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The best retirement calculators can help you accurately forecast how much you need to save to achieve your long-term goals. Retirement planning features vary by platform but can include easy-to-use calculators, Monte Carlo simulations, and budgeting tools.
We examine several free and paid tools with in-depth planning features and simulators to project what your retirement years can look like.
Best Retirement Calculators
Many of these retirement planners are a good fit for most households as you can forecast your retirement date, nest egg size, and a safe withdrawal amount. Some calculators we include specialize in early retirement and FIRE.
1. Empower
Cost: Free
Empower (previously Personal Capital) is one of the best free retirement calculators as it evaluates your current investment portfolio and personal goals. It can run scenarios to calculate your success rate probability and projected portfolio value.
These free tools to monitor your current finances:
- Budgeting
- Cash flow
- Investment portfolio analyzer
- Net worth tracker
I like using this app to track my account balances, investment performance, and liquid net worth. It’s basic budget makes it easy to track spending by category and to compare your actual to planned spending.
The financial planning tools are free to use. This platform offers managed investment portfolios with a minimum $100,000 investment balance.
Learn more by reading our Empower Review.
2. New Retirement
Cost: Free or $120/year
New Retirement offers free and premium retirement calculators, along with optional access to financial planners. Free users can build a personalized strategy and run multiple “what if” scenarios.
I personally like the premium PlannerPlus plan, which has over 100 customizable filters for more precise projections regarding inflation, budgeting, income, and taxes. You can also run a Monte Carlo analysis, compare scenarios, and view in-depth charts unavailable to free users.
The Basic plan is fee-free but has limited capabilities to the PlannerPlus tier. The paid plan costs $120 when billed annually and has a 14-day free trial. Access to a certified financial planner costs extra and you can book a free discovery call.
3. OnTrajectory
Cost: Free or $99/year
It’s easy to make in-depth retirement projections with OnTrajectory by forecasting several decades of personal finance performance. Start by entering your income, expenses, account details, and assumptions to receive a free financial plan and one alternate scenario.
The Unlimited plan offers these additional features:
- Customizable assumptions
- Unlimited scenarios
- Monte Carlo analysis
- Spending optimizations
- Optimized withdrawals from specific accounts
- Debt reduction strategies
Upgrading costs $99 per year or $12 monthly and is worth it to easily compare multiple scenarios and have more customization. I have used this service in the past and really like the numerous customizable assumptions that make it easier to get a realistic projection.
4. cFiresim
Cost: Free
You will appreciate cFiresim if you’re pursuing FIRE and looking for a free retirement calculator. It has a simple interface that makes it easy to enter your details without having to create an account.
This tool lets you enter the following inputs to run a simulation:
- Retirement year
- Portfolio value and asset allocation
- Initial yearly spending
- Retirement income (Social Security, pensions, etc.)
The calculator lets you apply adjustments to factors including inflation, retirement income and portfolio rebalancing to modify your simulations.
Calculations use historical returns dating back to 1871 for multiple investment assets, including stocks, bonds, and gold. There are more than 80 inputs available to backtest your savings progress against various market cycles.
5. MaxiFi
Cost: $109 or $149 annually
MaxiFi is an extensive paid retirement calculator with many forecasting tools that can make personalized suggestions and extensive forecasts. It can help evaluate your present and future finances.
Its most unique feature is a Living Standard Monte Carlo Analysis which can offer more customization while running the various financial tests. You can enable two risk-based investment strategies and your annual spending habits to forecast your upside and downside potentials.
It’s possible to run unlimited what-if scenarios that can include relocation, escaping the rat race, job changes, and Roth IRA conversions.
This platform also looks for ways to maximize your Social Security benefits, reduce your taxes, and estimate your life insurance benefits. Other retirement calculators may focus exclusively on your retirement assets and target withdrawal rate to estimate your affordability.
Two premium household plans are available for a self-directed experience. Financial advisor sessions are available at an extra cost.
6. Flexible Retirement Planner
Cost: Free
Run a free Monte Carlo analysis through Flexible Retirement Planner. You can download the planner and start entering your retirement plan details to find out your probability of success. It bases your calculations on the accumulation and draw-down phases which can make its result differ from other programs.
