The Best Retirement Calculators for 2023 [Compare These 15 Tools]

You’re looking for the best retirement calculator to help you plan your retirement with confidence, right? Luckily, we’ve spent hours looking into the best ones available today and we’re back to share what we found.

Some calculators are old and janky web 1.0 projects. Some are simply loss leaders for a brand to sell you something. We’ll help cut through the mess and show you the best retirement calculators available today.

We ran some basic numbers through each calculator and we shared the results below. Read on to see what you can expect from the best retirement calculators:

Best Overall	Best Freemium	Most Comprehensive
OnTrajectory	ProjectionLab	NewRetirement
$60/yr	$60/yr	$120/yr
Go to site	Go to site	Go to site

Best Overall

OnTrajectory

$60/yr

Go to site

Best Freemium

ProjectionLab

$60/yr

Go to site

Most Comprehensive

NewRetirement

$120/yr

Go to site

The Best Retirement Calculators

Best Paid: OnTrajectory
Best Freemium: ProjectionLab
Best Free: FI Calc
Best for Entrepreneurs: Engaging Data
Most Detailed: NewRetirement
Most Simple: WalletBurst
Best Education: Ultimate Retirement Calculator
Best for Budgeters: Retirement Budget Calculator
Best for Net Worth: Empower
Best for Married Couples: AARP

What Information Will You Need?

Before you start playing around with these calculators, make sure you have some information ready. What information do you need to use most retirement calculators? To start, some information you will need includes:

• Current annual income (e.g. $75,000)
• Annual retirement contributions (e.g. 20% or $15,000)
• Amount set aside for retirement already (e.g. $100,000)

Note: For all of our testing with the calculators, we used the example data above with a 30-year-old.

Unfortunately, in some situations, you have to start with information you can’t possibly know, like how long you will live and what your expenses will be in 10, 20, or 30+ years. How can anyone know that?!

If you’re like me and don’t know all these numbers off the top of your head, take time to gather the information you need before you start calculating. You want to make sure you get the most accurate possible number.

Also, be prepared to spend a little time with each calculator, playing with the numbers that you have control over.

If you increase your annual contribution or push back your retirement by a couple of years, how does that change your retirement number? Playing with numbers can help you get a better sense of how much control you have over your retirement.

Pricing Info and More

Some calculators are really full-on retirement planning tools run by a team of developers with ongoing support. Some are one-off developments and served up as free. If a calculator is listed as Freemium it means they at least require an email address and an account to get started.

Best Retirement Calculators | Details

Despite the difficulty of knowing the exact amount you need for retirement, there are a number of excellent retirement calculators available online that can help you to narrow down your approximate retirement number.

Knowing what approximate number and how much you need to get there is one of the best ways to ensure a comfortable retirement.

While every retirement calculator uses slightly different metrics to determine your retirement number, they will all help you make sure your savings are on track. Here they are in no particular order:

1. OnTrajectory’s Financial Planner and Analyzer

OnTrajectory’s Planner/Analyzer helps you create a complete “Personal Financial Model”.

It allows you to enter income and expenses for both now and for different periods in the future. This is great if you suspect (or know) that your expenses will change over time. This also allows you to see how different spending patterns will affect your goals.

This calculator also allows you to enter different types of accounts with specialized tax-handling for each–such as 401Ks, IRAs, 529 Plans, etc.

You can also track your progress to ensure you will reach your future goals. As well as adjust contributions to see the difference it makes to your net worth and on future projections.

New features recently added: scenario comparison, spending optimization tool, and a “temporary inflation” tester.

OnTrajectory is being developed by Tyson Koska.

• Pros: Comprehensive. Excellent visuals that help you understand your retirement savings better. On-going development and support.
• Cons: OnTrajectory’s free version seems to limit the number of accounts you can include. It’s still worth exploring, though.
• Pricing: Free version with limitations; Then $60 per year or $9 per month.
• Test Results: Unable to complete.

2. NewRetirement’s Retirement Calculator and Planner

No matter the retirement question, this site likely has a calculator to help you find the answer.

The Simple Retirement Calculator by NewRetirement gives you a quick assessment of your current retirement savings. It shows you how long your money will last for you and your spouse at a set level of spending in retirement.

This simple calculator includes space for Social Security retirement income, as well as pension or annuities if you know that you can count on them.

Conveniently, you can make changes to the monthly amount you believe you will need in retirement. This helps you see how your spending affects the health of your retirement savings.

Once you’ve tried the simple calculator be sure to use the full NewRetirement Planner.

The NewRetirement Planner allows you to build, monitor, and maintain a full retirement plan. This helps you to get organized, monitor your situation, make informed decisions and take actions with your:

• Social Security
• Medicare/Healthcare
• Annuities/Pensions
• Home Equity
• Insurance, Work, Debt, and Estate Planning
• Savings/Investing

NewRetirement also offers a Social Security calculator, which can help you figure out the optimal time for you to take your Social Security retirement benefits.

