Retirement Estimator

Pick your two ages below — the dates fill in automatically. Everything runs in your browser; your earnings never leave this computer.
🔓 Sells nothing · recommends no products · no ads, no affiliates, no upsell — just your own numbers, kept 100% private.
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New to this? How retirement income works
Retirement income usually comes from a few sources, and this tool models how they fit together: Social Security — the benefit you’ve earned from a lifetime of payroll taxes (section 2). Your own savings — your 401(k), 403(b), or IRA, that you grow while working and then draw down (sections 4 & 5). And, if you have one, a pension — a guaranteed monthly check. Most private-sector workers don’t, so that part is optional (section 3) — leave it off and the tool runs on Social Security and your savings. Section 5 combines them into a year-by-year income picture after taxes; later sections add a bill planner (6), survivor protection (8), and the financial side of where you retire (9). Start by entering your data in the blue-shaded fields below; everything else has sensible defaults you can adjust. It’s a planning estimate, not financial advice — and all your data stays on this computer.
Your data: Save = this browser · Download = a portable file you can keep, move, or share
Your personal data to enter  ·  Adjustable assumptions — sensible defaults you can tweak to explore.
💡 What your numbers suggest — observations from your inputs, not advice
Fill in your details below and personalized observations will appear here.
Not financial, tax, or legal advice. These are automated observations based only on the numbers you entered — estimates that can be wrong. Verify anything important with a qualified professional before acting.
Marital status: uncheck if single (hides all spouse inputs & files as single)

1 · Your ages & assumptions dates auto-fill · edit to explore

🗓️ Your ages & dates

You stop working at this age, on:
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Benefits begin at this age, on:
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Savings withdrawals begin at this age, on:
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⚙️ Assumptions

Social Security caps this at the wage base each year; your 401(k)/IRA contributions use the full salary.
This only changes how the answer is displayed — not the math. Both settings run the exact same forecast: your future salary & raises, AWI indexing, your low/zero earning years getting replaced, and COLA growth all apply either way. The toggle just picks the yardstick:
• Today’s (2026) $ — what the benefit is worth in today’s purchasing power (matches your SSA statement; easiest to size up against today’s prices).
• Future $ — the actual, bigger nominal check you’ll receive in the claim year, after years of inflation are added in.
Same benefit, like miles vs kilometers. Changing your raise or AWI rate moves both numbers (it changes the real benefit); COLA mainly shifts the future-$ view relative to today’s.
What this toggle re-labels: the standalone §2 Social Security and §4 savings figures. The rest have a fixed, labeled basis: the §5 year-by-year timeline is always future (nominal) $ — a cash-flow view; the §6 bill planner, §8 “where you retire,” and §9 survivor are always today’s $, since they’re real-terms comparisons.
📊 What do these mean & what are realistic numbers?
Your raise / yr (≈ 2–3%). How fast your own pay grows until you stop working. Wages have historically risen ~2–3%/yr. Used to: grow your salary forward, which feeds both your projected future SS earnings (section 2) and your ongoing 401(k)/IRA contributions (§4). Only affects years you still plan to work after this year.

National wage index (AWI) / yr (≈ 3.0%). This is economy-wide average-wage growth (not your raise). Social Security uses it three ways: it (1) indexes your past earnings up to current wage levels before averaging them, (2) sets the “bend points” — the brackets in the benefit formula — and (3) raises the annual wage base (the max earnings that count, and the cap your 401(k) contributions sit under). Historically the AWI has grown about 4.2%/yr over the last 10 years, 3.4% over 20, and 3.7% over 30; SSA’s long-range assumption is ~3.5–4%. We default to a slightly conservative 3.0% because it lands this tool’s estimate within a few dollars of SSA’s own “my Social Security” figures for most records — a good sanity check. Even then, expect a small gap: SSA’s planner recomputes each claim-age estimate assuming you keep working until that age (so its “age 70” number quietly assumes you work to 70), and it uses its own internal Trustees’ wage/inflation assumptions — this tool instead holds your actual stop-working age for every claim age. A few-percent difference is normal, not an error. Nudge AWI toward 3.5–4% for a rosier wage-growth outlook, or down toward COLA to be more conservative.

