Retirement Calculator: How Much Do You Need to Retire?

Take a few minutes to answer a short series of questions to discover how much money you may potentially need to save each year to generate the inflation-adjusted retirement income you desire.

How Much Money Do You Need to Retire Comfortably?

The answer to this question depends on your personal situation. Do you plan to downsize and live more simply during your retirement years? If so, you may need less annual income during retirement than you do now. However, if you plan to travel more extensively, increase the number of entertainment events you attend or take on a big financial endeavor like starting a new business, then you will likely require additional income for these additional retirement pursuits. Take a closer look at all your anticipated expenses in retirement and create a tentative budget to see how much income you might require. Based on that amount, you can more accurately answer the Retirement Calculator assumption about your percentage of income replacement at retirement. For example, a simpler lifestyle may require only 75% of your current income, while a more expensive one may demand 125% or more.

How Much Do You Need to Save for Retirement?

Once you know the monetary implications of your future retirement lifestyle, you can more accurately predict the percentage of your current income needed for retirement. However, life is unpredictable, so there are always unexpected costs to think about — like financial assistance for loved ones, moving costs and travel expenses for special family celebrations. So you may want to allocate some extra funds for these kinds of unexpected future expenses. Figuring out a rough retirement budget may help you to more accurately calculate how much income you will need. After you enter all your personal and financial information, our Retirement Calculator will do the rest of the work for you and provide you with the percentage of your annual income that you need to save along with specific yearly and monthly dollar amounts.

How Will You Generate Retirement Income?

Early financial planning and disciplined saving habits are essential to generate the level of retirement income you’ll need to live the lifestyle you envision. Your sources of retirement income may include money from your individual retirement accounts (IRAs) — which include traditional, Roth, SEP (simplified employee pension) and SIMPLE (savings incentive match plan for employees) IRAs — as well as funds from 401(k) (offered through an employer), 403(b) (offered through nonprofit or tax-exempt organizations) or 457(b) (offered through state and local governments) plans. Social Security, pension plans, investments and savings accounts may provide you with additional sources of income. You may decide to work part-time or invest in real estate to create a stream of rental property income to supplement your retirement. Annuities can provide yet another boost to your retirement income.

When Should You Start Saving for Retirement?

The short answer is: the sooner you can, the better it may be. For every year you wait to start saving for retirement, the more money it might take to catch up in order to reach your goals. Explore these retirement savings by age to learn how much you should ideally accumulate in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond. Procrastinating with your retirement savings carries a price tag. Our Retirement Calculator provides you with a comparison figure to understand how much more of your annual income you may need to save if you delay saving for retirement for one year.

How Much Do You Need to Retire Early?

According to Social Security, normal retirement age is 67 for those born in 1960 and later. (If you were born before 1960, you can use Social Security’s Retirement Age Calculator to determine your full retirement age.) If you plan to retire early — before your full retirement age, at which time you become entitled to unreduced Social Security benefits) — there are some important factors to consider. The age at which you choose to retire is key because that will largely determine how many years of retirement income you will need going forward. We can offer you some helpful financial guidelines regarding budgeting, streams of retirement income, Social Security benefits, tax considerations and health care costs if you are thinking about retiring early:

How Much Do You Need to Retire at 50?
How Much Do You Need to Retire at 55?
How Much Do You Need to Retire at 60?
How Much Do You Need to Retire at 62?
How Much Do You Need to Retire at 65?

Using This Retirement Calculator

Our Retirement Calculator is a useful tool to help you determine how much of your current annual income you may need to save — as well as the total amount needed for retirement — to provide the inflation-adjusted retirement income you desire. This calculator uses your answers to a brief set of questions to give you a detailed retirement analysis, which can help you assess the effectiveness of your current retirement savings plan and decide if you need to make any adjustments. It is important to review your retirement savings strategies on an ongoing basis since changes in the economy, inflation, achievable returns and your personal life situation can all impact your current plan.

About Your Inputs

You will be asked a series of questions about your current income/savings, assumptions and Social Security. Various personal and financial factors can affect the longevity of your retirement savings, including your retirement age, the variability of your expenses in retirement, fluctuations in annual rates of return on your investments and future rates of inflation. While it’s impossible to predict what each of these will be in the future, it can be helpful to make some assumptions to project how much money you will need to retire.

Your retirement analysis is based on the following personal information you provide:

Your current age
Your current annual income
Your spouse’s annual income (if applicable)
Your current retirement savings (total money from your checking, savings and investments)
Your desired retirement age
Anticipated number of years of retirement income

Our Retirement Calculator will ask you to make a series of assumptions about your:

Expected inflation rate
Percentage of income replacement at retirement (For example, do you want 80% of your current annual income during your retirement?)
Pre- and post-retirement annual returns on your investments

Your total retirement income includes Social Security, so our Retirement Calculator asks if you want to include Social Security benefits in your retirement analysis results. The calculator will estimate your monthly Social Security benefit based on the income and marital status you provide. However, you also have the option to override this estimated amount by inputting a different monthly amount in today’s dollars.

About Your Results

Our Retirement Calculator provides you with a retirement analysis graph that visually depicts your potential retirement balance and income as you age. A detailed data table summarizes your beginning and ending retirement balances by age, along with your pre-retirement and post-retirement earnings, estimated annual savings, annual Social Security income and annual retirement account withdrawal amounts.

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