Check whether your savings will last through retirement, after inflation.
The Retirement Calculator checks whether your savings are on track. Enter your age, the age you want to retire, how long to plan for, what you have saved, what you add each month, the returns you expect before and after retirement, inflation and the monthly spending you want in today's money. It shows what you are projected to have at retirement, the amount you need to fund inflation-adjusted spending until your planning age, the surplus or shortfall, and the extra you would have to save each month to close a gap.
Made for everyone. Typical uses:
A 30-year-old who saves 500 a month with 20,000 already saved, earning 7 percent until 60 and 5 percent afterwards, with 3 percent inflation, is projected to have about 7,72,315 at 60. Spending of 3,000 a month in today's money becomes about 7,282 a month by then, and funding it to age 85 needs about 17,51,066, a shortfall of 9,78,750. Saving roughly 802 more each month would close the gap. Retiring at 65 instead cuts the shortfall to about 5,67,428, and saving 1,000 a month brings it down to about 3,68,765.
The calculator uses constant returns and inflation, one level of spending, and ignores taxes, fees, pensions, social security, other income and one-off costs such as health care. Markets and prices fluctuate, so use the result to test plans, not as a promise.
Accuracy: Formulas follow standard published methods and are checked against worked reference examples. Results are estimates based on the values you enter and do not replace advice from a qualified professional.
Expert Tip
Start earlier if you can. In the example, closing the gap costs about 802 extra a month when you start at 30, but about 1,846 extra a month when you start the same plan at 40.
Retirement planning boils down to comparing two amounts. The first is the pot you are likely to have on your retirement day, which depends on your savings so far, what you add each month, the return you earn and how long you have. The second is the pot you need, which depends on how much you want to spend, how prices rise, how long you will live and what your money earns while you spend it.
The calculator estimates both. If the first is bigger, you are on track. If not, it shows the shortfall and the extra monthly saving that would close it. The purpose is not a precise forecast, since nobody can know future returns or inflation, but to show the size of the challenge while there is still time to act.
Start with the spending you want in today's money, for example 3,000 a month. Inflation raises it every year, so by the time you retire it costs more: 3,000 at 3 percent inflation becomes about 7,282 a month after 30 years. The calculator then finds the pot that would pay this amount, rising with inflation each year, until your planning age, with the unspent money earning the retirement return.
For a person retiring at 60 and planning to 85 with a 5 percent return in retirement, that pot is about 17,51,066. It is much larger than 25 years of today's spending, because prices will keep rising throughout retirement.
Try changing one input at a time. In the default example, a 30-year-old with 20,000 saved who adds 500 a month is projected to have about 7,72,315 at 60, a shortfall of about 9,78,750. Each change below moves that gap.
Good planning uses cautious assumptions. For inflation, use a figure close to your country's long-run average, and test a higher one. For the return before retirement, choose a rate you would be comfortable with in a mixed portfolio, and remember that your real return is what remains after fees and taxes. For the return during retirement, use a lower rate, because people usually move to safer investments as they age.
Plan to an age well beyond the average life expectancy. Many people live into their nineties, and the cost of planning to 95 instead of 85 is much smaller than the cost of running out of money at 88.
Real retirements include many things a simple model cannot capture: pensions and social security payments, rental income, part-time work, lump-sum costs such as medical care or home repairs, taxes on withdrawals, and spending that changes with age. If you expect other income, subtract it from your monthly spending target before you enter it, and treat the result as a first draft to discuss with a qualified adviser.
The SIP Calculator shows what a regular monthly investment can grow to, the Compound Interest Calculator adds a starting balance and different compounding schedules, and the Inflation Calculator shows how far prices may rise over decades. Use the Savings Goal Calculator for shorter targets, and the Salary Calculator to turn your pay into the monthly amounts you plan with. The article how inflation erodes savings explains why the amount needed is so much larger than today's spending. Nothing you enter is stored or sent.
Work out your retirement number: spending in today's money, inflation, the 25x rule of thumb, how long to plan for, and how much extra to save if you are short.
Reference table with CSV download.
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