Retirement Calculator 2026
Will you have enough to retire? This calculator models both accumulation (your saving years) and decumulation (your spending years) — including Social Security and 3% inflation — and tells you exactly how long your money lasts.
Your Situation
Add your 401(k) + Roth IRA + HSA + Traditional IRA + brokerage savings + cash earmarked for retirement. Use your most recent statement balances.
Add up everything going into retirement:
- Your 401(k) contribution + employer match — don't know the number? calculate it in the 401(k) calculator →
- Roth IRA or Traditional IRA ($7,500 max in 2026) — project Roth IRA tax-free growth →
- HSA — the most tax-advantaged account in the code — project HSA triple-tax savings →
- Brokerage savings + any other long-term accounts (manual)
Common total: $10K–$25K/year for middle earners; up to $40K+ for high earners maxing everything.
Stock-heavy: 7%. 60/40: 5%. Bonds: 3–4%.
Typically lower — more bonds in retirement.
Default 3% (matches inflation — you save more as your pay rises).
Rule of thumb: 70–80% of pre-retirement income. Don't know your current take-home? Calculate it in the salary calculator → then take 70% × monthly net.
Estimated monthly SS at retirement, today's dollars. 2026 average is ~$1,978; check ssa.gov/myaccount for your personal estimate.
Your data is never stored or shared. All calculations happen in your browser.
Retirement readiness
On track — money lasts to age 90 (planning horizon)
Projected balance at retirement (age 65, year 2056)
$1,990,553
Years saving
30
of contributions
Years in retirement
25
age 65 → 90
Balance at age 90
$415,673
surplus · using 5% post-retirement return
Tax treatment in retirement
The amounts above are gross / pre-tax. What you actually keep depends on which type of account each dollar comes from:
Retirees with a mix of Traditional + Roth + brokerage have the most tax flexibility — they can choose which "bucket" to draw from each year to manage tax brackets, IRMAA Medicare surcharges, and Social Security taxation.
Balance over Lifetime
Vertical line = retirement age. Balance climbs during your saving years and drops during retirement as you withdraw inflation-adjusted spending. The curve reaching zero before your planning age means a shortfall.
Stress test — what if the average case doesn't hold?
Real markets have variance. Your base-case projection assumes everything goes to plan. Below are 4 adversity scenarios — if your portfolio survives most, your plan is robust. If it fails several, lean conservative.
Mediocre markets
— 5% pre-ret · 3% post-ret returnsWhat if average returns are 2% lower than expected (closer to long-run bond + dividend yields)?
Runs out at 79
11 years short
High inflation
— 5%/yr CPI (vs default 3%)What if inflation runs at 5% instead of 3%? Withdrawal needs grow faster, eroding real returns.
Runs out at 76
14 years short
Live to 95
— +5 years vs your planning horizon1 in 4 healthy 65-year-olds today live past 90. Plan past your average actuarial expectancy.
Runs out at 92
3 years short
Bad early markets
— −30% drop in year 1 of retirementSequence-of-returns risk: a major drawdown right at retirement can permanently impair the portfolio even if average returns are fine.
Runs out at 82
8 years short
How to read this: Each row reruns your full simulation with one stressed assumption. If 3+ scenarios fail, your plan likely needs more savings, lower target spending, or working a few more years. If most pass, you have a margin of safety. For a true Monte Carlo simulation across 1,000+ market paths, consider Boldin or ProjectionLab; this calculator gives you the directional answer free.
How This Calculator Works
Most retirement calculators stop at "here's your projected balance." This one goes further — it simulates what happens after you retire, using two distinct phases:
The accumulation phase models your saving years. Your portfolio compounds at the pre-retirement return rate (default 7% — close to long-run real S&P 500 returns), and your annual contributions grow with the savings-growth rate (default 3%, matching inflation as your pay rises). By the end of this phase, you've got a balance at retirement age.
The decumulation phase simulates retirement spending. Each year, the calculator inflates your desired monthly income by 3% (real-world cost-of-living increases), subtracts your inflation-adjusted Social Security benefit, and withdraws the difference from your portfolio. The remaining balance grows at the post-retirement return rate (default 5% — typically lower because retirees shift toward bonds for stability). The simulation continues until either your portfolio reaches zero (a shortfall) or you reach your planning age (on track).
The headline result is binary: "On track to age 90" or "Money runs out at age 84." The chart shows the full lifetime curve so you can see exactly when balance peaks and how fast it draws down.
The Three Numbers That Matter Most
Savings rate. Total annual savings as a percent of gross income is the single best predictor of retirement readiness. The simple math: if you save 15% per year and earn average market returns, you can typically retire after about 35–40 years of work. Save 25%, and you can retire after 25 years. Save 50%, and you can retire after 15. The savings rate dominates — return assumptions matter, but consistent saving matters more.
Time horizon. Compound growth makes early dollars vastly more valuable than late dollars. $5,000 saved at age 25 grows to roughly $74,000 by age 65 at 7% return; the same $5,000 saved at age 55 grows to only $9,800. People who start saving in their 20s — even small amounts — typically outperform people who start aggressively in their 40s, because time matters more than rate.
Spending in retirement. Going from $6,000/month to $5,000/month in target spending isn't just 17% lower withdrawals — it's also reduced inflation drag on the entire portfolio over 25–30 years of retirement. Modest spending discipline late in your saving years dramatically extends portfolio longevity. The 4% rule's math works because of this compounding-of-restraint effect.
Sequence-of-Returns Risk
The biggest threat to retirement portfolios isn't bad market returns on average — it's bad market returns at the wrong time. A 30% market drop in your first year of retirement, while you're withdrawing 4% of the original balance, can permanently impair your portfolio's ability to recover. Two retirees with identical 30-year average returns but different return sequences can end up with vastly different outcomes — one with a million-dollar surplus, the other broke at age 80.
This calculator uses smooth average returns and doesn't model variance, so it won't show you sequence-of-returns risk directly. The practical defenses: (1) keep 1–2 years of cash buffer at retirement so you don't sell at market lows; (2) diversify into bonds and dividend payers as you approach retirement, reducing the drag of any single bad year; (3) be willing to reduce spending temporarily in a bad market — even a 10% spending cut for 1–2 years can save a portfolio that would otherwise be impaired.
Social Security Strategy
You can claim Social Security as early as age 62 with a permanent reduction of about 25–30% from your full retirement benefit, or delay until age 70 for an 8%/year increase that compounds to roughly +76% over claiming at 62. For most healthy people who can afford to wait, delaying to 70 is the highest-return investment available — guaranteed, inflation-adjusted, and lifetime-payable.
The decision matters because Social Security covers a meaningful chunk of retirement income for most middle-class households. The 2026 average benefit is roughly $1,978/month ($23,700/year), but maximum benefit at full retirement age 67 is around $4,200/month and at age 70 it can reach $5,300/month — about $63,000/year, indexed to inflation, paid for life. That's equivalent to a $1.5M+ portfolio under the 4% rule, with no sequence-of-returns risk.
The calculator's default $1,800/month is conservative; check ssa.gov/myaccount for your personalized estimate based on actual earnings history. If you've earned the SS maximum for 35+ years, your benefit will be substantially higher than the default.