About Retirement Calculator
Last updated
Retirement Calculator is a free retirement planning tool published by Think Discount, LLC. It exists to answer one question most retirement tools make unnecessarily hard: given what I’m saving today, where do I actually end up?
What the site does
The calculator takes your current age, retirement age, existing balance, and contributions, and projects your retirement savings year by year. It goes further than a basic compound-interest widget by letting you model the things that materially change the answer:
- An employer match on top of your own contributions
- An inflation assumption, so you can see your projected balance in today’s dollars as well as future dollars
- A separate rate of return for your post-retirement years
- Other retirement income, such as Social Security or a pension
- Annual growth in your contributions as your salary rises
- Contributions expressed as a percentage of income rather than a flat dollar amount
- A target balance, so you can see the gap between your goal and your projection
- Side-by-side comparison of multiple scenarios
- A full year-by-year results table, not just a single headline number
Alongside the calculator, our guides explain the mechanics behind the numbers — how 401(k)s and IRAs differ, how compounding actually works over a career, and how to think about how much to save.
How the math works
Projections are deterministic: we apply your assumed annual rate of return to your balance each year, add your contributions, and carry the result forward. This makes the output easy to reason about and easy to check by hand, but it means the model assumes a steady return rather than simulating real market volatility. Actual returns vary year to year, and a bad sequence of returns early in retirement can produce very different outcomes. Treat every projection as a planning estimate, not a forecast.
Everything runs in your browser. Your salary, balances, and contribution amounts never leave your device and are never stored by us — see our Privacy Policy for details.
How we write and check our guides
Our articles follow a fact-checked editorial process. Specific claims — contribution limits, income thresholds, tax treatment, and similar figures — are sourced to primary references such as the IRS and the Social Security Administration rather than to secondary reporting. Each article shows a “Last updated” date so you can judge how current it is, and we revise pages when the underlying rules change.
If you spot something inaccurate or out of date, we want to know. Email contactus@thinkdiscountllc.com and we’ll review it.
How the site is funded
Retirement Calculator is free and supported by advertising. We do not sell your data, we do not require an account, and we are not compensated for recommending any specific investment, broker, or financial product. Advertisements are served by third-party networks and are not endorsements — you can read more in our Privacy Policy.
An important limitation
We are not financial advisers, and nothing on this site is personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. The calculator does not know your tax situation, your debts, your health, or your plans. Use it to build intuition and to frame better questions, then talk to a qualified professional before making decisions. Our Terms of Service covers this in full.
Contact
Feedback, corrections, and questions are welcome at contactus@thinkdiscountllc.com.
Think Discount, LLC
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