Find your target, see the gap, and check whether you are leaving employer money behind.
Projected at retirement
$1,893,375
$852,376 in today's purchasing power.
At a 4% withdrawal rate.
11% of salary.
Contributing 8% of $92,000 plus $2,760 of employer match, your $165,000 grows to $1,893,375 by age 65. In today's purchasing power that is $852,376, supporting roughly $34,095 of annual income at a 4% withdrawal rate. Your stated need is $69,000 a year, which requires about $1,725,000.
You are capturing the full $2,760 a year of match, which compounds to $220,134 over 27 years — roughly 12% of your projected balance, contributed by someone else. This is the highest-return component of your entire retirement plan.
That is 37.4% of salary including the employer match, up from 11% today — an extra $2,025 a month. If that is not immediately feasible, raising the contribution by one percentage point with every raise reaches the target without ever reducing your current standard of living.
Delaying retirement from 65 to 67 adds two years of contributions and two years of growth, while removing two years of withdrawals from the other end. It is the single most powerful adjustment available late in a plan — considerably more effective than any change to investment allocation.
The standard priority is: 401(k) to the full match, then HSA if you are eligible, then IRA, then back to the 401(k) up to the annual limit, then taxable. The HSA is the only triple-tax-advantaged account in the US code — deductible going in, growing untaxed, and tax-free for qualified medical expenses — and it is the most commonly underused account in retirement planning.
See your independence dateWorked scenarios with the full analysis, so you can see how the numbers move before entering your own.
A mid-career saver capturing most but not all of the available employer match.
Projected at retirement
$1,893,375
Contributing 8% of $92,000 plus $2,760 of employer match, your $165,000 grows to $1,893,375 by age 65. In today's purchasing power that is $852,376, supporting roughly $34,095 of annual income at a 4% withdrawal rate. Your stated need is $69,000 a year, which requires about $1,725,000.
You are capturing the full $2,760 a year of match, which compounds to $220,134 over 27 years — roughly 12% of your projected balance, contributed by someone else. This is the highest-return component of your entire retirement plan.
That is 37.4% of salary including the employer match, up from 11% today — an extra $2,025 a month. If that is not immediately feasible, raising the contribution by one percentage point with every raise reaches the target without ever reducing your current standard of living.
An early-career saver leaving employer match unclaimed, showing the compounded cost of the gap.
Projected at retirement
$1,003,882
Contributing 3% of $68,000 plus $2,040 of employer match, your $22,000 grows to $1,003,882 by age 65. In today's purchasing power that is $336,283, supporting roughly $13,451 of annual income at a 4% withdrawal rate. Your stated need is $51,000 a year, which requires about $1,275,000.
Your employer matches 100% of contributions up to 5% of salary, but you contribute only 3%. Raising your contribution to 5% would capture an additional $1,360 annually — an immediate, guaranteed 100% return that no investment reliably matches. Over 37 years that unclaimed match compounds to roughly $237,608.
That is 29.6% of salary including the employer match, up from 6% today — an extra $1,337 a month. If that is not immediately feasible, raising the contribution by one percentage point with every raise reaches the target without ever reducing your current standard of living.
A late-start saver with a high contribution rate and a shorter horizon.
Projected at retirement
$1,536,827
Contributing 18% of $135,000 plus $4,050 of employer match, your $310,000 grows to $1,536,827 by age 67. In today's purchasing power that is $986,431, supporting roughly $39,457 of annual income at a 4% withdrawal rate. Your stated need is $94,500 a year, which requires about $2,362,500.
You are capturing the full $4,050 a year of match, which compounds to $102,446 over 15 years — roughly 7% of your projected balance, contributed by someone else. This is the highest-return component of your entire retirement plan.
That is 83.8% of salary including the employer match, up from 21% today — an extra $7,063 a month. If that is not immediately feasible, raising the contribution by one percentage point with every raise reaches the target without ever reducing your current standard of living.
Where you put retirement money matters nearly as much as how much you put in, because the accounts have very different tax treatment. A widely used priority order handles this without requiring you to model each one.
Start with the 401(k) up to the full employer match — that is an immediate guaranteed return of 50% or 100% depending on the formula, and nothing else competes. Next, if you have a high-deductible health plan, the HSA: it is deductible going in, grows untaxed, and comes out tax-free for qualified medical expenses, which is a combination no other account offers. Then an IRA, where you control the investment menu and the fees. Then back to the 401(k) up to the annual limit. Taxable brokerage last.
