A retirement savings calculator helps you assess whether your current savings and future contributions are enough to support your desired lifestyle after retirement. It estimates your retirement readiness by factoring in your current savings, expected returns, inflation, and time horizon. Doing so allows you to identify potential shortfalls early and adjust your savings or investment strategy to be able to meet your retirement goals.

How Does the Retirement Savings Calculator Work?

Step 1: Enter the details about your savings/income

Here, you enter various details with respect to your age, present annual income, how much money you’ve got saved up in your retirement fund, current annual savings or the percentage at which you save, and the rate at which your annual savings increase.

Step 2: Enter details about the pension

In this step, you mention the amount of pension you’ll receive during retirement and whether the pension amount increases with inflation.

Step 3: Input assumptions to factor in how much you’ll save up for retirement

Here, enter the expected inflation rate, the age at which you wish to retire, and the number of years of retirement income, and income replacement at retirement, as well as the pre- and post-retirement investment returns you assume your investments will earn.

Step 4: Factor in Social Security

In this step, include Social Security benefits and your marital status. You may override the estimated amount here if you wish; if not, the calculator will provide an estimated Social Security check based on your income and marital status.

Step 5: Review your results

Once you have entered all the data, you can click on calculate. The calculator will assess your inputs and determine if you’ve saved enough money to reach your retirement savings goal.