NewRetirement is being developed by Stephen Chen.

• Pros: They use a goal-based format that allows you to plan ahead properly.
• Cons: NewRetirement offers tons of choices and tools. It can be overwhelming when first using their calculators. Email is required to use.
• Pricing: Free version with limitations; PlannerPlus (full) version is $120/year after a 14-day trial. Add-ons for personalized review and/or review with a financial planner.
• Test Results: Unable to complete.

3. ProjectionLab

ProjectionLab is a new personal finance planning and projection tool that allows you to simulate your financial future using a variety of inputs and scenarios. It’s fast, pretty, and thorough.

ProjectionLab offers free and pro plans, as well as plans for financial planners. This is an ongoing project being developed by Kyle Nolan, a semi-anonymous developer from Boston, who was inspired by J.L. Collins. You can chat with Kyle in the community discord.

The tool allows you to model out specific scenarios like early retirement (of course), time off for travel, and homeownership.

• Pros: Beautiful layout, fast functionality, free usage, multi-country, growing community of users, seemingly unlimited scenarios.
• Cons: It’s very thorough and therefore limits simple use. The tool is new and under development with an anonymous founder. Update: I’ve met the founder, Kyle, and he’s created an about section – no longer anonymous.
• Pricing: Free version with limitations; Premium (full) version is $60/year after a 7-day trial.
• Test Results: Unable to complete.

4. Retirement Budget Calculator

The Retirement Budget Calculator is designed for those about to retire or at least within 5 years of retirement. It’s really designed to help you answer the question, “have I saved enough?”

And it does that, thoroughly using a large series of inputs and scenarios to help you map everything out for a successful retirement.

The Retirement Budget Calculator is free to use if you simply want to build a budget and track your assets. The premium version, however, gives you access to a community of users, a dashboard, and other features.

This calculator was developed by Jason Parker, certified professional and podcaster at Sound Retirement Radio.

• Pros: Built with a specific demographic in mind. Extensive tool with built-in community at the premium level.
• Cons: Slightly dated UX. Gated by email input. Nicer features are premium-only.
• Pricing: Free version with limitations; Premium (full) version is $95/year.
• Test Results: Unable to complete.

5. WalletBurst’s FIRE Calculator

There are several calculators available over at WalletBurst, but for this list we’ll focus on the WalletBurst FIRE Calculator. It’s a simple, free, tool aimed at helping you reach financial independence.

The end result = your FIRE number, along with how long it will take you to get there. Inputs include what you’d expect, but also gives room to adjust ratios of stocks, bonds, and cash.

This super clean and simple tool was developed by Andrew (anonymous), who is in his 20s and living in the Bay Area. Andrew has a ton of other tools. I was particularly impressed with the Coast FIRE Calculator, which shows you when you can stop saving and simply coast into FIRE.

• Pros: Slick UX, completely free and ungated, numerous other calculators to use on the site (including some related to Crypto).
• Cons: Not necessarily built for married couples. Stand-alone calculator with no personal account or save feature.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Retire in 33 years.

6. FI Calc

FI Calc claims status as the “most trusted” backtesting retirement calculator. This tool is different from many others in that it focuses heavily on not how to get to retirement, but what to do once you’re there.

With FI Calc, you’ll discover how long your money will last once you start retirement based on your spending and your withdrawal strategy. There are over ten different withdrawal strategies to choose from.

FI Calc was developed by James (anonymous). It’s a beautiful tool and I was particularly impressed with the backtesting feature – allowing you to see the years in history in which your retirement would have failed.

• Pros: Beautiful UX, ability to download/save your data, focus on withdrawal strategies, free and ungated.
• Cons: Not many. I guess the large number of withdrawal strategies included can give you pause and lead to analysis paralysis.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Unable to complete.

7. Networthify’s “When can I retire?” Calculator

Networthify has a simple, clean tool inspired by the famous Mr. Money Mustache blog post, the Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement.

It uses just a few inputs and helps you determine when you can retire. The tool spits out a graph and table (which you could easily copy/paste into a spreadsheet).

This calculator was developed by Eric Johnson several years ago and appears to be a one-off project.

• Pros: It’s simple and straight-to-the point, minimal inputs leading to a quick understanding.
• Cons: Because it’s so simple, some may find it lacking for all of their retirement planning needs.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Retire in 30.8 years.

8. Financial Mentor’s Ultimate Retirement Calculator

Forecast your retirement with the Ultimate Retirement Calculator from FinancialMentor.com. This tool just keeps getting better.

Most retirees can no longer plan on just drawing down a nest egg in retirement. This retirement calculator allows you to plan for up to three post-retirement incomes. This can include part-time employment income, pension income, or Social Security income, and include the duration and growth of these incomes.

In addition, you have the option of including up to four separate one-time benefits, such as the sale of a home, an inheritance, or the sale of a business.

