Best Retirement Calculator

Best Retirement Calculator

There are a lot of different tools that can help you estimate how much you will need to save for retirement and what your withdrawals will be in retirement. Some are better than others, but a few stand out above the rest.

Input your savings, estimate your rate of return and tax rate, and then let the calculator tell you how long it will be until you run out of money. It will also project how much your savings will be worth in retirement before and after inflation. The results page includes a graph that will show you what it will take to reach your goal and where you are at the current time. It will also tell you if there is any way you can speed up your savings or if you need to change your expectations of retirement. More info

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The tool is easy to use and allows you to make many changes quickly without recalculating the numbers. However, the tool is not comprehensive in that it does not address other income sources such as Social Security or pensions and it only works for one person. It does not allow you to select if your savings are taxable or tax-deferred and it lumps IRAs into the same category which may skew your taxes estimates.

It is a good option for someone who is early in their saving process but it is not as comprehensive as some of the other tools we reviewed. The user interface is not as intuitive as some of the others and there is little education about the methodology used which makes it difficult for a novice to understand the results.