COLA / inflation / yr (≈ 2.5%). The yearly cost-of-living bump on benefits, and the rate used to translate future dollars back to “today’s.” Social Security COLAs have averaged about 2.6%/yr over the last 20 years (~2% through the 2000s–2010s, spikes of 5.9% and 8.7% in 2022–23, then ~2.5–2.8% in 2025–26). 2.5% is a reasonable long-run figure.

Savings growth / yr (set in §4, default 6%). Depends entirely on your investment mix: historically an all-stock index fund (S&P 500) ≈ 10%/yr, bonds ≈ 2.5–4%, a balanced retiree mix ≈ 5–7%. 6% is moderate — use 8%+ only if you’re heavily in stocks, lower if conservative. Returns aren’t guaranteed; markets swing year to year.

Withdrawal rate (set in §5, default 4%). The classic “4% rule” is a 30-year-retirement starting point; some use 3–3.5% to be safer, especially when retiring early.

Rule of thumb: keep AWI a bit above COLA. If AWI runs ~1 point above COLA, your benefit roughly tracks real wage growth. Setting AWI = COLA understates wage growth (it’ll lowball your benefit); setting them too far apart likely overstates your projected gains.

2 · Social Security

📥 Your earnings record — paste or type the SSA “taxed earnings” column
Enter the Social-Security “taxed earnings” column from your SSA statement (the capped numbers, not gross pay). Paste from the statement or a spreadsheet — year amount, year,amount, or tab-separated, one per line.
Get exact numbers from ssa.gov → “my Social Security” → Earnings Record ↗. Zeros for low/no-work years are fine — that’s what this tool helps you work through.
Your benefit from the published SSA formula, using the earnings record above and your stop/claim ages (section 1).
AIME
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avg indexed monthly
PIA (at FRA)
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full benefit
Counted yrs
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of top 35
The formula is progressive by design: your first slice of average earnings converts to benefits at 90%, the middle at 32%, the top at just 15%. High earners get a bigger check but a smaller share of their pay replaced — which is why extra working years past a point add only a little (the earnings chart below).
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Monthly benefit at each claim age

Keep working to your stop age Stop now your claim age
Why claim age matters so much: claiming at 62 locks in ~70% of your full benefit for life; waiting to 70 gives ~124% — about 76% more every month, forever (and it raises your spouse’s survivor benefit too, see §9). The trade-off is the years of checks you skip by waiting.

Indexed earnings, year by year — the top-35 picture

Each bar = that year’s earnings after wage-indexing to your age-60 year. SSA keeps your 35 highest (blue). Grey bars don’t count. Future projected years are gold — replacing $0/low years is what raises your average.
Counts (top 35) Doesn’t count Future projected

3 · Pension optional third leg

Most private-sector workers don’t have a pension — if that’s you, leave this off and your retirement runs on Social Security (§2) plus your own savings (§4). If you do have a traditional pension (some teachers, government, union, or legacy corporate plans), turn it on and enter what your plan will pay.

4 · Your savings (401(k) / 403(b) / IRA) savings projection

Your own tax-advantaged retirement savings — a workplace 401(k)/403(b) or an IRA. Uses the same stop-working and claim ages, plus your salary & raise rate, from section 1 (contributions stop when you stop working; the balance keeps growing until you start withdrawing).
Workplace plans let you contribute far more ($24,500 in 2026) than an IRA ($7,500); “Both” combines the two caps. Only workplace plans have an employer match.
Use your latest 401(k)/IRA statement. Traditional = pre-tax money (taxed when you withdraw); Roth = after-tax money (withdrawals are tax-free). If it’s all in one type, put the other at 0.
What your employer adds, as a % of your pay (often 3–6%). Use 0 if your plan has no match.
Depends on your investment mix: an all-stock index fund (S&P 500) ≈ 10%/yr historically, bonds ≈ 2–4%, a balanced retiree mix ≈ 5–7%. 6% is moderate. Returns aren’t guaranteed.
Your payroll deduction (this year)
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Balance at stop (—)
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Balance at claim (—)
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vs stop now
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Projected balance over time

