Your Investment

0 years old
30 years old
65 years old
100 years old

How much do you currently have saved?

🌟 recommended

How much do you want to save each month?

🌟 recommended

Your Outcome

Age: 65Year: 2055
Aggressive
Conservative

Investment Total:

$375,268$190,084

Retirement Income:

$1,407 / mo$712 / mo

Lifestyle:

FrugalFrugal

How much money do I need for retirement?

How much should you have saved when you retire…

Current Expenses

Necessities (food, house, bills)$2,200 / mo
0
2200
20000
Discretionaries (travel, entertainment, gifts etc... )$2,500 / mo
0
2500
20000
Misc Expenses: (Healthcare & Insurance)$1,300 / mo
0
1300
20000
Total:$6,000 / mo

Your goal for retirement savings

$1,800,000

illustration of financial aids

How much should I be saving?

Find out how you are doing at your age based on your salary

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Enter Salary

30 Years Old$45,000
40 Years Old$135,000
50 Years Old$270,000
60 Years Old$360,000

As a rule of thumb, your goal should be able to save 1x of your salary by the time you are 30 by saving 15% of your income or $562 / mo. This may seem like a stretch if you have student loans or other debt to pay off, but you may be surprised how much you are able to save if you have your retirement savings automatically taken out of your paycheck. Of course, this is still a fairly ambitious goal, but if you need ideas on how to save more money check out some of the tips below.

Save more by…

Investing small amounts can increase your retirement savings over time.

Give up coffee purchases (1 year)

$24K

Give up coffee purchases (1 year)

The average American spends approximately $1,100 per year, or $3 each day, on coffee.

If coffee is too hard to give up, try soft drinks ($850 per year).

More Info

Moonlight as an Uber or Lyft driver (1 year)

$42K

Moonlight as an Uber or Lyft driver (1 year)

Lyft drivers make $377 per month while Uber drivers make $364 per month.

Drive your car, drive those numbers.

More Info

Rent out an extra room on Airbnb (3 years)

$229K

Rent out an extra room on Airbnb (3 years)

Hosts on Airbnb make an average of $924 per month.

Rent out an extra room and double your retirement savings.

More Info

Invest your annual tax refund

$475K

Invest your annual tax refund

The average tax refund in the US is $3,050 per year.

Avoid spending tax refunds to get to your retirement faster.

More Info

Maximize employer 401k matching

$380K

Maximize employer 401k matching

The average salary is $44,148 and the average employer matches a 401 by 2.9%.

If your employer offers a 401k match, invest everything you can to max it out.

More Info

Cut your driving mileage in half

$95K

Cut your driving mileage in half

Downsizing your driving by 50% could save you around $4,000 per year.

Ditch your car completely and save an average of $8,469 per year.

More Info

How the Investment Calculator works

Understand the science behind this savings tool.

What do Aggressive and Conservative mean?

The Investment Calculator uses two investment strategies that typically produce two different retirement scenarios. Aggressive investing indicates a higher financial risk with a higher potential reward, while conservative investing offers a lower financial risk with a more moderate potential reward.

Aggressive investing typically means that you will invest in more stocks than in bonds. This type of investment strategy is smart when you have a longer amount of time before your retirement. A longer amount of time can also, in theory, withstand all the volatility of the stock market. The other good news is that more time passing will compound your interest, resulting in significantly larger retirement savings.

Conservative investing is a more balanced strategy in which you invest in stocks as well as bonds. The return, or the amount that your money grows, is not as large as it can be when aggressively investing but the risk is lower. Conservative investing is best when your retirement date is nearby. Vanguard published a great article about these types of scenarios, showing the historic risks and rewards in quantitative form. These table graphs will show the different strategies in terms of being “growth” or “balanced” oriented and displays the assumptions behind each retirement strategy.

How is Monthly Income Calculated?

The retirement calculator takes the Total retirement savings and calculates how much monthly income a 4% annuity would generate without drawing from the principal. This indicates the type of lifestyle you can expect without running out of money.

What is my retirements purchasing power today?

Inflation is inevitable. If that word is new to you, it simply determines how much purchasing power of your dollar. Historically, inflation has always increased with time. The average inflation is currently 3.22%.

Where do the “recommended” values come from?

These recommendations are correlated to a “comfortable” lifestyle. “Comfortable lifestyle” is a subjective term used to describe retirement savings that lets you be mostly free from financial restrictions or fears. A recommendation helps you know what your monthly investment and initial investment should be in order to achieve a “comfortable” retirement lifestyle.

The investment calculator uses three lifestyle terms to depict retirement scenarios: Frugal, Content, and Comfortable. Frugal describes a lifestyle where you will have to carefully monitor your spending to make sure your savings will last. A comfortable lifestyle describes a scenario where you can spend librally and enjoy retirement. Content is somewhere in the middle where you are able to enjoy retirement but still monitor your spending.

Is social security factored into this calculation?

No, Social Security is not included in this retirement calculation. The investment calculator leaves out Social Security because it tends to vary too greatly from person to person. Social Security also varies depending on the age that you decide to collect. If you collect at age 62, you will receive 25% less. If you collect at 70, you can collect a check for 32% larger.

Social Security is important in calculating your retirement savings. It can impact your monthly retirement income greatly. The average monthly retirement benefit was $2,687 in 2017, or $32,000 for the whole year. The goal of this calculator is to help you define helpful strategies but not to give individualized investment advice.

How accurate is the calculator?

Investment Calculator provides a generalized overview of your retirement situation, but it is not intended to replace a financial advisor. Our goal is to help you get a better understanding of your financial outlook and inspire you to save / invest more.

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