Retirement Calculator
Retirement Readiness Calculator: What It Calculates and How to Read the Result
Quick answer
A standard retirement calculator estimates how much you need to save and when you can retire under simplified return and spending assumptions. It's a useful starting point, but at $1.5M+ in assets, the right answer depends on tax coordination, Social Security timing, and withdrawal sequencing that this kind of tool doesn't model.
Retirement Readiness Calculator
Estimate whether you’re on track for retirement given your savings, contributions, and assumptions.
1) Enter your inputs and click View Results.
2) Submit your info to unlock the full results page + PDF.
This simplified model uses nominal returns, basic inflation adjustments, and an approximate Social Security estimate if you don’t provide one.
Results are illustrative and sensitive to assumptions. For a personalized plan, schedule a Strategic Fit Interview.
Results are shown after you submit your info.
What This Calculator Actually Answers
This is the basic retirement-readiness calculation: given your current savings, expected contributions, retirement age, life expectancy, and spending needs, what is the deterministic projection of whether your portfolio survives? The output is a yes/no with a margin of safety estimate.
For households with $250K–$1M in assets, this is often a sufficient first pass; it surfaces whether you are roughly on track. For households at $1.5M+, the deterministic answer hides the more important questions: which accounts to draw from in what order, when to do Roth conversions, how to manage IRMAA, and how to coordinate Social Security with the rest.
How to Read the Result
Treat this as a sanity check, not a plan. A 'green light' here does not mean the plan is optimized: it means the headline savings number is roughly adequate under the modeled assumptions. A 'red light' does mean immediate attention is needed, because no amount of optimization fixes a fundamental savings shortfall.
The two assumptions that matter most are the expected return and the inflation rate. Small changes in either compound dramatically over 30 years. Run the calculation with conservative return assumptions (5–6% real) before trusting the result.
Common Mistakes
- Using overly optimistic return assumptions (8–10% nominal) for retirement projections. Recent decades were unusually generous; forward-looking expected returns for a balanced portfolio are typically 5–7% nominal.
- Forgetting to model Social Security and any pension income separately from portfolio withdrawals. These reduce portfolio load materially.
- Treating retirement spending as constant. Real retirees typically spend 10–20% less in years 75+ than in the first decade of retirement (the 'retirement smile').
- Ignoring taxes. A $100K withdrawal from a traditional IRA is not the same as $100K from a Roth or a taxable account.
- Not running the same calculation under sequence-of-returns stress: a deterministic projection cannot show you the cost of a bad early-retirement market.
When This Calculator Is Not the Right Tool
For households with $1.5M+ in investable assets, this calculator is the wrong primary tool. Use it as a 30-second sanity check, then move to the Monte Carlo simulator (for portfolio durability under sequence risk), the Roth Conversion Bracket Analyzer (for tax coordination), and the Tax-Efficient Withdrawal calculator (for sequencing). Those are the tools that produce real planning leverage at your asset level.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do I need to retire?
There is no universal number: it depends on your spending, your other income sources (Social Security, pension), your tax structure, and how long you'll live. A useful rule of thumb is 25× annual expenses (the inverse of the 4% rule), but that assumes a generic portfolio, average lifespan, and no flexibility in spending. For most $1.5M+ households, the real question is not 'how much do I need' but 'how do I structure what I have to last and minimize taxes.'
Can I retire at 60? At 62? At 65?
The age question is downstream of the asset and income question. With $1.5M+ in assets, retiring before 65 is often feasible, but the years between retirement and Medicare eligibility (65) and Social Security claiming (62–70) need a deliberate funding plan. The 'rule of 55' (penalty-free 401(k) access at 55 if you separate from that employer) is relevant for some early retirees.
Should I work longer to be safer?
One year of additional work has a triple effect: another year of contributions, another year of compounding, and one fewer year of withdrawals. The combined math typically improves portfolio durability by 5–10 percentage points of success rate per added year. For households on the edge, this is often the highest-leverage move available, but it's also the one with the highest opportunity cost.
What's a safe withdrawal rate?
The classic 4% inflation-adjusted withdrawal rule was based on historical U.S. data with a 30-year horizon. It remains a reasonable reference point, but recent research suggests 3.5–3.8% for current valuation environments, or higher (4.5–5%) if you have spending flexibility. The right number depends on your specific portfolio mix and your willingness to adjust spending when markets fall.