keep contributing to stop age stop contributing now

5 · Year-by-year retirement income savings + Social Security + pension

Projected future (nominal) dollars — each stream starts in its own year and grows with COLA; your savings balance is drawn down (and RMDs forced at 73). This is the realistic cash-flow view.
🏡 “Retire in” is your assumed home in retirement — it sets the state (and local) income tax applied to your retirement income here and to Roth conversions in §7, and it’s the baseline in §8. Planning to relocate? Change it to a no-income-tax state and watch your net and the conversion cost drop. State rate = representative top rate; many states exclude some retirement income, so adjust down if yours applies.
👫 Spouse / household income (optional — changes your tax brackets & Roth room)
Enter her birthdate + earnings to estimate her Social Security.
* Her own pension, if she has one. Starts at her retires-at age above, folds into household income (taxed jointly, raises your bracket & IRMAA), and the survivor keeps it in full (§9). Flat in today’s $.
† A 401(k)/IRA withdrawal, same household + survivor treatment, modeled as taxable (Traditional/pre-tax). A Roth draw is tax-free — leave it out, or treat this as the conservative case. Unsure? A conservatively high number keeps your tax/IRMAA picture cautious rather than rosy.
📥 Spouse earnings record — her SSA “taxed earnings” column
Her wages stack on your married-filing-jointly brackets (raising tax on your 401(k)/IRA draws & Roth conversions and lifting AGI/IRMAA), and her own Social Security — from her earnings + claim age above — is added to the household income, summed before the joint tax. Her retirement accounts aren’t modeled yet. Her birthdate also sets her current age for the survivor & Medicare math.
First year (at retirement)
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Once SS starts (full income)
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Savings balance runs out
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Income by age — your income, and how much of it you keep after taxes & bills

View

Year-by-year detail (scroll)Show

6 · Bill planner — does your income cover your expenses? today's dollars

List your expenses and the tool gates them against your net retirement income (from section 5, after income tax). Each line can start later (0 = right at retirement) and end at an age (0 = never) — so you can model a mortgage that gets paid off, or long-term care that kicks in at 84. Tick 1× for a one-time lump (a new roof, a car) instead of a monthly bill. The Infl % column sets how fast each line grows: leave it blank to track inflation (your COLA), 0 for a fixed dollar amount (a set mortgage payment), or a higher number like 5 for medical costs that outpace inflation. Tick Disc on discretionary lines (travel, hobbies) so they — and only they — follow the optional spending-phase curve below. All amounts are in today’s dollars. Your health costs are counted here too: your health-insurance premium, the Medicare Part B base premium, and any income-based IRMAA surcharge (auto-computed from your §5 income). Set/toggle them right below.
Counted as a monthly bill (inflates with COLA). Before 65 you cover yourself (ACA marketplace, COBRA, or a retiree plan) — often the biggest early-retirement expense. At 65 Medicare takes over (its Part B premium + any IRMAA are modeled separately below); this line then covers a Medigap/supplement + Part D drug plan. Rough ballparks — use your real quote.
⚠️ The pre-65 gap is real: if you retire before 65 you lose any employer health coverage and must bridge to Medicare yourself — ACA marketplace, COBRA, or a spouse’s plan. It’s often the single biggest early-retirement expense, so price it before you set a retirement date.
≈ $202.90/mo in 2026 (COLA-indexed) — the standard premium most people on Part B pay. This is separate from the income-based IRMAA surcharge (modeled in §5) and from the health-insurance premium above. Most retirees pair Part B with a Medigap supplement + Part D; uncheck only if you won’t enroll in Part B. Doubles once a spouse is also 65+.
Expense$ (today)Starts (0=now)Ends (0=never)1×DiscInfl %
📉 Spending phases — go-go / slow-go / no-go
Retirement spending usually isn’t flat. Many retirees spend more in the active early “go-go” years (travel, hobbies), hold steady through the “slow-go” 70s, then spend less in the “no-go” years (even as healthcare creeps up). Turn this on to bend spending along that curve. It only adjusts lines you’ve marked Disc (discretionary) in the table above — necessities like utilities, groceries, and your mortgage stay flat, and one-time lumps aren’t scaled. Tick the “Disc” box on the lines that should rise and fall with the phases.
Total expenses at retirement
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Net income at retirement
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Monthly surplus / shortfall
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📈 For the year-by-year picture, see the “Income by age” chart in section 5 — your bills (with taxes) are the gap between your stacked income and the “what you keep” line.

