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How Much Do I Need to Retire Calculator

↻ Updated 2026

Work out the nest egg you need for the retirement income you want — and the monthly savings required to reach it — using the 4% rule and your own assumptions.

Educational calculators — always consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.

Your inputs

Desired annual retirement income

Current age

Retirement age

Current retirement savings

Expected annual return

Withdrawal rate

Nest egg = income ÷ withdrawal rate (25× income)

Nest egg needed

$1,500,000

25× your target income

Monthly savings needed

$1,064

for 30 more years

Current savings will grow to

$430,762

at 6% for 30 yr

Where your nest egg comes from

From today's savings$430,762

From new contributions$1,069,238

Your retirement target

Desired annual income$60,000

Withdrawal rate4%

Nest egg needed$1,500,000

Years to retirement30 yr

Projected from current savings$430,762

Remaining gap$1,069,238

Monthly savings to close gap$1,064

ASSUMPTIONS — Your nest egg is desired income ÷ withdrawal rate — the classic 4% rule implies a 25× multiple. Current savings grow at 6% until retirement; the monthly figure is the level contribution (compounded monthly) needed to fund any remaining gap. Figures ignore inflation on your income target, Social Security, taxes and sequence-of-returns risk.

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How to read your retirement number

Two numbers, and they answer different questions. The nest egg is arithmetic — desired income divided by withdrawal rate, no judgement involved. The monthly savings figure is the useful one: it's what today's savings can't cover, spread over the years you have left, and it's exquisitely sensitive to how many of those years there are.

The nest egg keys off your income target alone. Your age, savings and return don't move it by a dollar — they only decide how hard it is to reach.

Retirement age is the cruellest slider. Retiring at 60 instead of 65 raises the monthly requirement from $1,064 to $1,700 — you lose five years of contributions and five years of compounding at once.

The $60,000 target is in today's money and the model never inflates it. Check what that income actually buys in 30 years with the inflation calculator before you trust the target.

How your retirement nest egg and monthly savings are worked out

Three steps. Set the target from your income goal, grow what you already have towards it, then work out the level monthly deposit that covers whatever's left.

The first step is the 4% rule read backwards. Withdraw 4% a year and you need 25× your annual income, because 1 ÷ 0.04 = 25. That's the whole derivation of the multiple shown next to the slider — drag it to 3.5% and the multiple becomes 29×, because 1 ÷ 0.035 = 28.6.

nest egg = desired income ÷ withdrawal rate projected = current savings × (1 + return) ^ years gap = nest egg − projected monthly = gap × r ÷ ((1 + r) ^ n − 1) where r = return ÷ 12 and n = years × 12

desired income: The annual income you want the portfolio to produce, before tax — in today's dollars — the model never adjusts it for inflation
withdrawal rate: The share of the portfolio you plan to draw in your first year — 4% is the classic default; the multiple beside the slider is just its reciprocal
current savings: What you have invested for retirement today — grows on its own — no further contributions assumed in this term
return: Expected annual return, nominal, before and after retirement — used annually for the lump sum and monthly (÷12) for the contributions
years: Retirement age minus current age — an exponent in both terms, which is why it dominates the answer
gap: The part of the target your existing savings won't reach — if it's zero or less, the calculator reports you're on track
projected: What today's savings alone grow into by retirement — $430,762 at the defaults — 29% of the target from a standing start
monthly: The level monthly contribution that funds the gap — the sinking-fund formula: the payment whose future value equals the gap

The monthly formula is the future-value annuity solved backwards for the payment. It assumes a constant deposit at the end of each month, every month, with no escalation — real savers usually contribute a percentage of a rising salary, which front-loads less and back-loads more than this. And note that the return is applied identically before and after retirement, which is a strong assumption: the 4% rule was calibrated on a stock-and-bond mix, not on whatever earns 6% while you're accumulating. The safe withdrawal rate calculator tests the drawdown side directly.

Worked examples

Example: a 35-year-old who wants $60,000 a year at 65

The calculator's defaults — $75,000 saved already, a 6% return and the classic 4% withdrawal rate, thirty years to go.

Nest egg needed$60,000 ÷ 0.04 — i.e. 25× your target income	$1,500,000
Today's savings grow to$75,000 × 1.06 ^ 30	$430,762
Remaining gap71% of the target still to fund	$1,069,238
Months to fund it30 years × 12	360
Monthly savings needed$12,768 a year — 21% of the target income	$1,064
Total you'll deposit$1,064 × 360 — compounding supplies the other $686,198	$383,040

$1,064 a month closes a $1.07M gap, because you only ever deposit $383,040 of it — the market is expected to supply 64% of the gap. That's the case for starting now stated as plainly as this tool can state it.

