Retirement Age Calculator
Enter your current savings, monthly contributions, and spending target to find your earliest possible retirement age — and see a year-by-year path to get there.
How would you like to start?
Use the calculator independently, or prefill compatible information from one of your saved retirement plans.
Total across 401(k), IRA, brokerage, etc.
Your total monthly additions (employer match included).
Nominal return, before inflation.
Your retirement spending target rises with inflation each year. Historical U.S. average is about 3%.
In today's dollars — the calculator grows it with inflation.
Reduces how much your portfolio must cover.
Target: portfolio needed = (spending − SS) ÷ SWR.
How much do you need to retire?
The most common rule of thumb is the “25× rule” — save 25 times your annual spending (which is equivalent to a 4% withdrawal rate). But that doesn't account for Social Security, pensions, or other income sources. This calculator subtracts your guaranteed income from your spending need before applying the safe withdrawal rule.
How this calculator handles inflation
You enter your spending need and Social Security benefit in today's dollars. The base target is your spending gap divided by your safe-withdrawal rate: (annual spending − annual Social Security) ÷ SWR. Because you'll actually retire years from now, that target is grown by your chosen inflation rate each year, and compared against your projected portfolio, which grows at your nominal (before-inflation) expected return. Your contributions are treated as a flat nominal amount — this calculator does not model raises or contribution increases. Social Security is held steady relative to spending (both rise with inflation inside the target). It is a deterministic, fixed-return model: no sequence-of-returns risk, taxes, RMDs, or Social Security claiming-age optimization, and the 4% rule is a planning heuristic, not a guarantee. See the safe-withdrawal-rate methodology and the inflation calculator for the underlying math.
The impact of saving more
Increasing your monthly savings by just $200–$500 can often move your retirement date forward by 1–3 years, thanks to compound growth. The earlier you make the increase, the bigger the impact. Use the investment growth calculator to model different savings amounts.
See our methodology for the full formulas and assumptions behind every calculator.