Free Online Retirement Income Calculator

Add Up To $250 More Per Month

Need to find up to $250 extra per month? Here are a few simple ideas that can help:

• Cook at home an extra night or two every week, and make the most of leftovers
• Brew coffee at home instead of stopping at the coffee shop every morning
• Run all your errands at once to save on gas
• Change the heating or cooling in your home by one degree
• Or set your thermostat even warmer or cooler when no one is home
• Switch from name brand to generic groceries for things like chips or pasta

Factor In Additional Income Sources

One thing that can help you breathe easier is adding up any other sources of income you might receive in your retirement and including them in your plan.

Add up any additional income sources for a total monthly amount and enter it in the Other expected income box of the calculator. Here are just a few examples.

Social Security benefits

You can start collecting Social Security benefits as early as age 62, but youll receive more money for the rest of your life if you delay your benefit until you reach the age of 67. If youre not sure how much to include, you can use this free tool to estimate your Social Security benefits.

If you dont want to use your current earnings history, use this tool instead to enter hypothetical scenarios .

Pension plans

Pension plans arent as common as they used to be, but there are still many professions that offer a traditional pension plan with guaranteed retirement income. For example:

Other organizations that might offer pension plans include hospitals, insurance companies, and Fortune-500 businesses.

VA benefits

The term veterans benefits covers a wide range of benefits depending largely on your length of service. VA healthcare, military health insurance, VA pensions, and full military retirement are just a few examples.

If you qualify for any of theseVA pensions require less time on active duty than you might thinkbe sure to include them in your retirement plan.

Annuities

Rental properties

Inheritance

• Use the Lifetime Planner

What Else Impacts Your Retirement Savings

The retirement calculator also lets you experiment with different levels of inflation and investment performance. While you cant control these factors, seeing how they could affect your retirement is an important part of the planning process.

Inflation

In recent years, inflation has hovered around 2% annually, but it has risen significantly in 2021. Higher inflation means higher living expenses, which could have a large impact on your future plans.

The retirement calculator assumes an inflation rate of 3% per year. If your retirement is still years away, be sure to keep an eye on the actual rate. A rate above 3% would require extra savings to compensate.

Investment performance

The rate of return youre able to achieve in your investments is another key factor in determining your ultimate nest egg. The calculator assumes a rate of 6% per year while youre saving up for retirement, then 5% after you retire.

Outperforming this rate consistently would help you reach your goals faster, but financial advisors often recommend a more conservative portfolio the closer you get to retirement. Before making any drastic changes, consider consulting a financial advisor to plan how your investments should change over time.

Taxes

If you want to include taxation in your plan, consider using Quickens advanced retirement calculator or Lifetime Planner. Both tools let you evaluate your retirement plan in more detail, using your actual financial data and applying current tax regulations.

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How Do I Calculate My Retirement Income

Regarding retirement planning, one of the most critical questions is, how much will I need to save? Of course, the answer depends on several factors, including your desired lifestyle in retirement and how long you expect to live. However, a few helpful retirement calculators can give you a general idea of how much youll need to save.

One popular retirement calculator is the annuity calculator. An annuity is an insurance-based retirement account that provides guaranteed income for the rest of your life, typically at retirement age. The annuity retirement calculator considers factors such as your age, expected retirement date, and current retirement savings to estimate how much youll need to save to purchase an annuity that will provide sufficient income in retirement.

Of course, there are other factors to consider besides a simple retirement calculator when planning for retirement. However, this tool can be a useful starting point in estimating how much youll need to save for a comfortable retirement.

Pensions 401s Individual Retirement Accounts And Other Savings Plans

401, 403, 457 Plan

In the U.S., two of the most popular ways to save for retirement include Employer Matching Programs such as the 401 and their offshoot, the 403 . 401s vary from company to company, but many employers offer a matching contribution up to a certain percentage of the gross income of the employee. For example, an employer may match up to 3% of an employee’s contribution to their 401 if this employee earned $60,000, the employer would contribute a maximum of $1,800 to the employee’s 401 that year. Only 6% of companies that offer 401s don’t make some sort of employer contribution. It is generally recommended to at least contribute the maximum amount that an employer will match.

Employer matching program contributions are made using pre-tax dollars. Funds are essentially allowed to grow tax-free until distributed. Only distributions are taxed as ordinary income in retirement, during which retirees most likely fall within a lower tax bracket. Please visit our 401K Calculator for more information about 401s.

IRA and Roth IRA

Pension Plans

In the U.S., pension plans were a popular form of saving for retirement in the past, but they have since fallen out of favor, largely due to increasing longevity there are fewer workers for each retired person. However, they can still be found in the public sector or traditional corporations.

