Estimate how much money you'll need for retirement and how much to set aside each month to get there. Answer a short interview about the life you want, then see your monthly savings target.
Retirement targets are usually built from 'expected annual spending in retirement × years it needs to last', adjusted for inflation and investment returns. Retiring later or trimming expected expenses both lower the monthly figure you need to hit.
"How much do I need?" has no answer until "how much will I spend each month?" does. The target is derived from the spending figure, not chosen ahead of it.
The skeleton is annual spending in retirement multiplied by the length of retirement, adjusted for spending rising with inflation and savings growing with returns.
That is why this tool asks about family, housing and lifestyle before it asks about money. Most people cannot name a monthly figure on demand, but they can describe where and how they intend to live.
The common shorthand is the 4% rule: withdraw 4% of the portfolio in year one, increase it with inflation thereafter, and it should last 30 years. Inverted, that means a target of annual spending × 25.
Spending 36,000 a year implies a target of 900,000.
It came from US stock and bond data analysed in 1994. Subsequent work in low-rate, low-growth conditions often argues for 3–3.5%, and a retirement expected to run beyond 30 years needs a lower rate still.
State or public pension income reduces what private savings must cover. If a pension provides a third of your spending, the portfolio only has to fund the remaining two-thirds.
Spending 3,000 a month today requires far more to buy the same life in twenty years. At 2.5% inflation, twenty years multiplies it by about 1.64 — to roughly 4,920 a month.
Over thirty years the multiple exceeds 2.1. Calculating a retirement target in today's prices leaves you close to half short.
Returns work the same way. A 5% nominal return against 2.5% inflation is a real return of about 2.5%, and the real figure is what matters over decades.
The inflation assumption moves the result more than any other input: 2% versus 3% changes the thirty-year requirement by more than 30%.
At 5% over thirty years, 1,000 a month grows to roughly 830,000. Reaching the same target in twenty years requires about 1,950 a month — two-thirds the time for double the contribution.
With ten years left it takes about 6,400 a month, because contributions dominate and compounding has no time to work.
That is why limited means today is a poor argument for waiting. Starting small and early beats starting large and late by a wide margin.
Sequence-of-returns risk. The model assumes one return every year, but losses in the first few years of retirement reshape the following three decades. The same average return in a different order produces very different outcomes.
Healthcare and long-term care. Late-life spending is not flat, and a single annual figure cannot represent the categories that rise steeply at the end.
Pension policy. Eligibility ages and replacement rates are subject to reform.
Housing. Whether you own, whether you plan to downsize and spend the difference, and whether you would use equity release all move the target substantially.
This tool asks about income, assets and family circumstances. All of it is computed in your browser and none of it is sent to a server.
Entries persist in your browser's localStorage so you can resume later, and disappear when you clear browser data.
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It depends on your target retirement age, expected expenses and how long you'll live off savings. This calculator turns your answers into a concrete monthly savings figure.
No. All inputs stay in your browser and are never sent to a server, so your numbers remain private.
A few quick questions about family, housing, lifestyle and a medical buffer — just enough to model your future spending.
The earlier, the better. Starting the same plan just ten years later can sharply increase the monthly amount you need to set aside to reach the same goal.
What this tool bases its numbers on, and how far those numbers go.
Annual retirement spending is inflated to the retirement date, withdrawals across the retirement period are discounted at the real return to produce a target, and the monthly contribution is the regular-savings amount that compounds to that target between now and retirement.Spending 36,000 a year over a 30-year retirement at a 4% withdrawal rate implies a target of 36,000 × 25 = 900,000; accumulating that over 30 years at 5% needs about 1,080 a month.