Retirement Calculator
Can you retire at your target age? Compare the nest egg you're on pace for with the one your spending needs — both in today's dollars — and see the exact extra monthly saving that closes any gap. Free, no sign-up — everything runs in your browser and nothing is stored.
Your Numbers
Everything already invested for retirement across your accounts.
What lands in retirement savings each month, employer match included.
In today's dollars — what your retired lifestyle would cost per year now.
The 4% withdrawal rate is the classic planning heuristic — your required nest egg is your annual spending × 25. Lower it for longer retirements.
Your Verdict
About $861,662 short in today's dollars
- Projected nest egg
- $638,338
- today's $ · $1.8M nominal in 2061
- Required nest egg
- $1,500,000
- today's $ · $4.2M nominal in 2061
- Extra needed /mo
- $1,417
- on top of current saving, to close the gap
At the current plan, the projected nest egg supports about $25,534/yr of spending in today's dollars at your withdrawal rate.
The line is the deterministic accumulation to age 65; the shaded band spans the 10th–90th percentile of 500 simulated market paths. 3% of those paths reach your required nominal nest egg by 2061.
Retiring on time is mostly about what you do next — Lodestar reads your actual numbers and ranks your moves by dollar impact.
Run your free analysisHow the Math Works
The accumulation line compounds your savings monthly at your expected return and adds your monthly contribution at the end of each month — computed month by month rather than with a shortcut formula. Your required nest egg is your annual retirement spending divided by your withdrawal rate: at the default 4% per year that's the widely-cited “25x rule” from Bengen's research and the Trinity study. It's a planning heuristic with real limits — it grew out of ~30-year retirements and historical US returns, and it can't protect against a bad market early in retirement — which is why the shaded band replays your plan through 500 randomized market sequences instead of promising one number. When you're short, the extra-monthly figure is solved by iterating the same projection until it lands on your target, so every number on the page comes from one deterministic engine — the same one behind Lodestar's full analysis and net-worth simulator.
Questions People Ask
How is my retirement number calculated?
Two figures are compared in today's dollars. Your required nest egg is your desired annual retirement spending divided by your withdrawal rate — at the default 4% that's spending × 25, the “25x rule”. Your projected nest egg compounds your current savings month by month at your expected return, adding your monthly saving at the end of each month, until your target retirement age, then adjusts for inflation. If projected falls short of required, the calculator solves for the extra monthly saving that would close the gap by the same month-by-month method. The math is deterministic — the same inputs always produce the same result.
What is the 4% rule — and what are its criticisms?
The 4% rule comes from William Bengen's 1994 research and the later “Trinity study”: in historical US backtests, retirees who withdrew 4% of their starting portfolio in year one and adjusted that amount for inflation rarely ran out of money over a 30-year retirement. It is a planning heuristic, not a guarantee, and it has honest criticisms: it was built on a roughly 30-year horizon (early retirees may need 40–50 years), it assumes US historical returns repeat, it ignores fees and taxes, and it can't protect against sequence-of-returns risk — a bad market in the first few years of retirement can sink a portfolio even if long-run average returns turn out fine. Some researchers argue for 3–3.5% over longer horizons; the withdrawal-rate input lets you test that.
What return should I assume?
There is no single right answer, and this calculator is education, not advice. As reference points: broadly diversified stock portfolios have historically averaged around 7–10% per year nominal with roughly 12–18% volatility over long horizons, while bond-heavy mixes have returned and swung less. Many people also step down risk as retirement approaches, which a single flat return can't capture — so try a pessimistic and an optimistic pair to see the spread rather than betting on one number.
Why does the calculator show today's dollars instead of the bigger nominal number?
Because the nominal number flatters you. At 3% inflation, $1.5 million thirty-five years from now buys roughly what $530,000 buys today. Comparing your projected nest egg to your required nest egg only works if both are in the same units, so the headline verdict uses today's dollars — the buying power you'd actually have — with the nominal figures shown as secondary context.
Do I need an account? Is anything stored?
No account, no sign-up. The calculation runs entirely in your browser and nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere.
Is this financial advice?
No. Lodestar Wealth provides education and tools, not investment advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Projections are illustrations built from your own assumptions, not guarantees. Retirement withdrawals also have tax consequences — which accounts you draw from and when matters — so confirm your plan with a CPA.
The Gap Is One Number. Closing It Is a Dozen Moves.
Employer match, debt payoff order, account types, spending leaks — each one changes how fast your nest egg grows. Lodestar reads your actual numbers and hands you a ranked plan with the dollar impact of every move. Run your free analysis →
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