Retirement Savings Calculator
Enter your current savings, what you contribute each month, and your employer's match — your projected balance updates as you type, and the link always carries your numbers.
How this calculator works
Every month, your contribution plus any employer match (whichever is smaller: a percentage of your contribution, or the plan's dollar cap) is added to your balance, and the whole balance grows by your expected monthly return. Run forward from today's age to your retirement age and those small monthly deposits compound into a much larger number than simple addition would suggest — that compounding, not the contributions alone, is usually the biggest driver of the final balance. This is a nominal projection (see the FAQ below on inflation and our inflation calculator for translating it into today's dollars).
Worked example
Starting at age 30 with $20,000 saved, contributing $500/month until retiring at 65 (420 months), with a 50% employer match capped at $250/month (so the match hits its $250 cap immediately) and a 7% expected annual return: total monthly money going in is $750. The projected balance at 65 is about $1,580,914. Of that, you contributed $210,000, your employer added $105,000 in matching, and the remaining roughly $1,245,914 came from investment growth — over five times what you and your employer put in combined.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 7% annual return realistic?
7% is a common rule-of-thumb for a diversified stock-heavy portfolio's long-run average return before inflation, based on historical broad-market performance. It's a planning ballpark, not a promise — real returns vary year to year and can be negative for stretches. This isn't personalized investment advice; try a lower rate (5–6%) to see a more conservative projection.
What if I get a raise — should I increase my contribution?
This calculator uses a flat monthly dollar amount, but in practice many people contribute a percentage of income (like 10–15%) so the dollar amount rises automatically with raises. If your contribution stays flat while your income grows, it shrinks as a share of what you earn — worth revisiting after every raise.
My employer match is "free money" — why does this tool let me cap it?
Because most real employer plans cap it too. A typical structure is "50% match up to $250/month" — after that point, extra contributions you make no longer trigger extra match dollars. The match cap field lets you model your plan's actual ceiling instead of assuming unlimited matching.
Does this account for inflation?
No — this is a nominal projection, meaning it doesn't discount for rising prices. A $1.58 million balance in 35 years will buy less than $1.58 million buys today. To translate a nominal target into today's purchasing power (or vice versa), pair this result with our inflation calculator.