Retirement Calculator
Estimate the nest egg you need at retirement, the value of your current savings path, and the gap between them.
What "target nest egg" means here
This calculator uses the widely-cited 25× rule to estimate your target: you need roughly 25 times your annual retirement spending invested, which corresponds to a 4% initial withdrawal rate plus inflation adjustments. It's not a law of physics — it was derived from historical U.S. market data over rolling 30-year periods — but it's a useful first-pass benchmark.
Why we use real return
Everything here runs in today's-dollar purchasing power. The "expected real return" input is your portfolio return after inflation — typically 1–3 percentage points less than nominal return. This keeps the target and projection comparable without inflating them over 30 years and making the numbers look like Monopoly money. 4–6% real return is a common balanced-portfolio assumption; more aggressive allocations assume 6–8%, more conservative 2–4%.
What this calculator cannot capture
Social Security income. Pension income. Part-time work in early retirement. Market volatility and sequence-of-returns risk. Unexpected medical costs. Changes in spending patterns at age 75+. Taxes on retirement distributions. Home equity. Inheritance. These can swing the required nest egg by 20% or more in either direction. This is the "first number to see if you're in the ballpark" — a real retirement plan is a 20-page document built with someone who knows your situation.