Retirement Savings Calculator
Project your retirement savings growth from your current balance, monthly contribution, expected annual return and years until retirement — shows future value, total contributed, and total growth earned.
Input
Average annual investment return, before inflation and taxes.
Output
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| No data yet | |
Guides
What does this calculator do?
Enter your current savings, monthly contribution, expected annual return, and years until retirement, and this calculator projects what your balance could grow to — along with how much of that total came from your own contributions versus investment growth.
It combines two pieces of the time-value-of-money math that every retirement projection is built on:
- Growth of what you already have — your current savings compounds at the monthly-equivalent of your expected annual return, for every month between now and retirement.
- Growth of what you'll add — each future monthly contribution also has time to compound, so a dollar contributed in year one is worth more at retirement than a dollar contributed the month before you retire.
Put together, the formula is:
FV = PV × (1 + r)^n + PMT × [((1 + r)^n − 1) / r]
where PV is your current savings, PMT is your monthly contribution, r is your annual return rate divided by 12 (the monthly rate), and n is the total number of months until retirement (years × 12).
How to use it
- Enter your current savings — the balance you're starting from today.
- Enter your monthly contribution — how much you (and any automatic transfers) add each month.
- Enter your expected annual return — a long-run average, such as 6–8% for a diversified stock/bond portfolio.
- Enter years to retirement — how long the money has left to grow.
The table updates as you type, showing the projected future value at retirement, total contributed (principal only — your starting balance plus every monthly deposit, with no growth), and total growth (the difference — what compounding actually earned you).
Frequently asked questions
Does this account for inflation or taxes? No. The result is in today's nominal dollars and assumes contributions and returns are constant — it doesn't adjust for inflation, taxes, investment fees, or tax-advantaged account rules (401(k), IRA, etc.). Treat it as a rough, before-inflation projection, not a financial plan.
Does it include employer matching contributions? No — enter your monthly contribution as the actual dollar amount you personally contribute. If your employer matches part of it, add that matched amount into the monthly contribution field to include it in the projection.
What if my return rate is 0%? The calculator falls back to simple addition — future value is just your current savings plus every contribution, with no compounding — so you can compare a "mattress money" scenario against an invested one.
What if I set years to retirement to 0? The projected future value equals your current savings, since there's no time left for either your balance or new contributions to grow.
Why might my real results differ? Real investment returns vary year to year rather than compounding at a constant rate, and this calculator doesn't model a post-retirement withdrawal phase — it only projects the accumulation period leading up to retirement.
Privacy
All calculations run locally in your browser. None of your financial figures are sent to or stored on any server.