every pay increase to savings is painless and compounds enormously. Keep fees low: a 1% annual fee versus 0.1% can erase a quarter of the ending balance over 30 years. And revisit yearly: rerun this planner each year with your real balance and remaining years, and adjust the monthly amount while small corrections still have time to compound.
What the nest egg does not include
The projected number is pre-tax and pre-everything. Withdrawals from traditional accounts face ordinary income tax, so a $1.5 million traditional balance spends like roughly $1.1 to $1.2 million after tax, depending on your bracket. Required minimum distributions start at 75 and force withdrawals whether you need the money or not. Healthcare is the wildcard: Fidelity-style estimates put a retired couple's lifetime medical costs well into six figures, mostly outside Medicare's coverage. None of this invalidates the plan; it just means your spending target should be net of taxes and health costs, and the nest egg sized to that net number, not the gross one.
Retirement Planning FAQs
What is the 4% rule?
The 4% rule says you can withdraw 4% of your portfolio in the first year of retirement, then adjust for inflation each year, with good odds the money lasts 30 years. It comes from 1990s research on US stock and bond mixes. This calculator shows 4% of your projected nest egg as a sustainable starting income.
How much do I need to retire?
A common target is 25 times your annual spending (the flip side of the 4% rule): $60,000 a year of spending needs about $1.5 million. Subtract expected Social Security and pensions first, since those cover part of the spending and shrink the portfolio you need.
What return should I assume for planning?
Use 6 to 7% nominal for a stock-heavy portfolio as a middle estimate, and rerun at 5% to see your downside case. Remember inflation: 7% nominal is roughly 4 to 5% in today's purchasing power, so your nest egg buys less than the headline number suggests.
Is it too late to start saving at 40 or 50?
No, but the math gets steeper because compounding has less time to work. Catch-up contributions help: in 2026 you can add $8,000 extra to a 401(k) at 50+, or $11,250 at ages 60 to 63. Higher monthly contributions and delaying retirement even two years make an outsized difference.
Should I count Social Security in my plan?
Yes, but conservatively. Estimate your benefit with our Social Security estimator, then discount it 20 to 25% in your plan to allow for potential future benefit adjustments. Treat it as a supplement to your savings, not the foundation.
What is sequence-of-returns risk?
It is the danger that poor market returns hit in your first years of retirement, when withdrawals lock in losses and the portfolio cannot recover. The 4% rule already assumes some bad sequences happened, which is why the rule is 4% and not 7%. Keeping a cash buffer for early retirement years is the standard defense.
How does inflation change the target?
At 3% inflation, prices double roughly every 24 years, so a $1 million nest egg at 35 buys like $500,000 at 59. Plan in today's dollars where you can, and know that the 4% rule's inflation adjustments are exactly what protect your purchasing power in retirement.