Do you know what it takes to work towards a secure retirement? Use a retirement calculator to help you create your retirement plan. View your retirement savings balance and your withdrawals for each year until the end of your retirement. Social security is calculated on a sliding scale based on your income. Including a non-working spouse in your plan increases your social security benefits up to, but not over, the maximum.
A financial calculator is a simplistic tool used to assess your situation and should only be viewed as the first step to increasing your awareness to the level of savings you will need in order to plan for and enjoy the retirement lifestyle you desire.
Some of the details you may want to consider:
Current age
Your current age.
Age of retirement
Age you wish to retire. A calculator assumes that the year you retire, you do not make any contributions to your retirement savings. So if you retire at age 65, your last contribution happened when you were actually age 64. A calculator also assumes that you make your entire contribution at the end of each year.
Household income
Your total household income. If you are married, this should include your spouse's income.
Current retirement savings
Total amount that you currently have saved toward your retirement. Include all sources of retirement savings such as 401(k)s, IRAs and Annuities.
Rate of return before retirement
This is the annual rate of return you expect from your investments after taxes. The actual rate of return is largely dependent on the type of investments you select.
Rate of return during retirement
This is the annual rate of return you expect from your investments during retirement, after taxes. It is often lower than the return earned before retirement due to more conservative investment choices to help insure a steady flow of income.
Percent of income to contribute
The percentage of your annual income you will save for your retirement goals. This should reflect the total you save toward your retirement. This should include any 403(b), 401(k), or 457(b) plans and your employer contributions to these plans. It should also include any other retirement accounts such as an IRA or a Roth IRA and any retirement savings in non-retirement accounts. This calculator assumes that you make one annual contributions at the end of each year, and any withdrawals happen once per year at the end of the year.
Expected salary increase
Annual percent increase you expect in your household income.
Years of retirement income
Total number of years you expect to use your retirement income.
Percent of income at retirement
The percent of your working year's household income you think you will need to have in retirement. This amount is based on your income earned during the last year you will work.
Expected rate of inflation
What you expect for the average long-term inflation rate. A common measure of inflation in the U.S. is the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
If you are married checkbox
Married couples have a higher maximum social security benefit than single wage earners.
To include Social Security checkbox
Social Security is based on a sliding scale depending on your income, how long you work and at what age you retire. Social Security benefits automatically increases each year based on increases in the Consumer Price Index. Benefits could be different if your spouse worked and earned a benefit higher than one half of your benefit. If you are a married couple, and both spouses work, you may need to run the calculation twice - once for each spouse and their respective income. A retirement calculator provides only an estimate of your benefits.
For a personalized and detailed analysis, please contact us. We have sophisticated retirement planning software that can create retirement plans under different assumptions tailored to your specific financial situation.