Retirement Basics Calculator
Plain-English retirement calculator. See if your savings rate puts you on track and what small changes do over a career.
Last reviewed: · Reviewed by the Money Scale editorial team · How we source our data
New to this? No jargon, no scary toggles. Click any underlined word to learn what it means.
A short history (it wasn't always like this)
Your grandparents — and a lot of your parents — usually had a . Show up, work for decades, retire, get a check for life. The company was on the hook for keeping that promise.
In the 1980s and 1990s most companies decided that risk was too expensive. They quietly switched to plans like the 401(k). Same retirement, totally different rules: now you are the one funding it, picking the investments, and carrying the risk.
The big shift
401(k) basics
A 401(k) is a retirement account your employer offers. Money goes in straight from your paycheck — usually before taxes — into investments you pick from a menu. It grows tax-deferred until you take it out in retirement.
- Pre-tax (traditional): you skip taxes now, pay taxes when you withdraw in retirement.
- Roth 401(k): you pay taxes now, then withdrawals (including all the growth) come out tax-free later.
- Employer match: many companies kick in extra money when you contribute (e.g. "100% match up to 5% of salary"). This is literally free money. Take it.
- Annual contribution limits exist and change every year — check the IRS link below for the current number.
Rule of thumb
Why a 401(k) matters
Tax advantages + employer match + automatic payroll deductions + a multi-decade time horizon = the easiest retirement on-ramp most people ever get. You don't have to remember to invest. You don't have to time the market. You just set the contribution percentage once and let do the heavy lifting.
403(b) — same idea, different uniform
If you work for a public school, hospital, church, or nonprofit, you probably have a 403(b) instead of a 401(k). Same basic mechanics, similar contribution limits, same long-term game. Match rules vary more by employer, so check your plan documents.
IRA — your own retirement account
An IRA (Individual Retirement Arrangement) is a retirement account you open yourself at a brokerage — no employer required. Two flavors: Traditional (deduct now, pay tax later) and Roth (pay tax now, withdraw tax-free later).
Most people open one alongside their 401(k) once they're already getting the full employer match — it gives you more control over investment options and adds another tax-advantaged bucket.
Side-by-side: 401(k) vs 403(b) vs IRA
| Account | Who it's for | Tax treatment | Employer match? | Contribution limit | Early-withdrawal note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 401(k) | Employees of for-profit companies | Pre-tax (Roth option in many plans) | Often yes — free money | High annual cap (link out for current number) | 10% penalty + tax before 59½ (some exceptions) |
| 403(b) | Teachers, hospitals, nonprofits, churches | Pre-tax (Roth option in most plans) | Sometimes — varies by employer | Same high annual cap as 401(k) | 10% penalty + tax before 59½ (some exceptions) |
| Traditional IRA | Anyone with earned income | Pre-tax (deduct now, pay tax later) | No — you open it yourself | Lower annual cap (link out for current number) | 10% penalty + tax before 59½ (some exceptions) |
| Roth IRA | Anyone with earned income (income limits apply) | Pay tax now, withdraw tax-free later | No — you open it yourself | Same cap as Traditional IRA (combined) | Contributions out anytime; growth penalized before 59½ |
Contribution limits change every year. Tap the IRS links below for the current numbers — we don't hard-code them so we can never be out of date.
Trusted free resources
Simple 401(k) growth calculator
Drag the inputs to see what your retirement balance might look like. We default the long-run return to 7% — roughly the long-run stock-market average after a haircut for fees and inflation. Your actual results will vary.
$60,000
How much of every paycheck goes to your 401(k). Even 1% is better than 0%.
6.0% of salary
How much your employer matches per dollar you contribute. 100% = dollar-for-dollar.
100% match
The most of your salary that gets matched. A common offer is .
up to 5.0% of salary
We default to 7%, a common long-run stock-market assumption after fees. Conservative-ish.
7.00% / year
At age 65, you'd have about
$1,058,227
That's 37 years of paying yourself first.
$133,200
$111,000
$814,027
Stacked balance over time — your money + the match + everything that grew on top
- Contributions
- Match
- Growth
- Total
The green area gets bigger every year — that's compounding doing its thing while you sleep.
Try this
Educational only. Not tax or investment advice. Real-world returns, taxes, fees, and limits will vary year to year.
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The Retirement Basics Calculator answers the simplest version of 'will I have enough?' — input your age, savings rate, and salary; see your projected balance at 65 and what 4% sustainable withdrawal gives you each year. Plain-English defaults, no jargon, every assumption clickable to its source. The on-ramp before graduating to the full 401(k) projection.
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- Your numbers stay privateEvery calculation runs in your browser. We never receive or store your salary, balances, or inputs.
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- No login, no emailUse every tool instantly — we never gate results behind a signup.
- Sourced defaultsStarting rates and assumptions cite real data, not made-up numbers.
How this calculator works
- Enter your current age and gross salary.
- Set the percentage of salary you're saving for retirement (employer match included). 15% is the standard target.
- Pick a retirement age (65 is the default; 67 is full Social Security; 70 maximizes Social Security).
- Read your projected balance and the safe annual withdrawal (the 4% rule).
- Want more detail? Open the 401(k) calculator for employer match, salary growth, and fees.
FV = annual_savings × [((1 + r)^t − 1) / r] | safe_withdraw = FV × 4%Future-value of an annuity (your savings, compounding) compounded to retirement age, then the 4% rule applied to estimate sustainable annual withdrawals. The 4% rule (Bengen, 1994) holds across most historical scenarios for a 30-year retirement.
- annual_savings
- Salary × savings rate (including any employer match)
- r
- Expected annual return (7% real is a reasonable default)
- t
- Years until retirement (retirement age − current age)
- FV
- Projected balance at retirement
Frequently asked questions
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