Retirement Age Calculator
See the earliest age you can retire based on your savings, monthly contributions, and target income. Includes a year-by-year portfolio projection.
After inflation.
In today's dollars.
Recommended next steps
- Run a FIRE (financial independence) scenario
- Convert your projected nest egg into monthly income
- Reverse-solve required monthly contribution
- Read: the 4% rule explained
- Read: how much money do you need to retire?
- Read: how much you need to retire at 60
- Read: how much you need to retire at 65
- Read: can you retire with $1 million?
- Read: Roth vs Traditional IRA for retirement
How it works
- 1Enter your current age and savings
Total of all retirement and taxable investment accounts.
- 2Add monthly contributions and return
Real (after-inflation) return keeps the math in today's dollars.
- 3Set your desired retirement income
Annual spending you want your portfolio to support indefinitely.
Retirement age isn't a fixed number — it's the year your portfolio can sustain your desired lifestyle without you adding to it. The standard benchmark is the 25× rule (also called the 4% safe withdrawal rate): once your portfolio reaches 25 times your annual spending, you can retire and withdraw 4% per year, adjusted for inflation, with high historical confidence.
Two inputs control everything. Your savings rate decides how fast the portfolio fills up. Your spending decides how big it needs to get. Both move the retirement age, but lowering spending is uniquely powerful: it both reduces the target AND frees up more to invest.
A common scenario: a 32-year-old with $75,000 saved and $900/month going in at a 6% real return is on track to hit a $1.25M target (covering $50,000/year of spending) at age 62 — three years earlier than the conventional 65. Bumping contributions to $1,500/month moves it to age 56. Cutting target spending to $40,000/year moves it to age 54.
If retirement age comes back later than you'd like, the levers are: increase income (and save the increase), reduce target spending, take more investment risk, work part-time during early retirement, or factor in Social Security. Even small changes compound over decades.
Use 'real return' (after inflation) so the answer is in today's dollars. A 6% real return roughly equals a 9% nominal return at 3% inflation. That's why your calculator answer comes back in 'today's age' terms — meaningful for planning regardless of what inflation does.
Example scenarios
Retires around age 62 — three years before traditional retirement age.
Retires around age 53. Aggressive savings rate enables FI before 55.
Retires around age 68. Late start — can still finish strong with a higher contribution.
What affects your result?
Saving 20% of income vs 10% can pull retirement forward by 10+ years, because higher savings means lower spending — a double effect.
A 1% lower real return adds 3–5 years to your retirement age. Use 5–6% for safety unless you're certain you can stomach 100% equities.
Cutting target spending by $10,000/year both lowers the goal and frees up cash to invest — usually the single fastest way to pull the date in.
A bear market in years 1–5 of retirement is much more damaging than the same bear later. Plan for flexibility in early retirement spending.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Modeling with nominal returns (8–10%) instead of real returns (5–7%) — that overstates real purchasing power by 30–60% over 30 years.
- Ignoring healthcare costs before Medicare eligibility — early retirees often underestimate by $10,000–$20,000/year.
- Assuming a constant savings rate while your income grows — but lifestyle creep eats the raises before they reach the brokerage.
- Setting a target based on current spending without accounting for paid-off mortgage or kids leaving home — your retirement number may be lower than you think.
- Counting 401(k) employer match as your contribution — model it as a separate line so you don't accidentally double-count.
Common questions
How is retirement age estimated?
We project your portfolio year by year using your current savings, monthly contributions, and expected real return. Retirement is reached when the portfolio is at least 25× your desired annual income (the 4% safe-withdrawal benchmark).
What return rate should I assume?
Use a real (after-inflation) return: 5–7% is a reasonable range for a stock-heavy portfolio, 3–5% for a balanced one, 1–2% for bonds-only. Your desired income is then expressed in today's dollars.
Should I include Social Security?
This calculator estimates the age you can retire on portfolio income alone. Social Security typically covers 30–40% of pre-retirement income for average earners, so factoring it in often shaves several years off the result. Subtract estimated SS from your desired income to model that.
What's the 25× rule?
Multiply annual expenses by 25 to find the portfolio you need. At a 4% withdrawal rate, that portfolio has historically supported 30+ years of inflation-adjusted withdrawals across most market scenarios.
How can I retire earlier?
Two levers: spend less (lower target) or save more (faster compounding). Cutting $1,000/month off expenses lowers your target by $300,000 AND boosts savings — a double effect. That's why FIRE math is so powerful.