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🏖️ Retirement Calculator

Project your retirement account balance year by year from your current savings and monthly contribution - free and unlimited, no sign-in required.

Planning tool only - not financial advice. This projection assumes a flat monthly contribution and a flat average annual return compounded every month for the entire time horizon. Real markets don't return the same amount every year, contributions often change over time (raises, inflation), and this ignores taxes, fees, employer matching, and Social Security. Use it to get a feel for how compound growth adds up, not as a guarantee of what you'll actually have.

Your numbers

Current age

Target retirement age

Current retirement savings ($)

Monthly contribution ($)

Expected annual return (%) A diversified stock portfolio has historically averaged roughly 6-8%/year before inflation - this is just a planning input, not a promise.

Projected balance

Balance at retirement$0

Your contributions$0

Investment growth$0

Years to retirement0

Year-by-year projection

Age	Starting balance	Contributions	Growth	Ending balance

Two things growing at once

The balance you already hold compounds on its own; each contribution compounds from the month it lands. The projection simulates that a month at a time, and the closed form below agrees.

r = annual return / 100 / 12       n = (retirement age - current age) × 12

each month:  balance = balance × (1 + r), then + contribution

FV = savings × (1+r)^n  +  contribution × ((1+r)^n - 1) / r
     ⌊__ what you have __⌋     ⌊____ what you add ____⌋

From 30 to 65 with $20,000 saved, $500 a month and 7%, n is 420 and (1+r)^n is 11.5062. The $20,000 becomes $230,123.04 on its own; the $210,000 of contributions becomes $900,527.30. Total $1,130,650.34, of which $900,650.34 is growth you did not pay in.

Two things the number is not

It is not inflation-adjusted. At 3% inflation that $1.13 million buys what about $402,000 buys today, the figure to plan against. And 7% entered is divided by twelve rather than converted, so it compounds to 7.23% a year — worth roughly $61,000 of the total above on its own.

Ages run 0 to 120 and retirement age must beat current age. The return accepts -50 to 100, negative deliberately, for a pessimistic run.
Rows are labelled by the age you reach, so the first is your current age plus one.

A flat return every month for decades is the assumption doing the most work here. Real returns arrive in a sequence, and a bad run in your last few working years hits the largest balance you will ever have. Taxes, fund fees, employer matching, rising contributions and Social Security are all outside the model.

Frequently asked questions

Is $500 a month enough to retire on?

From 30 with $20,000 behind you it projects $1.13 million at 65 — but in today's money that is nearer $400,000. Whether that is enough depends on the income you need, not the headline.

What return should I put in?

A diversified stock portfolio has historically averaged about 6-8% a year before inflation. Entering two points below what you hope for is the cheapest insurance here.

Does it include employer matching?

No. If your employer matches, add the match into the monthly contribution yourself — it is the single largest thing this projection will otherwise miss.