Calculate Retirement Savings Needed To Achieve Your Monthly Income Goal

Retirement Income Calculator Sign

This online calculator will calculate the retirement savings needed to withdraw your desired monthly income for the duration of your life expectancy -- with and without accounting for inflation.

While I agree that ignoring the effects of inflation in financial forecasting will likely fail to achieve expectations, I also believe that building inflation into financial forecasting tools tends to discourage saving and encourage spending.

When people see the difference inflation can make in their future financial condition, I'm willing to bet that many of them get very discouraged. With all of the added sacrifices they will need to make to achieve their future goals, they may decide to spend their money now -- while it's still worth something -- rather than saving it for the future when it will be worth much less.

Yes, the effects of inflation are discouraging. However, in financial forecasting, it's always best to estimate income low and expenses high. Because even more discouraging than seeing the effects inflation has on future savings, is to arrive at your future with no savings at all.

My suggestion is this. Be sure to include inflation in your forecasts, but at the same time recognize that as inflation drives up the costs of goods and services, it also tends to put upward pressure on wages. So while your savings may be losing buying power each year, the chances are good that your wages will also increase, which in turn means you should be able to increase the amount you are adding to your savings. If you want to hit the moon, shoot for the stars.

Read more ...

Retirement Income Calculator

Calculate retirement savings needed to achieve your monthly retirement income goal, with and without inflation.

Special Instructions

Learn More

Selected Data Record:

A Data Record is a set of calculator entries that are stored in your web browser's Local Storage. If a Data Record is currently selected in the "Data" tab, this line will list the name you gave to that data record. If no data record is selected, or you have no entries stored for this calculator, the line will display "None".

DataData recordData recordSelected data record: None
Age now:Current age:Your current age:Your current age:

Your current age:

Enter your current age in years. Enter as an integer (no decimal points or fractions).

#
Retire age:Age to retire:Age you plan to retire at:Age you plan to retire at:

Age you plan to retire at:

Enter the age you plan to retire at. Enter as an integer (no decimal points or fractions).

#
Monthly goal:Monthly income goal:Monthly retirement income goal:Monthly retirement income goal:

Monthly retirement income goal:

Enter the amount you would like to withdraw from your retirement account each month. Enter as a dollar amount but without the dollar sign and any commas.

$
Return rate:Rate of return:Annual return on investments:Annual return on investments:

Annual return on investments:

Enter the annual percentage you expect to earn on your retirement investments. Enter as a percentage, but without the percent sign (for .07 or 7%, enter 7).

%
Retire years:# retire years:Number of years to make withdrawals:Number of years to make monthly withdrawals:

Number of years to make withdrawals:

Enter the number of years you would like to be able to make the monthly withdrawals from your retirement funds.

#
Inflate rate:Inflation rate:Expected annual inflation rate:Expected annual inflation rate:

Expected annual inflation rate:

Enter the expected annual rate of inflation between now and when you retire. Enter as a percentage, but without the percent sign (for .02 or 2%, enter 2).

%
Current bal:Current balance:Current retirement savings:Current retirement savings:

Current retirement savings:

Enter how much you currently have in all of your retirement savings accounts combined. Enter as a dollar amount but without the dollar sign and any commas.

$
ResultsWithout InflationWith Inflation
Savings needed at retirement:
Amount needed to save each month:

If you would like to save the current entries to the secure online database, tap or click on the Data tab, select "New Data Record", give the data record a name, then tap or click the Save button. To save changes to previously saved entries, simply tap the Save button. Please select and "Clear" any data records you no longer need.

Help and Tools

Adjust Calculator Width:

Move the slider to left and right to adjust the calculator width. Note that the Help and Tools panel will be hidden when the calculator is too wide to fit both on the screen. Moving the slider to the left will bring the instructions and tools panel back into view.

Also note that some calculators will reformat to accommodate the screen size as you make the calculator wider or narrower. If the calculator is narrow, columns of entry rows will be converted to a vertical entry form, whereas a wider calculator will display columns of entry rows, and the entry fields will be smaller in size ... since they will not need to be "thumb friendly".

Show/Hide Popup Keypads:

Select Show or Hide to show or hide the popup keypad icons located next to numeric entry fields. These are generally only needed for mobile devices that don't have decimal points in their numeric keypads. So if you are on a desktop, you may find the calculator to be more user-friendly and less cluttered without them.

Stick/Unstick Tools:

Select Stick or Unstick to stick or unstick the help and tools panel. Selecting "Stick" will keep the panel in view while scrolling the calculator vertically. If you find that annoying, select "Unstick" to keep the panel in a stationary position.

If the tools panel becomes "Unstuck" on its own, try clicking "Unstick" and then "Stick" to re-stick the panel.