Simple Retirement Calculator from Boldin

Boldin’s Simple Retirement Calculator shows how long your savings could last, your net worth at retirement, and whether your income covers your expenses. You enter nine numbers about your age, income, savings, and spending. It’s free, and you don’t need an account. Change your retirement age, or try one of the four what-ifs, to see how much one decision moves the result.

How Does This Retirement Calculator Work?

This retirement calculator projects your savings year by year from nine inputs and fills in everything else with default assumptions. Fill in each blank, and four charts on the right show your projection. It asks for:

• Whether you’re single or married
• Your age, and your spouse’s age if you’re married
• Your household’s monthly work income
• What you’ve saved so far
• What you spend and what you save each month
• The age you want to retire and the age you plan to start Social Security

What the Four Charts Show

• How long will my savings last? Your savings balance year by year, with markers at your retirement age and life expectancy. The goal is savings that last 10 years past your life expectancy.
• What’s my net worth? Savings plus home equity, today and at the age you retire.
• How much savings do I need? A “What you have” line against a “What you need” line. You’re in good shape while what you need stays below what you have.
• What’s my projected retirement income? Your monthly income in retirement next to your monthly expenses.

Test a What-If

Four checkboxes show how one change moves the result. You can cut expenses by 10% or work part time for three more years at half your income. You can also delay Social Security to 70, or downsize at 65 to a home that costs 35% less. The Planner tests many more scenarios.

What the Calculator Assumes

The calculator fills in what it doesn’t ask for. Click “Review our assumptions” under the inputs to see the full list:

• Social Security pays $1,500 a month per person in today’s dollars, and it rises with inflation. The amount stays the same at any claiming age you enter. Only the “Delay Social Security to 70” option raises it, to $1,860, the 24% increase for waiting from 67 to 70.
• You own a $250,000 home with a $100,000 mortgage at 4%
• Out-of-pocket medical costs run $1,000 a month before 65, then follow national averages with no Medigap or long-term care coverage
• Income taxes use current brackets and the standard deduction, adjusted for inflation
• Investments return 5% a year, inflation runs 2%, income grows 3%, medical costs grow 2.5%, and homes appreciate 3%
• You enter everything in today’s dollars, and the results show future dollars

If your numbers differ from these, your results will too. The Boldin Planner replaces each assumption with your own figures.

What the Calculator Shows for One Couple

Take a married couple, both 45. They earn $7,000 a month, have $150,000 saved, spend $4,500 a month, and save $500. They plan to retire at 66 and claim Social Security at 67.

The calculator projects a net worth of about $1.29 million at 66, in future dollars, counting savings and home equity. Their savings run out at about 87, short of the goal of lasting 10 years past life expectancy. Each what-if moves that date by a different amount:

Source: Boldin Simple Retirement Calculator, run November 4, 2026, with the inputs above and the calculator’s default assumptions.

Cutting spending does the most, because it lowers what the couple needs every year for the rest of their lives. Delaying Social Security adds only about four months. They cover three more years from savings before the larger checks start, and their money runs out before those checks make up the difference. Your own numbers may put these choices in a different order.

What Does a Simple Retirement Calculator Leave Out?

A simple calculator leaves out your actual Social Security benefit, your own home, pensions and annuities, and the order you draw from accounts. This one also uses one return rate for every account and doesn’t ask about part-time work after you retire.

Those gaps matter most in the 10 years before you retire. The order of your withdrawals and the age you claim Social Security can change your taxes and income for decades.

The Boldin Planner works from your own Social Security estimate, your pension, and your home equity. It projects your taxes in retirement year by year. It also runs your plan through 1,000 market scenarios and reports a Retirement Chance of Success.

Free retirement calculators from T. Rowe Price, AARP, Fidelity, and others answer narrower questions, and full retirement planning software goes further.

Boldin’s Simple Retirement Calculator has been covered by AARP and featured on The Motley Fool and Yahoo Finance. Bankrate named the Boldin Planner best for comprehensive financial planning in its 2025 list of financial planning software. CNBC Select named Boldin best for a complete retirement roadmap. The Planner has also been covered by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

How Much Do You Need to Retire?

How much money you need to retire depends on your spending, your life expectancy, and how much Social Security and any pension will cover. A common starting point multiplies the yearly gap between your spending and your guaranteed income by 25. That assumes you withdraw 4% of your savings in the first year.

Spending $70,000 a year with $30,000 from Social Security leaves a $40,000 gap, which points to about $1 million. Morningstar puts a safe starting withdrawal rate closer to 3.9% for a 30-year retirement, which raises that target. Among families aged 55 to 64 with a retirement account, the median balance is $239,000.

How Long Will Your Savings Last?

How long your savings last depends on how much you withdraw each year, what your investments earn, and how fast prices rise. The first chart in the calculator shows the year your balance reaches zero, if it does.

Timing matters too. A market drop early in retirement does more damage than the same drop later, because you’re selling while prices are down. Running out of savings isn’t the end of income, since Social Security keeps paying.

When Can You Retire?

You can retire when your savings and guaranteed income cover your spending through your life expectancy, with room to spare. In the calculator, move your retirement age until your savings line stays above zero for 10 years beyond your life expectancy.

Each extra year of work adds a year of saving and removes a year of withdrawals. Waiting to claim also raises your benefit, and for many households the right Social Security strategy adds $100,000 or more in lifetime benefits. Retiring at 62 and claiming right away means a smaller check for life.

How Much Retirement Income Will You Need?

You’ll need enough income to cover what you spend now, minus costs that end at retirement, plus new ones like health insurance before Medicare. Spending often falls through your 70s, then health costs climb later in life.

Households headed by someone 65 or older had a median income of $59,680 in 2025, the Census Bureau found. Turning savings into steady income takes a withdrawal strategy.

Are Free Retirement Calculators Accurate?

Free retirement calculators are accurate for the assumptions they use, and those assumptions won’t match most households. This one sets Social Security at $1,500 a month per person in today’s dollars and skips the cut for claiming early. Social Security estimates the average retired worker received $2,071 a month in January 2026, so the default understates income for many households. Use one to see whether you’re in range, then check the result against your own estimate from my Social Security.

Retirement Calculator FAQ