7 · Roth conversion ladder optional advanced strategy

What it is. Each year you voluntarily move some money from your Traditional (pre-tax) 401(k)/IRA into Roth, and pay ordinary income tax on the amount that year. It’s not a withdrawal — the money stays invested.
Why do it. Three wins: (1) it shrinks your future Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs at 73 are based on the Traditional balance, and can force you into a higher bracket); (2) Roth then grows 100% tax-free and has no RMDs; (3) it’s a gift to heirs (Roth is inherited tax-free).
When it works best. In your low-income “gap” years — after you retire but before Social Security and RMDs start, your taxable income dips, leaving “room” at the bottom of the brackets. You fill that cheap room now (say at 12% or 22%) to avoid emptying a huge Traditional balance later at higher rates.
The catch. You pay tax now, and a big conversion can spike your income into a higher IRMAA tier — Medicare premium surcharges that hit about 2 years later (the tool models this and shows it in the panel below) — or, before 65, blow an ACA health-subsidy cliff. So you convert in measured annual slices — the “ladder.”
💵 Pay the tax from cash — not from the retirement account. The tax has to come from money outside your 401(k)/IRA. You can’t cleanly tap the retirement account itself to pay it: any dollars you pull out for the tax are their own taxable withdrawal (plus a 10% penalty before 59½), and they shrink what actually lands in Roth. A taxable brokerage account works too, but selling there can trigger capital-gains tax. So the clean way is a side pot of cash set aside to feed each year’s tax bill — the table below shows how much you’d need.
Total converted (today's $)
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Traditional left at RMD age 73
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Fed tax the ladder saves ⓘ
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💵 Cash needed for taxes
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8 · Where you retire — the financial picture taxes · property · cost of living

🧭 This isn’t meant to tell you where to retire — that choice is personal, and a lot goes into it (family, climate, friends, lifestyle — things no spreadsheet can weigh). What it does do is estimate the financial implications of wherever you ultimately choose to go — or stay — so the money side is one clear input into your decision.
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set by your State (and optional City) in section 5
Each state’s yearly cost = state income tax on your retirement income (modeled for a private-sector retiree — Social Security, your pension, and 401(k)/IRA withdrawals each handled by that state’s own rules, including retirement-income exclusions and AGI phase-outs; note many states exempt government pensions but not private ones) + property tax (home value × the state’s effective rate) + your cost-of-living-adjusted living expenses (your section 6 bills, minus any property-tax line, scaled to that state’s prices). Federal tax is identical everywhere, so it’s left out of the comparison.

💡 Based on your numbers, these states may benefit you most

Enter your earnings & assumptions above to see suggestions.

Compare your shortlist

Your baseline state shows first; cities are town-level estimates so you can compare moves within a state (e.g. Arlington → Front Royal).
Total/yr = the three columns added up (state income tax + property tax + cost-of-living-adjusted living expenses) — your estimated yearly cost in that state. vs baseline: green −$X = that much cheaper than your baseline state · amber +$X = that much more expensive.
⚠️ Estimates for comparison, not tax advice. State rows use state averages; city rows (“city ~est”) use town-level cost-of-living (BestPlaces) + county property-tax rates, so they’re a notch more approximate — good for ranking, not to the dollar. AGI phase-outs (CT, NJ, VA, ME, RI…) are modeled as a simple cutoff; the same retirement income tax rules apply statewide, so a city only changes property tax, cost of living, and any local income tax (only NYC / Baltimore / Indianapolis here actually tax retirement income). California property-tax rates reflect long-time owners (Prop 13) — a fresh purchase pays more (~1–1.25% of price). Several states exempt government pensions but still tax private ones (e.g. NY, Massachusetts, Kansas, Hawaii) — this tool models the private-pension treatment. Data as of 2026 — income tax: state revenue depts + Tax Foundation; property tax: Census/ACS + county (SmartAsset); cost of living: C2ER (state) / BestPlaces (city). Verify specifics before you decide.

