# Retirement Calculator

> Project your retirement savings with monthly contributions, annual raises, and inflation. Year-by-year balance and real (today's-dollar) value.

URL: https://uttir.com/retirement-calculator
Categories: calculators
Privacy: Math runs locally. No inputs are sent anywhere.

## About

Enter your current age, target retirement age, current savings, monthly contribution, expected return, and (optionally) an annual raise on contributions and an inflation rate. The calculator projects your balance year by year, and shows the final balance in both nominal and real (today's-dollar) terms.

Useful for sanity-checking your 401(k) or IRA plan, comparing scenarios, and answering the "am I on track?" question. Run a few scenarios with different contribution amounts to see how each extra $100/month changes the outcome.

For the pure-math version (no age framing, no inflation, no raises), see the compound interest calculator.

## How to use

1. **Set the timeline** — Current age and target retirement age.
2. **Enter your savings** — Current balance and monthly contribution.
3. **Set the assumptions** — Annual return, raise, and inflation. A common default is 7% return, 2% raise, 2.5% inflation.

## Examples

### 30 → 65, $25K saved, $500/mo, 7% return

A typical mid-career starting point.

Output:

```
~$1.1M nominal, ~$600K in today's dollars
```

### 25 → 65, $5K saved, $300/mo, 7% return, 2% raise

Starting early with a modest contribution.

Output:

```
~$1.1M nominal — the power of starting at 25
```

## FAQ

### What return rate should I assume?

A common assumption is 7% real (above inflation) for a diversified equity portfolio, or about 10% nominal with 3% inflation. For a more conservative portfolio (60/40 stocks/bonds), 5-6% real. The historical S&P 500 average is about 10% nominal, 7% real.

### How does the inflation adjustment work?

Each year, the projected balance is divided by (1 + inflation_rate)^years_elapsed. So $1M projected for 35 years from now at 2.5% inflation shows as ~$420K in today's dollars. Use the inflation-adjusted value for real-world planning.

### What about employer match?

Add the employer match to your monthly contribution. A 4% employer match on a $60K salary is $200/month. Most calculators treat this as a flat addition to your contribution, which underestimates the compounding slightly but is close enough for planning.

## Related tools

- [Inflation Calculator](https://uttir.com/inflation-calculator) — Calculate how inflation erodes purchasing power over time. Custom rate or historical U.S. CPI averages from 1990 onward.
- [Compound Interest Calculator](https://uttir.com/compound-interest-calculator) — Project savings growth with compound interest and monthly contributions, year by year.
- [Salary Calculator](https://uttir.com/salary-calculator) — Convert between hourly, daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, and annual salary. Adjust hours/week and weeks/year.
- [Percentage Calculator](https://uttir.com/percentage-calculator) — Three percentage tools in one: percent of a value, ratio as a percent, and percent change.

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For the full HTML page with the live tool, visit https://uttir.com/retirement-calculator.
This file is the markdown rendering at https://uttir.com/retirement-calculator.md. See https://uttir.com/llms.txt for a site-wide summary.