Retirement Savings Calculator

How much money will you need to support yourself for 20 years?

That’s essentially the question you need to ask yourself when deciding what your retirement goal looks like.

And it’s a pretty staggering number…if you live off $20,000 a year (a pretty low estimate), you’ll need $400,000 to make sure you’re comfortable for 20 years after you stop working.

And this number isn’t going to come out of thin air either…you’re likely gonna have to save it yourself.

But luckily you’ll have help through the magic of compound interest and investing.

These are some of the important factors when calculating your retirement savings:

• Value of the portfolio: How much you currently have put aside for retirement.
• Your contribution: How much you plan to save every month or year.
• Interest rate: How much you’re getting back on your money.
• Expected age of retirement: How long you have to save.

Remember: the earlier you start, the more help you’ll get from compound interest.

Let’s take a look at an example.

Say you started saving at 32 years old, planning to retire at 60. You’re able to put aside $500 per month towards your retirement and get about 4% return on a medium-risk portfolio. By the time you’re 60, you’ll have $309,902.25.

But if you had started 10 years earlier, you would have saved up $535,882.72.

This may seem discouraging if you’re currently 32…but all you have to do is not put it off any longer. If you wait another 10 years and start saving the same amount at 42, you’ll only be left with $158,322.21 by the age of 60.

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