For more information about or to do calculations involving pensions, please visit the Pension Calculator.

Investments and CDs

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Calculate Your Earnings And More

Use this retirement income calculator to determine how much monthly income retirement savings may provide during retirement. The annual savings, expected rate of return and current age all have an impact on the monthly retirement income. View the full report to see a year-by-year breakdown of retirement savings.

How To Use The Retirement Calculator

The above calculator takes into account your current retirement savings plus additional contributions from your income as well as projected wage gains and evaluates your goals. It then charts your post retirement income to see if you are on track to meet those goals.

“ROI during retirement” rate goes into effect the day the last retirement contribution is made rather than on the day of the first income withdrawal. Setting the effective date equal to the final contribution date is a slightly more conservative approach when the after retirement rate is lower than the before retirement rate.

Related: Use this Inflation Calculator to help you determine an appropriate “Annual Inflation Rate” for you. It considers historical and future inflation.

The calculator has 13 inputs, 4 of them are required:

• Your Current age
• ROI for retirement savings – return-on-investment
• ROI during retirement

The calculator will calculate any one of four unknowns. Enter “0” for one of the four and a value for each of the other three:

• Your life expectancy

• Other annual income

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How Much Should I Save For Retirement

A rule of thumb is that youll need 10 times your income at retirement. If you make $100,000 at retirement, then, youll need $1 million in savings. But this is a very rough estimate. The AARP Retirement Calculator helps you refine that estimate. The tool bases its answer on three big questions: How long you need to save, how long youll need to spend your money and how much youll earn when on your money.

• The earlier you start saving for retirement, the better off youll be. If you start putting $5,000 a year into an IRA at age 30, youll have about $669,400 at age 70, assuming you earn 5 percent a year. If you start at age 50, youll have $186,860. Although its never too late to start saving, its a lot easier if you start early. The AARP Retirement Calculator lets you adjust the age when you retire to see how youll fare at various ages.

• You may live longer than you think. Obviously, your life span in retirement is something you cant know. But you have a few ways to estimate it. One way to estimate is the IRS mortality tables. At 65, for example, the average person can expect to live another 21 years. This means that half live longer and half do not. To be safe, its probably best to assume youll live to 90 or more. If you come from a long-lived family, 100 may be a better guess. The AARP Retirement Calculator lets you estimate your time in retirement.

How Much Money Do You Need To Retire

A common guideline is that you should aim to replace 70% of your annual pre-retirement income. This is what the calculator uses as a default. You can replace your pre-retirement income using a combination of savings, investments, Social Security and any other income sources . The Social Security Administration website has a number of calculators to help you estimate your benefits.

It’s important to consider how your expenses will change in retirement. Some, like health care and travel, are likely to increase. But many recurring expenditures could go down: You no longer need to dedicate a portion of your income to saving for retirement. You may have paid off your mortgage and other loans. And your taxes are likely to be lower payroll taxes, which are taken out of each paycheck, will be eliminated completely.

Be sure to adjust based on your retirement plans. If you know you wont have a mortgage, for instance, maybe you plan to replace only 60%. If you want to travel every year, you might aim to replace 100% or even 110% of pre-retirement income.

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Using This Retirement Calculator

• First, enter your current age, income, savings balance and how much you save toward retirement each month. Thats enough to get a snapshot of where you stand.

• Want to customize your results? Expanding the Optional settings lets you add what you expect to receive from Social Security , adjust your spending level in retirement, change your expected retirement age and more.

• Hover over or tap on the color bars in your results panel to get further insight into where you stand.

• You can adjust your inputs to see how various actions, like saving more or planning to retire later, might affect your retirement picture.

Traditional Ira Funds Calculator

This traditional IRA funds calculator allows you to figure out how much retirement income you can expect from your traditional IRA account. Based on your current age and age at retirement, the calculator can estimate your total fund balance at retirement and an annual income stream. This includes money from deposits that are made on both a before and after tax basis.

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What Is A Retirement Calculator For

A retirement calculator is a simple way to estimate how your money will grow between now and the time you retire if you continue investing at the rate you are today.

But remembera retirement calculator doesnt replace professional advice! If you need help with your investments, we recommend working with an investment professional wholl help you understand what your moneys doing. If thats your next step, we can help you connect with a pro who serves your area.

Assumptions Required To Estimate How Much Money You Need To Retire

All retirement calculators require the same basic inputs to work their magic your retirement age, life expectancy, inflation, investment return, portfolio size, and expected retirement expenses. These are the required assumptions, and every calculator must have these inputs. No exceptions allowed because the math requires these inputs.

The fundamental problem is many of these required assumptions are tantamount to forecasting the future, which is impossible. Unless you have a crystal ball or can read goat entrails, then the future is unknowable. It cannot be predicted with sufficient reliability to bet your financial future on.

