The number that decides where you'll land.
Not what you earn, not what the market does — the share of your pay you set aside is the strongest signal of where you'll end up. Add what you save; the calculator shows your savings rate, and a map of where it carries you over time.
Background Read the mental-models guideThe rate that carries you to the finish line.
Saving isn't pass/fail — it's how much, for how long. This is the landscape: each square is the multiple of your salary you'd build up. The gold squares clear your retirement finish line; your current rate is the highlighted row.
Most people spend less in retirement than they earn now — no more saving, often a paid-off home, lower taxes. Planners commonly assume 55–80%. Lower spending means a smaller nest egg, so the finish line moves closer.
Showing 10 · 20 · 30 · 40-year columns on small screens — view wider for every year.
Notice the diagonal: a modest rate held for an extra decade clears more ground than a big rate abandoned early. Time is the lever the grid rewards most.
Estimates only. The grid grows monthly contributions at 7% real (after inflation), in today's dollars, and assumes the rate holds steady. "Multiple of salary" is independent of your actual income. The finish line uses the Rule of 25 (25× annual spending) — a planning heuristic, not a guarantee; the number you actually need depends on Social Security, pensions, and how markets behave in your first retirement years.
Why gross, not take-home? One denominator that never moves.
Take-home shifts every time your taxes, benefits, or deductions change — so a rate measured against it tells you nothing you can compare year to year. Gross is steady. Measure against gross and a 15% rate means the same thing at any income, in any tax bracket. It's the same reason 401(k) deferral percentages run on gross.
- Counts toward the rate: your retirement contributions, your employer's match, brokerage investing, an invested HSA, and extra debt principal beyond the minimum — every dollar working for the long run.
- Doesn't count: your emergency fund once it's full, a near-term house down payment, and ordinary spending. Saving for next year's vacation isn't building wealth.
Your savings rate is just: everything you put toward the future, divided by everything you earn before tax. A bigger slice, held steady, beats a bigger paycheck spent down every time.
What's a good rate? Aim for the 20s, start anywhere.
There's no single magic number, but the milestones are well-worn. The point isn't to hit 25% tomorrow — it's to know your number and nudge it up a point or two a year. Each percentage point you add early does the heaviest lifting, because it has the most time to compound.
- 10% — on the board. A genuine start. Most people who reach financial security passed through here first.
- 15% — solid. A foundation that, held for decades, reaches a comfortable retirement on its own.
- 20–25% — strong. The band that buys options: earlier retirement, a bigger cushion, or simply more margin.
- 25%+ — aggressive. Building wealth fast. Worth it if the rest of your life still gets to happen.
Reading the grid Two dials, one map.
"How much do I need to save?" has two answers tangled together — how much, and for how long — so the honest reply isn't a single number, it's a landscape. Each square is the multiple of your salary you'd accumulate at that rate over that many years. The gold squares clear your finish line; your current rate is the highlighted row. Slide the retirement-spending dial and watch the finish line move.
- The finish line is yours to set. It's 25× the income you'll actually spend in retirement — usually less than you earn now, which is why spending less moves the line closer.
- Time beats intensity. The diagonal tells the story: a modest rate held an extra decade clears more ground than a high rate abandoned early.
- The multiple is income-independent. Saving 15% reaches the same multiple of salary whether you make $40k or $400k — the grid is the same for everyone.
Caveats Where this estimate is rough.
- 7% is an assumption. The grid grows your savings at 7% after inflation — a reasonable long-run stock-heavy average, not a promise. Real returns arrive lumpy.
- The Rule of 25 is a heuristic. 25× spending is a starting estimate. Social Security, a pension, or a paid-off home all lower the number you truly need.
- Today's dollars. Everything is inflation-adjusted, so "20× salary" means 20× of today's purchasing power — comparable to your life now.
- Your rate will change. Raises, a paid-off debt, a new kid — re-run this whenever your income or saving shifts. The habit matters more than any one snapshot.