9 · Survivor — what your spouse receives if you pass away today’s $ · age-adjustable

What your surviving spouse gets depends partly on whether you die before or after you retire. While still working: your life insurance, whatever you’ve already saved (your 401(k)/IRA balance), and Social Security survivor benefits (payable once your spouse is 60). A pension typically pays a survivor benefit only once you’ve retired (or vested), so this scenario assumes no pension survivor benefit before retirement. After you retire: the survivor share of your pension you elected (section 3), your remaining savings balance, any life insurance still in force, and the Social Security survivor step-up. The chart shows the change at your retirement age.
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† Enter your total life-insurance death benefit in the two boxes. Group coverage through an employer usually ends when you leave the job, so the “after retirement” amount is often lower (or $0) unless you have your own policy. Spouse SS survivor benefit isn’t payable until the spouse is 60. Amounts in today’s dollars.
🧮 Estimate my coverage — fills the two boxes above
Many employers include 1–2× your salary in group term life — but it usually ends when you leave the job, so it counts only toward the “while working” box. A personal policy (term or whole life) you own stays in force, so it fills both boxes. This just adds them up for you — you can still type over the boxes above.
Spouse monthly income
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One-time lump sum
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Savings your spouse inherits
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balance at your death

Your spouse's monthly income over her life — if you die at the age set above (today's $)

Pension survivor benefit Savings — assumed 4% draw of inherited balance SS survivor (from her age 60)

