Retirement Calculator

Will you outlive your savings? According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, nearly 50% of working Americans are at risk of having insufficient retirement income. Our Retirement Calculator goes beyond simple projections to provide a comprehensive retirement readiness assessment. We incorporate life expectancy, inflation, healthcare costs, Social Security benefits, pension income, and even investment volatility through Monte Carlo simulation.

The 4% Rule and Safe Withdrawal Rates

The classic "4% rule" suggests you can withdraw 4% of your retirement portfolio in the first year, adjust for inflation annually, and have a 95% chance of not running out of money over 30 years. However, in a low-interest-rate environment (like 2026), some experts argue for a 3.5% or 3% withdrawal rate. Our calculator allows you to customize your withdrawal rate and see the probability of success. We also support the "Variable Percentage Withdrawal" (VPW) method, which adjusts withdrawals based on market performance.

How to Use This Retirement Calculator

1. Current Status: Enter your age, current retirement savings (401k, IRA, brokerage).

2. Contributions: Enter monthly or annual contributions (including employer match %).

3. Retirement Details: Desired retirement age, life expectancy (or use SS actuarial table).

4. Assumptions: Expected annual return (conservative: 5-7%, moderate: 7-9%, aggressive: 9-11%), inflation rate (2-3% default).

5. Income Streams: Social Security benefit (check your statement online), pension amount.

The output includes: Total retirement corpus, monthly income in today's dollars, "savings gap" (how much more you need to save per month), and a "success probability" if using Monte Carlo.

Monte Carlo Simulation Explained

Traditional retirement calculators assume a fixed average return (e.g., 7% every year). Markets don't work that way. Monte Carlo runs 1,000+ possible market sequences (boom years, crash years, flat decades) and calculates success rates. If your plan has a 78% success rate, you have a 22% risk of failure. Most advisors target 85-90% success. Our tool includes this advanced feature for serious planners.

Tax-Efficient Withdrawal Strategies

Where you withdraw money from matters. Our calculator includes a "Roth vs Traditional" analyzer. Traditionally, you want to withdraw in this order: 1) Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs from Traditional IRA/401k), 2) Taxable brokerage accounts, 3) Roth IRAs (tax-free last). This minimizes your tax bracket in retirement. We also calculate RMD amounts based on IRS Uniform Lifetime Table.

FAQ: Retirement Calculator

Retirement Calculator is optimized for fast browser-based use, so you can test multiple scenarios in seconds.