Example: the same person retires at 60 instead

Identical target, identical savings, identical return. Five years earlier — which subtracts five years of deposits and five years of compounding from every dollar you have.

Nest egg neededunchanged — the target never saw your retirement age	$1,500,000
Today's savings grow todown $108,872 from five fewer years of growth	$321,890
Remaining gapup $108,872	$1,178,110
Monthly savings neededup 60%	$1,700
Total you'll deposit$1,700 × 300 — $126,960 more, for a smaller nest egg's worth of time	$510,000

Five years earlier costs 60% more per month. The gap only grew 10%, but you have 17% fewer months to fill it and each one compounds for five fewer years — the three effects multiply. Retirement age moves this calculator harder than any input except the income target itself.

Frequently asked questions

How much do I need to retire at 65?

Twenty-five times the annual income you want the portfolio to produce, if you accept a 4% withdrawal rate. Want $60,000 a year and the target is $1.5M; want $80,000 and it's $2M. The number keys off spending, not salary — which is why the widely-quoted benchmarks stated as multiples of income (Fidelity's 10× salary by 67, for instance) can point somewhere quite different from this calculator for the same person.

The conservative framing changes the multiple, not the method: 3.5% implies 29× and 3% implies 33×. What the multiple can't tell you is whether $60,000 is the right target — that's your spending, plus tax, minus whatever Social Security covers.

How much should I save each month for retirement?

The published shorthand is 10–15% of gross pay including any employer match, which Fidelity, Schwab and TIAA all converge on. This calculator answers the same question from the other end: it doesn't care what you earn, only what you want and how far you are from it. At the defaults that's $1,064 a month — $12,768 a year.

The two approaches disagree productively. A percentage rule scales with your income and ignores your target; this tool scales with your target and ignores your income. If the monthly figure comes out at a number your budget can't hold, the levers are the ones on the page: a later retirement age, a lower income target, or a different withdrawal rate. If you'd rather work from the percentage side, the 401(k) calculator projects forward from a contribution rate.

How much of my retirement income will Social Security replace?

About 40% of pre-retirement income for a median earner, and the figure is strongly progressive — SSA's own replacement-rate tables for workers reaching full retirement age at 67 run from roughly 75% for very low career earnings down to about 27% at the maximum. The higher your salary, the less of it Social Security replaces.

This calculator assumes the portfolio funds every dollar of your target, which for most people overstates the nest egg required. If Social Security will cover $24,000 of a $60,000 target, the portfolio only needs to produce $36,000 — a $900,000 nest egg at 4%, not $1.5M. The honest way to use this page is to enter the income you need from investments, after subtracting benefits. Estimate those with the Social Security estimator or from your ssa.gov statement.

How much should I have saved for retirement by 40?

The most-cited benchmark is Fidelity's: 3× your salary by 40, on the way to 10× by 67. Other large providers publish 2–3× for the same age. These are salary multiples, which makes them easy to check and structurally different from what this calculator computes — it works from the income you want in retirement, not the one you earn now.

The benchmarks and the median diverge sharply. Federal Reserve survey data puts the median retirement balance for the 35–44 group near $45,000, far below any of the multiples, and about a third of that group has no retirement account at all. Being behind a benchmark is common; what the calculator above turns it into is a monthly number, which is the only form the information is actionable in.

What your retirement number doesn't capture

The nest egg is one division and the monthly figure is one formula. Both are useful; neither is a plan. Four omissions matter more than the rest.

Inflation on your target — The biggest one. Your $60,000 income target is never adjusted, so the calculator quietly compares a 2026 lifestyle to a 2056 portfolio. At 3% inflation, $60,000 of today's spending costs about $145,600 in thirty years — which at 4% implies a nest egg near $3.6M, not $1.5M. Either treat the whole answer as today's dollars by entering a real return (6% nominal minus 3% inflation ≈ 2.9%), or inflate the target yourself.
Social Security and pensions — The portfolio is assumed to fund every dollar. For a median earner, benefits replace roughly 40% of pre-retirement income, which would cut the required nest egg substantially. Subtract expected benefits from your income target before entering it.
Tax — There is none, anywhere in the model. Your income target is treated as spendable, but $60,000 drawn from a traditional 401(k) is taxed as ordinary income — so the portfolio has to produce more than $60,000 to deliver $60,000 of lifestyle.
The same return before and after retirement — One rate is used to accumulate and, implicitly, to sustain the withdrawal. Portfolios usually get more conservative at retirement, and the 4% rule assumes a specific mix rather than whatever produces 6% during accumulation.
A flat monthly contribution forever — The formula solves for one constant deposit for the whole horizon. Nobody saves that way — contributions rise with salary — which makes the early years harder than the model shows and the later ones easier.