Methodology — every assumption & rule this is built on

The published formulas are exact; the projections beyond them use your assumptions. Expand each section to see what’s baked in.
① Social Security — the benefit formula
Index earnings. Each year’s Social-Security-taxed earnings (already capped at that year’s wage base) is scaled to wage levels at the year you turn 60 (for you, 2032) using the National Average Wage Index (AWI). Earnings from age 60 on count at face value.
AIME. Sort all indexed years, keep the top 35, sum, ÷ 420 months, floor to the dollar. Years you don’t work are $0 and sit at the bottom.
PIA (bend points). Full benefit at FRA = 90% of the first AIME slice + 32% of the middle + 15% of the top, floored to the dime. The bend points are set the year you turn 62 (2034), computed from AWI two years earlier via the 1979 base amounts ($180 / $1,085) ÷ the 1977 AWI — the tool reproduces the published 2026 bend points ($1,286 / $7,749) exactly.
Claiming age. Before FRA: −5/9 of 1%/month for the first 36 months, −5/12 of 1%/month beyond (≈70% of PIA at 62). After FRA: +2/3 of 1%/month, i.e. +8%/yr, to age 70 (≈124%). FRA itself is derived from your birth year (the full SSA table; 67 for 1960+). COLAs apply every year from age 62.
Data baked in: AWI 1951–2024 (last published $69,847); wage base 1951–2026 (2026 = $184,500). Future AWI & wage base grow at your “national wage (AWI) growth” assumption.
② Your savings (401(k) / 403(b) / IRA) — contributions, growth & drawdown
Contributions. (Traditional% + Roth%) × salary, capped at the IRS elective-deferral limit for a workplace 401(k)/403(b): 2026 = $24,500 base, +$8,000 catch-up at 50+, +$11,250 “super catch-up” at ages 60–63; the limit grows with your COLA assumption. If your prior-year wages exceed ~$150k (2026, indexed), your catch-up dollars must be Roth — the SECURE 2.0 high-earner rule. (IRA-only savers have lower limits; this tool uses the 401(k) limit generically.)
Employer match. Whatever percentage of salary you enter in §4 — your employer’s contribution, paid only in years you contribute. Employer money goes in pre-tax (Traditional) and doesn’t count against your own elective-deferral limit.
Growth. Balances compound at your assumed return (mid-year contribution convention). The projection starts from your current balance (treated as 2026) with full contribution years from 2027, so it doesn’t double-count this partial year.
Drawdown (year-by-year view). The “4% rule” as modeled = the first-year withdrawal is your rate × the balance at your withdrawal-start age, then that dollar amount rises with COLA each year while the balance keeps earning your growth rate. A depletion age appears if the balance ever hits zero.
RMDs. Required Minimum Distributions are forced starting at age 73 using the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table divisors, taken from the Traditional balance — if the RMD exceeds your planned draw, the larger amount is withdrawn (and taxed). Roth IRAs have no lifetime RMDs.
Withdrawal source. Proportional / Traditional-first / Roth-first — which dollars you draw first. Roth-first keeps taxable income low now but spends your tax-free money soonest; Traditional-first does the opposite (handy for filling low brackets early).
Early-withdrawal rules. A 10% penalty generally applies before 59½. The “Rule of 55” lets you tap a workplace 401(k)/403(b) penalty-free if you leave that job in/after the year you turn 55 (it doesn’t apply to IRAs). Qualified Roth withdrawals need 59½ + the 5-year rule.
③ Pension (optional)
If you have a pension, you enter the annual amount your plan will pay at retirement (the single-life figure), whether it has a cost-of-living adjustment, and the survivor percentage that continues to your spouse. The tool feeds that straight into the year-by-year income — it doesn’t compute the pension from your salary and service, since every plan’s formula differs. Most private-sector workers have no pension, so the section is optional.
COLA. If you mark the pension as COLA’d, it grows with inflation (your COLA assumption) each year and holds its buying power. If not — the norm for private pensions — it stays a fixed dollar amount for life, so its real value erodes over a long retirement (you’ll see the pension flatten in the §5 today’s-dollars view).
Survivor. The percentage you set continues to your spouse for life after you pass (modeled in §9). Real joint-and-survivor elections trade a somewhat smaller payment now for that protection — enter the pension figure that matches the option you’d actually choose.
④ Taxes (federal estimate)
The “Net” column applies a rough federal income-tax estimate using 2026 brackets and standard deduction (with the age-65+ addition; MFJ assumes both spouses 65+), indexed forward by your COLA each year in the nominal view.
Taxable: Your pension and Traditional (pre-tax) 401(k)/IRA withdrawals are ordinary income. Up to 85% of Social Security is taxable via the provisional-income formula — and those SS thresholds ($32k/$44k MFJ) are frozen in law, not inflation-indexed, so a growing share of your SS becomes taxable over time. Roth withdrawals are tax-free.
That’s the core lever: shifting withdrawals toward Roth lowers taxable income and can hold you in a lower bracket. Medicare IRMAA surcharges are modeled once you’re 65+ (2026 tiers indexed forward, using your MAGI from 2 years prior, ×2 if a spouse is also 65+) and — along with the Part B base premium and your health-insurance premium — counted as a bill in §6 rather than netted out of income. Not included: state income tax is applied per-state in §8 (a simpler flat rate drives the §5 timeline), the temporary 2025–28 senior bonus deduction (phases out over $150k), and local taxes outside the few modeled cities.
⑤ Dollar conventions, COLA & the toggles
Two growth rates, kept separate: your salary/raise rate (affects your own future earnings) vs. the national wage (AWI) rate (indexes past earnings and sets SS bend points & the wage/contribution bases).
“Today’s dollars” vs “future dollars” toggle drives the Social Security, savings, and the year-by-year income (§5) figures. Today’s = the projected amount deflated back to 2026 by your COLA (roughly how the SSA statement reads). Future = the actual nominal amount in the year it’s paid.
The year-by-year income section (5) follows that same toggle. In future dollars each stream shows the actual check in the year it’s paid (the honest cross-stream view, since each starts in a different year); in today’s dollars every row is deflated back to 2026 so you can read it in money you understand. Use the Annual/Monthly toggle there for either cadence. §6 bills, §8 location, and §9 survivor are always shown in today’s dollars — they’re “is this enough?” comparisons where a single nominal year would be ambiguous.
COLA drives: SS increases (from 62), your pension’s COLA if it has one, the rising savings withdrawal, IRS-limit and tax-bracket indexing, and the today’s-dollars deflator.
⑥ What this does NOT model (limitations)
• Market sequence-of-returns risk — growth is a smooth average, not real volatility; a bad early decade hurts more than the average suggests.
• The SS earnings test (only matters if you claim before FRA and keep working) and WEP/GPO (rare — they affect only people with a pension from work not covered by Social Security).
• ACA marketplace subsidies in pre-65 early-retirement years (the §6 health-premium line is a flat estimate, not a subsidy calculator); the §5 timeline uses a single flat state-tax rate (§8 applies each state’s real exclusions).
• Mid-year proration beyond the noted final-work-year proration; exact paycheck timing.
Treat every number as a planning estimate. Authoritative figures live at ssa.gov, your plan/IRA provider, and medicare.gov.
⑦ Bill planner, health costs, Roth ladder, household & location
Bill planner (§6). Your expenses are gated against your §5 net (after-tax) income. Each line has a start age (0 = at retirement), an end age (0 = never), a one-time-lump option, and its own inflation rate (blank = tracks your COLA, 0 = fixed dollars, higher = e.g. medical). ✨ Add a starter budget seeds a typical retiree budget scaled to ~80% of your first-year net, which you then edit.
Spending phases. An optional go-go / slow-go / no-go curve that bends spending up in the active early years and down later — applied only to lines you tick Disc (discretionary); necessities and one-time lumps stay flat.
Health costs. Your health-insurance premium, the Medicare Part B base premium (65+), and the income-based IRMAA surcharge (from your MAGI two years prior, doubled if a spouse is also 65+) are counted as bills here, not netted out of §5 income.
Roth conversion ladder (§7). Moves Traditional → Roth during your low-income “gap” years — filling to the top of a chosen bracket, or a fixed amount, through an end age. You pay the tax now (from savings, or budget it as a §6 bill) to shrink later RMDs; the tool nets the lifetime federal-tax change against any added IRMAA.
Household / spouse (§5). When married, your spouse’s Social Security, an optional pension, and an optional 401(k)/IRA draw fold into a joint married-filing-jointly tax & IRMAA calculation — these interact non-linearly, so they’re modeled together rather than bolted on.
Survivor (§9). Models the surviving spouse’s income if you pass first: the pension survivor benefit (your §3 election), the larger of the two Social Security checks (the survivor step-up), the spouse’s own pension/draws kept in full, and your inherited savings — and it flags the shift to higher single-filer taxes.
Where to retire (§8). Compares your baseline state against others on state income tax (a flat top-rate estimate; no-tax states at 0), typical property tax, and a cost-of-living multiplier on living expenses. It’s a rough relative comparison to frame the decision, not a precise relocation calculator.
⑧ Key numbers baked in (2026)
Social Security: AWI through 2024 = $69,847 · wage base 2026 = $184,500 · bend points 2026 = $1,286 / $7,749 · PIA factors 90/32/15%.
Savings / IRS: elective-deferral 2026 = $24,500 · catch-up 50+ = $8,000 · super catch-up 60–63 = $11,250 · employer match = whatever % you enter.
Pension: entered directly — annual amount, COLA yes/no, survivor % — not computed from salary/service.
Tax: 2026 brackets & standard deduction ($32,200 MFJ / $16,100 single, +$1,650/$2,050 at 65) · SS up to 85% taxable, thresholds frozen · RMD age 73 (Uniform Lifetime Table).
⑨ Glossary — every acronym in plain English
Social Security
SS — Social Security. · AIME — Average Indexed Monthly Earnings: your top-35 wage-indexed years averaged to a monthly figure. · PIA — Primary Insurance Amount: your full monthly benefit at FRA, from the AIME bend-point formula. · FRA — Full Retirement Age (67 if born 1960+): the age you get 100% of your PIA. · AWI — Average Wage Index: economy-wide average wage, used to index past earnings and set the formula’s thresholds. · Bend points — the income cut-offs (90%/32%/15%) in the PIA formula. · COLA — Cost-of-Living Adjustment: the annual inflation raise on benefits. · Wage base — the max earnings taxed for / counted by Social Security each year.

