Retirement Calculator

These correspond to 4 different asset allocations of differing equity and fixed income weight proportions. These asset allocations may differ substantially from your individual situation in terms of future performance, risk tolerance, and volatility. The modeling is done at the asset-class level rather than modeling a specific ETF or other implementation, so the predictions might differ from actual results.

We assume the first $29,000 of annual retirement savings to be deductible from taxable income. The actual amount of tax-deductible retirement contributions available to you depends on several factors including income, age, employer benefits, and the type of retirement accounts that you are eligible for and choose to utilize. The total annual retirement savings amount indicated is added to the balance of your retirement account in each year until retirement. If you have access to more tax-advantaged savings than the amount we assume, you may want to take advantage and increase your annual savings. If you do not have access to tax-advantaged savings, you may want to take into consideration the impact this will have on your current income.

• Pre-retirement: We apply payroll and federal income tax rates for single taxpayers taking the standard deduction, after applying deductions for your annual retirement contributions as described above. Your current expenses equals your current estimated annual income less these taxes and annual retirement contributions. This value should be considered to include savings for non-retirement expenses like travel, education, and housing, as well as local and state taxes. If you are taking on debt for additional expenses, consider trying to balance your budget before allocating additional funds to retirement.
• Investment Growth: The growth of all investments is modeled using a proprietary tax-exempt investment growth model. For investments that generate tax liability over time, we instead assume that the entire amount is taxed as income at the time of withdrawal. The calculator does not account for the compounding effect of yearly taxes generated by income and realized gains in taxable accounts, which may affect the accuracy of the calculator if you are heavily invested in such accounts for long periods of time. The calculator assumes your retirement savings continue to be invested during retirement. Note that the portfolio mix currently selected may be more aggressive than your portfolio mix at retirement, which could overstate your projected income. Alternately, the calculator assumes you will pay income tax rates on all retirement withdrawals. Therefore, if you participate in taxable catch-up contributions, we may overestimate the amount of savings you will need since you may be eligible for a lower tax rate on your retirement withdrawals.
• Post-retirement: Your income after retirement is assumed to be sourced from Social Security and withdrawals from retirement savings. The total amount of income from both sources is assumed to be taxed at current federal rates for single taxpayers. In reality, some portion of your income may not be taxable, and some of your withdrawals may be subject to no tax or taxed at lower rates for capital gains. The post-tax amount is calibrated to equal your pre-retirement expenses as defined above times the multiplier your provided in the inputs.
• Given the broad and static nature of the assumptions above, we will over-or understate your actual present and future retirement savings, taxes, and expenses which will be impacted by your personal circumstances, which are likely to change over time. 

We assume you are paying payroll taxes, including Social Security, and are eligible to receive Social Security upon retirement. We use estimates of future Social Security income provided by the online Quick Calculator at ssa.gov using the inputs you provided. Those estimates do not take into account your actual past earnings and may differ from your actual Social Security income. If you are not eligible for Social Security, you may want to consider saving more than our calculator indicates as the calculator will overstate the amount of income that will be available during retirement.

The values used and presented by the calculator are denominated in today’s dollars, meaning that the actual amounts are assumed to grow with inflation relative to the values displayed. A retirement income shown for the year 2040 in today’s dollars may represent a value much larger than that in 2040 dollars, but is assumed to have the same purchasing power, Social Security data, investment return simulations, federal income and payroll taxes, and contribution limits as were sampled in May 2023.