Traditional contributions are deductible now and taxed on withdrawal. Roth contributions are taxed now and withdrawn tax-free. The decision reduces to whether your tax rate today is higher or lower than it will be when you withdraw.
Early-career workers in the 12% or 22% bracket usually benefit from Roth, since their rate is likely to rise. Peak earners in the 32% bracket or above usually benefit from traditional, deducting at a high rate and withdrawing at a lower one. Splitting between both is a reasonable hedge against future tax law changes, which is the variable nobody can forecast. Roth has two secondary advantages worth noting: no required minimum distributions during your lifetime, and contributions can be withdrawn at any time without penalty.
The convention that you need 70–80% of pre-retirement income assumes several expenses fall — no retirement contributions, no payroll tax, no commuting, and often no mortgage. For many households that is roughly right.
It is wrong in both directions for specific situations. Someone retiring before Medicare eligibility at 65 faces individual-market health premiums that frequently run $800–1,800 a month for a couple, which can push the early years above 100% of pre-retirement spending. Someone who plans significant travel in the first active decade will spend more, not less. And someone who paid off their mortgage the year before retiring may need closer to 55%. Build the number from projected expenses rather than a percentage of salary wherever you can.
It is declining compensation. Nothing else in a retirement plan offers a guaranteed 50–100% immediate return.
Taxes plus a 10% penalty typically remove 30–40% immediately, and the compounding loss over decades is far larger. Roll it over instead.
A $2 million projection thirty years out buys roughly what $825,000 buys today. Plan against the inflation-adjusted figure.
Plan menus frequently include funds above 0.75%. Most also include a low-cost index option that is not the default.
It is the only triple-tax-advantaged account available and functions as a superior IRA after 65, when withdrawals for any purpose are penalty-free.
A common benchmark targets one times salary saved by 30, three times by 40, six times by 50, eight times by 60 and ten times by 67. Treat these as orientation rather than a verdict — career stage, student debt and family structure move the realistic figure substantially, and someone starting late with a high savings rate closes the gap faster than the multiples suggest.
It is the highest-return component of most retirement plans. A 50% match on 6% of a $92,000 salary is $2,760 a year of free money, which compounds to well over $200,000 across a full career. Contributing less than the match threshold is declining part of your compensation.
Compare your current marginal rate to your expected rate in retirement. Below the 24% bracket, Roth is usually the better bet since your rate is more likely to rise than fall. At 32% and above, traditional usually wins. Splitting between both hedges against future tax law changes, which is genuinely unforecastable.
Roughly 25 times your expected annual spending, which corresponds to a 4% withdrawal rate. If you expect to spend $70,000 a year, that implies $1.75 million. Subtract the portion Social Security will cover — commonly around 40% of pre-retirement income for a median earner, proportionally less for higher earners — and the required portfolio drops meaningfully.
Three levers still work. Catch-up contributions allow substantially higher 401(k) and IRA limits from age 50. Delaying retirement by even two or three years has an outsized effect, adding contributions and growth while removing withdrawal years. And delaying Social Security to 70 increases the benefit by about 8% a year past full retirement age, which is an inflation-adjusted guaranteed increase no investment matches.
No — the projection covers your invested retirement savings only. Social Security replaces roughly 40% of pre-retirement income for a median earner and less for higher earners. Get your personalized estimate at ssa.gov/myaccount and subtract it from your income need before setting the target balance.
The next calculations that usually follow this one.
Your savings rate sets the date far more than your income does. This shows the year.
See the balance, the split between contributions and growth, and what it actually buys.
Federal tax, FICA, state tax and deductions — see exactly what lands in your account.
Your headline return is not your return. See what survives fees, taxes and inflation.
One number that tells you whether the whole plan is working — plus what is actually spendable.
Guides that explain the decisions behind these numbers.
How to calculate what you need to retire, choose between Roth and traditional accounts, and understand withdrawal rates and Social Security timing.
Updated January 15, 2026
A beginner's guide to investing in the US: account order, index funds, fees, asset allocation and the behavioral mistakes that cost the most.
Updated January 15, 2026
How inflation erodes purchasing power, what protects against it, and why every long-range financial projection needs an inflation adjustment.
Updated January 15, 2026
New tools, guides and the occasional thing that will genuinely save you money. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Developer note: this form has no backend. Connect an email provider and add a privacy policy before collecting real addresses.