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The industry standard approach for dealing with these unknowable assumptions is to apply historical average estimates. The implication is the past is indicative of the future. For example, the historical average inflation rate in the United States has approximated 3% so most experts recommend using 3% for your future inflation projection.

Similarly, consider the life expectancy assumption. Nobody can know when they are going to die. The whole idea is ridiculous.

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Calculate Your Retirement Savings And More

Do you know what it takes to work towards a secure retirement? Use this retirement calculator to create your retirement plan. View your retirement savings balance and calculate your withdrawals for each year. Social security is calculated on a sliding scale based on your income. Including a non-working spouse in your plan increases your social security benefits up to, but not over, the maximum.

Key Investing And Retirement Definitions

401: This is a plan for retirement savings that companies offer employees. A 401 plan gives employees a tax break on money they contribute. Contributions are automatically withdrawn from employee paychecks and invested in funds of the employees choosing .

Compound interest: The interest you earn on both your original deposit and on the interest that original deposit earns. For example, a $1,000 investment earning 6% compounded annually could become roughly $4,300 in 25 years.

Contribution limits: The IRS puts limits on the amount of money that can be contributed to 401s and IRAs each year. These limits sometimes change from year to year.

Financial advisor: A financial advisor offers consumers help with managing money. Financial advisors can advise clients on making investments, saving for retirement, and monitoring spending, among other things. A financial advisor can be a professional, or a digital investment management service called a robo-advisor.

IRA: An individual retirement account is a tax-advantaged investment account individuals use for retirement savings.

Income: The money you get from working, investing, or providing goods or services.Inflation: This happens when the price of goods and services increases as time passes. The result is a decrease in purchasing power, or the value of money.

Nest egg: A sum of money you have set aside for the future in this case, retirement.

Returns: The money you earn or lose on an investment.

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Estimate Your Retirement Budget

This retirement calculator starts with a monthly spending budget of 70% of your current gross income. In other words, if you earn $100,000 per year, the calculator assumes youll spend about $70,000 per year in retirement. To get your monthly budget, it divides that amount by 12.

Its a reasonable place to start, but there are a lot of other factors to consider. For example:

• If retirement is still many years away, your income today probably doesnt reflect what it will be when you retire.
• If you expect to downsize in your retirement, this could significantly reduce your spending, making it easier to reach your retirement savings goals.
• Paying off your mortgage is a huge life event that will reduce your spending each month by eliminating your mortgage payment.
• Traveling in retirement can be expensive, depending on how and where you expect to travel. This and other lifestyle choices can change that estimated budget a lot.

Still, before you reduce yourself to a bare-bones budget trying to make future ends meet, work through the other factors below. There are a lot of other ways to make your retirement picture look brighter.

Usability Of The Calculators

Usability incorporates several components, such as ease of use and visual appeal. A tool that is hard to read is even harder to understand. Tools that utilize graphs in addition to numbers can be helpful, as visually seeing how the money comes and goes is easier for most people to understand.

Another key component to usability is the ability to easily modify inputs. A tool that allows for modification on the results page is especially useful, because it prevents users from having to restart the entire process if they make a mistake or want to run an alternative plan. Having the option to save is always beneficial because you may underestimate the time needed to complete the process, or may need time to gather the right information.

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Simple Retirement Fund Calculator

You can use this simple retirement fund calculator to figure out how much you need to contribute each year to your retirement fund to reach your desired funding goal. The calculator uses your current age, expected retirement age, current retirement funding, desired funding at retirement, and annual return on investment to project the annual funding value.

Other Online Retirement Calculators

There are literally thousands of retirement calculators available online. The calculators described above should cover most DIY retirement planning needs. But here are a few more to check out if youre looking for other options:

• Dinkytown’s Retirement Shortfall Calculator: As the name suggests, this calculator helps you determine if you’ll have a shortfall in retirement.
• Bloomberg’s Retirement Plan: One of the simplest calculators we cover, Bloomberg’s tool is ideal for those looking for a quick analysis.
• Nationwide’s RetirAbility Check: Yes, the car insurance company covers retirement, too. Actually, it has a wealth of information and tools to help you plan for your golden years. Its retirement planner is very comprehensive.

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We all know how important proper planning is to the retirement saving process. Being able to determine how much you’ll likely need in retirement is key to ensuring that you don’t outlive your savings. This process is even more important if you intend to retire early.

The tools mentioned above are great places to start when trying to decide how much you should have set aside for your future. Play around with a few of them and find one that you like. Then, be sure to check back regularly, especially if you make changes to your financial plan, if your net worth is impacted, or if your retirement needs change.

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