This is a popular program within the Boglehead community as it’s free, customizable, and lets you save your data. Further, some platforms require a paid membership to run Monte Carlo scenarios, and the free access is what I appreciate most about this service.
For instance, the calculator lets you modify the inflation rate, investment allocation, retirement cash flows, and tax rate. Other free tools may only provide a general rule of thumb to estimate your portfolio value.
7. Fidelity Investments
Cost: Free
The Fidelity Investments retirement calculator can be a natural starting point if you invest through this online brokerage. Non-customers are able to receive a retirement score and brief estimates after answering six simple questions about their current retirement planning progress.
This score also includes estimates about how much Fidelity thinks you need each month to pay the bills and your available funds based on your current nest egg size and savings rate.
You can recalculate your score by adjusting these variables:
- Retirement age
- Monthly savings
- Investment style (risk tolerance)
- Standard of living in retirement
Other in-depth financial requirements require creating an account with this free investing app. Some of the additional options include retirement income estimates, retirement decision guides, savings goals, and guaranteed income estimates.
8. Vanguard
Cost: Free
Vanguard is a popular online brokerage for index fund investors and this platform offers several free retirement planning calculators and worksheets as well. Primarily, this tool estimates your monthly expenses and portfolio income in retirement based on your current savings rate and accumulated reserves.
Unfortunately, this isn’t an all-in-one retirement simulator like several other free and paid options on this list. You may need to use several different calculators to estimate your retirement income, expenses, and required minimum distributions (RMDs).
There are also planning tools for investment analysis and education costs to help assess your non-retirement goals.
For hands-on help from this discount brokerage, you may consider enrolling in Vanguard Personal Advisor after reaching $50,000 in investable assets. This service offers managed portfolios along with financial advisor access. A 0.30% annual advisory fee applies.
9. AARP Retirement Calculator
Cost: Free
You can receive a quick retirement progress assessment with the AARP retirement calculator. I was able to get a basic evaluation in less than five minutes by entering core financial details regarding myself and my wife.
The calculator inputs include your annual income, current retirement balance, monthly contribution rate, and anticipated lifestyle expenses.
This tool produces two financial estimates:
- Minimum balance needed to retire
- The amount you will have saved
If there’s a funding gap, the calculator estimates by how much you must reduce your spending. It’s easy to make adjustments to your financial information to modify your calculation.
This free tool doesn’t require an AARP membership, but joining lets you enjoy travel and shopping discounts. You can also complete short tasks and earn rewards points that are exchangeable for discounted gift cards, sweepstake entries, local deals, and charitable contributions.
10. Networthify
Cost: Free
Networtify helps you estimate how soon you can retire early with your current savings rate. You can perform a quick back-of-the-napkin calculation referencing your current annual income, savings, and expenses.
Additional inputs include your current portfolio value, annual return on investment, and withdrawal rate. Unfortunately, you cannot add assumptions such as incremental salary increases to help get a more precise calculation.
Still, this free calculator can encourage you to earn more interest on your money along with reducing expenses to achieve early retirement sooner.
A table displays your hypothetical investment returns, percent of expenses covered by investment returns, and net worth changes. You will see these estimates for each calendar year until reaching financial independence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Asking these questions can make it easier to compare the best retirement calculators.
What is the best financial calculator for retirement?
The best calculator differs as we all have different financial goals. Some of the comparison factors to consider first include:
- Retirement planning tools
- Availability of non-retirement tools (i.e., budgets, net worth trackers, portfolio analyzers)
- Financial advisor access
- Ease of use
- Pricing
What is the most accurate retirement calculator?
Paid retirement calculators tend to be more accurate as they have more in-depth planning tools and customizable assumptions. It ultimately depends on how much data you input and its accuracy. However, it’s a good idea to test several with similar details to compare projections.
Is there a free retirement calculator?
Yes, Empower is a favorite option as it tracks your spending, net worth, and investment performance in addition to retirement planning. Additionally, most online brokerages have in-house calculators for basic projections and there are free options specializing in early retirement.
Summary
Finding the best retirement calculator can provide peace of mind as you have a clearer idea about how much to invest for retirement while planning for short-term goals.
Comparing scenarios can also help you visualize the possible benefits of making adjustments to your strategy as well to enjoy an early retirement date or grow a larger cash cushion.
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