Savings & taxes
401(k) / 403(b) / IRA — tax-advantaged retirement savings accounts. · Traditional — pre-tax money (taxed when withdrawn). · Roth — after-tax money (qualified withdrawals tax-free). · RMD — Required Minimum Distribution: the minimum you must withdraw from Traditional starting at 73. · Rule of 55 — leave your job at 55+ and your workplace 401(k)/403(b) withdrawals are penalty-free before 59½ (doesn’t apply to IRAs). · IRMAA — Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount: a Medicare premium surcharge at higher incomes. · ACA — Affordable Care Act (health-insurance marketplace before 65).

Pension & survivor
Pension — a guaranteed monthly check from an employer plan (a “defined-benefit” plan), if you have one. · COLA — Cost-of-Living Adjustment: a yearly inflation raise; most private pensions don’t have one. · Joint-and-survivor — an election that continues part of your pension to your spouse for life after you pass. · Survivor benefit — the share of your pension that continues to your spouse, if elected.
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All math client-side · Social Security + savings + optional pension · a planning estimate, not advice · Privacy · Disclaimer · your data never leaves this device.
Built by Marcus · the free original & always-latest version lives at MyRetireCalc.com
Revision history
  • 2026-06-28 — Private-sector edition: Social Security + your 401(k)/IRA + an optional pension, with per-state retirement-income tax for a non-government retiree.
  • Built on the same engine as the federal estimator — couple/household modeling, the bill planner, the Roth-conversion ladder, the “where to retire” comparison, and survivor planning.