Free Retirement Calculator (+ Guide)

What is a retirement calculator?

A retirement calculator projects your savings to the day you stop working, then checks if they pay for the years after. It's the same compounding as any savings plan, with spending at the end.

This one takes inflation out of every return first. A 7% return with 3% inflation grows your money about 3.9% a year in real terms, and every number on the page is in today's money.

How to use the retirement calculator

It asks for a few numbers you know and a few guesses you can change with a click.

Your numbers stay in this browser, so you can come back and change them any time.

Your target, and where it comes from

Your target is the nest egg that pays your spending without running out.

The calculator takes what you'd spend a month, takes out any pension, and divides the yearly gap by your withdrawal rate. At 4%, every $1,000 a month you need from savings asks for $300,000.

The 4% comes from William Bengen's 1994 study in the Journal of Financial Planning, which tested withdrawals against every 30-year stretch of US market history he had.

A lower rate is safer for a retirement longer than 30 years, which is why the pills go down to 3%.

A worked example

Here's the example the calculator loads when you press Try an example, worked out in October 2026.

You're 35 with $50,000 saved, and you save $800 a month. You'd like $4,000 a month in retirement, and you expect $1,500 a month of pension.

Your money earns 7% while you save and 5% once you retire, with 3% inflation, and you take 4% a year.

At 65, you'd have about $694,198 in today's money. Your target is $750,000, because the $2,500 a month your pension doesn't cover needs $750,000 at 4%.

You're $55,802 short. Saving $883 a month instead of $800 closes the gap, and so does working two more years.

At 65, the money still lasts past 95 in this example, because the 5% return after retiring beats the 4% you take. The target is the safer bar, so the calculator marks you short until you reach it.

What changes your retirement date

Four changes move your date the most, and you can try each with one click.

Saving a little more

The monthly saving that reaches your target shows right under the result. In the example, $83 more a month gets there.

Retiring a little later

Each extra year adds a year of saving and takes away a year of spending. The retire-at pills jump between common ages, so you can see the difference at once.

Spending a little less

Every $100 a month you don't need from savings takes $30,000 off your target at 4%. Spending is often easier to change than returns.

Living somewhere that costs less

The same life costs very different amounts around the world. The retirement visa finder and the best cities for digital nomads show where a retirement budget goes further.

Mistakes to avoid

A plan looks safe until one of these shows up.

• Mixing future dollars and today's dollars in the same plan
• Planning on one great return instead of a long-run average
• Forgetting taxes on what you withdraw from some accounts
• Leaving out health care, which often costs more as you age
• Counting a pension or state pension you haven't checked

Check your pension estimate at the source, and run the plan again once a year.

Money is for freedom

For me, retirement is about time more than a number.

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez calls the point where your investments pay for your life the crossover point. That's the same line this calculator draws, without waiting for a set age.

Your Money or Your Life

V

by Vicki Robin

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin teaches how to rethink spending, save more.

Buy now Read summary

I may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

If you want to see what that freedom can look like, read what is a global citizen.

Who is the retirement calculator for?

It's for anyone who wants to know if their saving adds up, at any age, and these tools take the plan further.

• Compound interest calculator – for seeing how your savings grow year by year
• Net worth calculator – for adding up everything you own and owe today
• Inflation calculator – for seeing what prices did in your country
• Retirement visa finder – for retiring in another country
• Tax rates by country – for comparing what you'd keep in each country

Run your numbers here first, then use these to test where and when you could stop.

More money calculators

Your currency and scene carry over to each of these.

Paying off a mortgage before you retire lowers what you need a month, so it's worth checking both.