EachCalculatorRetirement Calculator
Project how much your retirement savings could grow to by your target retirement age, based on your current savings, monthly contributions, and expected return.
Projected Balance at Age 65
$655,377.90
35 years of growth
Total Contributions
$136,000.00
Total Growth
$519,377.90
How It Works
Growth of current savings
Your current savings balance compounds monthly at your expected annual return rate for every year until retirement.
Growth of contributions
Each monthly contribution also grows from the day it's made until retirement, so earlier contributions have more time to compound than later ones.
Example Calculation
Starting at age 25 with $5,000 saved, contributing $200/month at a 7% average annual return, you'd have roughly $525,000 by age 65 — only about $101,000 of which came directly from contributions.
Common Mistakes
- Assuming a market return rate that's unrealistically high or ignoring that returns vary year to year in reality.
- Not accounting for inflation — a dollar at retirement buys less than a dollar today.
- Underestimating how much starting even a few years earlier changes the final balance, due to compounding.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What return rate should I use?
- A commonly cited long-run average for a diversified stock portfolio is around 7% after inflation, but actual returns vary significantly year to year — use this as a rough planning estimate, not a guarantee.
- Does this account for inflation?
- No — the projected balance is in today's contribution terms without adjusting for inflation. For a more conservative estimate, use a lower return rate to approximate inflation-adjusted growth.
- Why does starting earlier matter so much?
- Because of compounding, money contributed early has decades to grow, while money contributed close to retirement has very little time to compound — the earliest contributions often account for the largest share of the final balance.