Retirement Lab — retirement planner & income calculator
Understand where your retirement income comes from
Retirement Lab is a US retirement planning calculator that helps you explore how household income, Social Security and account withdrawals can cover spending and taxes over time. Start with the editable custom example, then enter your own ages, balances, contributions, expenses and assumptions. The example is illustrative, not a recommended retirement plan.
- Income and withdrawals: model cash, pre-tax retirement accounts, Roth accounts and taxable investments, with visual timelines showing how annual needs are funded.
- Social Security and taxes: explore claiming ages, withdrawal strategies and Roth conversions under the calculator’s simplified federal and state tax assumptions.
- Healthcare: estimate pre-Medicare and Medicare-era spending, with optional per-person coverage, long-term-care costs and medical-cost uncertainty.
- Retirement risk: compare your plan with early market losses, flat-return years and randomly generated investment scenarios.
How to use the retirement calculator
- Replace the example household, accounts, income and spending with your own information.
- Review the forecast, annual withdrawal details, taxes and any funding shortfalls.
- Run risk analysis, then test one affordable change at a time while keeping simulation settings consistent.
Common retirement planning questions
Does this calculator predict whether I can retire?
It estimates outcomes under the inputs and assumptions you choose. A fully funded simulation covers modeled expenses and taxes without an annual funding gap over $1 under your reserve and access rules. The percentage of funded scenarios is not a guaranteed real-world probability of success.
What does a retirement funding shortfall mean?
A shortfall occurs when modeled income and permitted account withdrawals cannot cover expenses and taxes in a year. Protected cash or inaccessible accounts can still hold assets. Review the first shortfall age as well as ending balances.
How are investment returns modeled?
The main forecast uses your chosen constant annual return. Risk analysis adds illustrative bad-return sequences and randomly generated yearly returns. Its shaded chart summarizes account balances at each age, not a guaranteed future path. Inflation, future tax law and market behavior may differ from the model.
Where is my retirement plan saved?
Plans are saved in this browser, not a cloud account. Calculations are processed on the server. Using AI chat shares your messages and plan context with an AI provider. Clearing browser site data erases locally saved plans.
Assumptions and limitations
Results are educational estimates, not financial, tax or investment advice. Future-dollar projections depend on your spending, returns, inflation, lifespan and policy assumptions. The calculator simplifies taxes and account rules and does not guarantee benefits, investment performance or retirement readiness. Verify personal benefits with Social Security, retirement-account rules with the IRS, and coverage details with Medicare. Consult qualified professionals before making consequential decisions.
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