MoneyInNumbers
Retirement calculator

How Much Do I Need to Retire?

Estimate a retirement target from the lifestyle you want, the income you expect, inflation and investment-return assumptions—then see approximately how much you may need to invest each month.

Your timelineAge now, retirement age and life expectancy
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Your retirement gapSpending minus Social Security, pension or other income
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Your targetEstimate the nest egg and monthly investing needed

Estimate your retirement number

All assumptions are editable. Amounts labeled “today's dollars” are entered using today's purchasing power.

Timeline & savings

Retirement lifestyle

Investment assumptions

Pre-retirement return projects current savings and future contributions. Retirement return estimates the amount needed when retirement begins. These are planning assumptions—not guaranteed returns.

Estimated amount needed at retirement — Based on the spending gap, inflation, return during retirement and retirement period entered above.
Estimated monthly investment needed — —
Current savings projected to retirement — Before any new monthly contributions.
Projected shortfall before new contributions — Compared with the estimated retirement target.

How the estimate is built

Annual spending gap today—

First-year portfolio withdrawal at retirement—

Years until retirement—

Retirement period modeled—

What if investment returns differ?

For this sensitivity check, both the pre-retirement and retirement return assumptions are shifted by 1 percentage point. All other inputs stay the same.

Lower-return scenario —
Target—
Monthly investment—
Planning estimate —
Target—
Monthly investment—
Higher-return scenario —
Target—
Monthly investment—
Important: This calculator provides hypothetical estimates for educational and informational purposes only. It is not financial, investment, tax or retirement-planning advice. Actual results can differ materially because of market returns, inflation, taxes, fees, Social Security or pension rules, spending changes, health costs, longevity and other circumstances.

What does “how much do I need to retire?” actually mean?

There is no single retirement number that applies to everyone. A useful estimate starts with the amount you expect to spend, subtracts income that may come from sources such as Social Security or a pension, and then estimates how much of the remaining spending must come from your portfolio.

How this calculator estimates your retirement target

The calculator first measures your annual retirement spending gap in today's dollars. It then grows that gap by your inflation assumption to retirement age. From there, it estimates the amount that would be needed at retirement to support inflation-growing annual withdrawals through the life expectancy you entered while the remaining portfolio earns your assumed retirement return.

The first retirement withdrawal is modeled at the end of the first retirement year. The estimate is a finite-horizon planning model, not a guarantee that a portfolio will last under real-world market conditions.

How the monthly investment estimate works

Your current retirement savings are projected forward using your pre-retirement return assumption. If that projected amount is below the estimated retirement target, the calculator determines an approximate monthly contribution that could close the gap by retirement age. Contributions are modeled at the end of each month.

Why inflation matters

A dollar decades from now is unlikely to buy the same amount it buys today. That is why the calculator lets you choose your own inflation assumption. Desired retirement spending and other retirement income are entered in today's dollars, and the model treats the retirement-income amount as keeping pace with the same inflation assumption.

What the calculator does not model

This simplified model does not separately model taxes, investment fees, required minimum distributions, account types, sequence-of-returns risk, Social Security claiming strategies, pension details, Medicare or health-care costs, long-term-care expenses, irregular spending, one-time purchases or estate goals. Those items can materially change a real retirement plan.

A practical way to use the result

Treat the output as a planning range rather than a promise. Try lower and higher return assumptions, a different inflation rate, a later or earlier retirement age, and different spending levels. If small changes produce large differences, that is useful information: it shows which assumptions matter most to your plan.

Planning note: A withdrawal-rate shortcut can be useful as a rough reference, but this calculator instead models your chosen retirement length, inflation and return assumptions directly.

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Or test a starting balance and monthly contributions with our investment growth calculator →