How to estimate your retirement savings
- Enter Your age now, the age you plan to retire and what you’ve Saved for retirement so far.
- Enter what You add each month, including any employer contribution, and optionally how much you’ll raise it each year.
- Set the assumptions: a yearly Return, Inflation and a Withdrawal rate. Read your savings at retirement, the same amount in today’s money and the yearly income it could give.
The assumptions behind the numbers
Every retirement projection rests on guesses about the future. This one assumes:
- A steady return every year. Real investments rise and fall, and the order of good and bad years matters, especially just before and after you retire.
- Contributions at the end of each month, raised once a year by the percentage you choose (to keep pace with pay rises, for example).
- No tax or fees. Tax rules differ by country and account type, and fees reduce your return every year.
- Constant inflation, used only to turn the final figure into today’s money.
Change one assumption at a time to see which ones move the result most. The yearly table shows how much of your balance comes from your own contributions and how much from growth.
Starting early makes the biggest difference
Growth builds on earlier growth, so the years matter as much as the amounts. Adding 500 a month from nothing at an assumed 6% return:
| Start at | Saved by 67 | You put in |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | 1,084,429.69 | 252,000.00 |
| 45 | 267,438.15 | 132,000.00 |
Starting 20 years earlier puts in less than twice as much money but ends with about four times as much. If you start late, raising contributions each year and retiring a little later both help.