Calculator: How Much Total Retirement Savings Do I Need?

Thang Truong
Thang Truong
Updated on:

To support your comfortable living in your retirement years, you have probably figured out how much monthly income you will need when you retire. If you have not, common advice suggests that you will need 70-80% of the income you have prior to retirement.

Since it is uncertain to know for sure how long you will leave, it is impossible to determine with 100% certainty how much total retirement savings you need to have to support your retirement income until you pass away. However, several reputable research in the field usually points to the 4% withdraw rule to answer this question mostly accurately and reliably. 4% withdraw rule means that you should withdraw 4% from total balances of all of your retirement savings and investment accounts in the first year of retirement and 4%, plus inflation rate, in the subsequent years. This strategy is mostly likely to ensure that you will continue to have sufficient retirement income throughout your retirement years, regardless how long you will live. Using this 4% withdraw rule, we will help you figure out how much total retirement savings you need to have by the first year of your retirement.

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You can adjust your expected retirement income and the withdraw rate to find a reasonable total retirement savings balance you need to achieve.

If you believe you need to increase the total retirement savings balance to support your ideal retirement income, you can take actions to increase your savings today. You can also use this calculator – how much retirement savings will I have? to figure out how much monthly savings you need to have today.

Explore other retirement calculators:

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Thang Truong

Thang Truong covers small business insurance and small business success at BravoPolicy. He is a licensed P&C insurance agent. Previously, he held product leadership positions at realtor.com, Capital One, NerdWallet, and Mulberry Technology. He holds a MBA degree from UC Berkeley - Haas School of Business.

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