Interactive tool
Saving for retirement is a priority, yet it can be hard to know where to begin or whether you're on track. Start with a few numbers below and see how your balance could grow, year by year, between now and the day you retire.
Built by Jesse Plunkett, CEPA, CRPC · Last reviewed July 11, 2026 · Verify on 
Illustrated Retirement Savings
This worksheet provides estimates based on certain assumptions. It is not intended to provide specific investment advice. The results are not a guarantee of performance. The rate of return on investments will vary over time, particularly for longer-term investments. Investments that offer the potential for high returns also carry a high degree of risk. Actual returns may vary.
This is a hypothetical illustration using a constant assumed rate of return, which no investment can promise. It does not represent any specific investment or account, and it leaves out taxes, fees, and inflation. Contributions are assumed to arrive at the start of each year. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing you enter is sent or stored unless you choose to send a question.
Ask it here and I'll reply personally. Sending a question doesn't add you to any email list.
An illustration is a starting point, not a plan. A short call is enough to see how your savings, taxes, and timeline fit together.
There's no correct number, because no one can promise a return in advance. A useful approach is to run the calculator at a few different rates and see how sensitive your outcome is to that one assumption. Long-term historical averages for diversified portfolios are one reference point, but past performance doesn't guarantee anything about the future.
No. It shows raw growth without adjusting for inflation, taxes, or investment costs, and all three change what your savings can actually buy in retirement. A dollar thirty years from now will buy less than a dollar today. Treat the output as a rough trajectory, not future spending power.
The right amount depends on when you start, what you've already saved, and what retirement needs to fund. Rather than anchoring on a universal percentage, try a few contribution levels in the calculator and watch how the ending balance responds. Small, sustained increases make a visible difference over a few decades.
Almost always. Everything is handled virtually, so where you live is rarely a barrier. The only exception is a handful of states where I'm not registered yet, and if that's you, I'll tell you on our first call.
Yes. It's free to link to and free to embed on your own site using the code in the "Cite or embed" section below. Please keep the attribution and disclosure lines in place.
Writers, teachers, and other advisors are welcome to reference this tool or place it on their own page. Both options below keep the calculator with its assumptions, its disclosures, and a link back here, which is what makes it useful to a reader who lands on it somewhere else.
Plunkett, Jesse. “Retirement Savings Calculator.” True Stewards Advisory, https://truestewards.com/retirement-savings-calculator. Accessed [date].
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The embedded version runs the same math in your reader’s browser, collects nothing, and carries the required disclosures with it. Please leave the attribution and disclosure lines in place. Questions, or want a different size? Email me.