Also, you can look at reports for any number of what-if scenarios by changing any factor on the calculator. This will give you a complete look at what to expect from your retirement finances, no matter how your retirement path changes. This calculator was developed by long-time blogger and retirement expert, Todd Tresidder.

• Pros: Financial Mentor’s Ultimate Retirement Calculator is easy to understand. Todd has arguably the best educational content on retirement. Free and ungated.
• Cons: The calculator requires a ton of information. It also doesn’t show any odds of failure.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Retire in 34 years.

9. Engaging Data’s FIRE Calculator

There’s a lot to like about this calculator that attempts to help you answer the question, “when can I retire early?”

Heavily inspired by Mr. Money Mustache, Engaging Data’s FIRE Calculator allows you to input extra income (for you side hustlers) and expenses at different stages of your journey.

The developer is Chris (anonymous) from California. Chris has numerous other calculators on the site, including one focused on longevity risk in retirement.

• Pros: You can save your inputs by generating a url link. Detailed but compact to one page. Free and ungated. Multiple calculators to choose from.
• Cons: Not built for couples.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Retire in 22.4 years.

10. Empower’s Retirement Planner or Simple Calculator

Empower has made its name as the one-stop-shop for all of your financial needs, and that includes helping you to calculate your retirement number with their Retirement Planner feature or simple calculator.

When you sign up with Empower, you start by connecting your financial accounts, including your bank accounts, investments, mortgage, credit card, and any other accounts.

The Retirement Planner will use your actual financial data from the accounts you’ve linked to the Empower Dashboard to show you how prepared you are for retirement based on your ideal target retirement date.

Don’t feel like doing the whole planning scenario? Try their simple retirement calculator.

Additionally, you can use the Investment Checkup feature that asks you to create a basic risk profile, pick a target retirement date, and your projected income sources, and the program will recommend a portfolio for you. Finally, there is a fee analyzer that can help you to understand the fees you are paying on your current investments.

• Pros: Empower uses real data instead of assumptions. It’s also an easy program to learn and use.
• Cons: You have to sign up for an account (it’s free) in order to use any of their tools.
• Pricing: Free after email signup.
• Test Results: Retire in 31 years using the simple calculator.

Get started with Empower or read our Empower review.

11. Bankrate’s Retirement Income Calculator

Bankrate is home to many different financial calculators, and the Bankrate retirement calculator is an excellent resource.

Enter in your current retirement portfolio balance, your annual contribution, current age, and retirement age. Then the calculator will create an in-depth report showing your monthly retirement income, adjusted for inflation.

Within the report, you can see how your retirement accounts will grow per year, assuming one rate of return before retirement and a more conservative one after retirement.

The detailed report allows you to get into the specifics of how everything from income taxes to inflation will affect the buying power of your retirement income.

• Pros: Bankrate allows you to pick your own inflation rate. Also, every option is well described.
• Cons: Savings is all imputed together. Bankrate’s Retirement Income Calculator can be overwhelming at the start.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Retire in 26 years or 42 years (factoring in inflation).

12. AARP’s Retirement Calculator

I guess it makes sense that the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) would have a retirement calculator. AARP is the largest non-profit advocacy group for retirees in America. They offer a simple, three-step retirement calculator to help you gauge where you are at and what retirement could look like for you.

What separates AARP’s retirement calculator from many others is that you can input personal and financial information for your spouse. Not all retirement calculators offer that option. Without including both of you in calculations, are you really getting an accurate measure of your retirement savings?

Another nice feature is the ability to input multiple retirement accounts, including 401(k), mutual funds, IRAs, and CDs. On top of that, you can also enter your Social Security numbers at retirement age or have them estimate those numbers.

• Pros: This is a very straight-forward retirement calculator with the ability to add your spouse.
• Cons: It’s a bit dated. And unfortunately for AARP, most people don’t think of them until after retirement so their calculator could go to waste.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Retire in 25 years.

13. Vanguard’s Retirement Income Calculator

One of the simplest and most user-friendly retirement calculators is available for free from Vanguard (Retirement Income Calculator).

This calculator is set up as a series of slider bars, which include:

• Current age
• Desired retirement age
• Current annual salary
• Current retirement savings
• Amount you have already saved
• Expected rate of return
• Percentage of your income you hope to live on in retirement

The slider bars make this a very easy and fun calculator to play with, so you can see which actions you can take that will affect your retirement income. For instance, just changing my desired retirement start date from age 65 to age 68 raised my projected monthly income from about $2,500 to nearly $3,000.

• Pros: Vanguard’s Retirement Income Calculator is easy to use and understand.
• Cons: They are trying to sell you index funds, albeit very good ones. You can’t enter life expectancy. It also is designed for a single individual, not couples.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Retire in 49 years.

Related: Our Vanguard Personal Advisor Services Review: Have a Human Advisor Review Your Plan

14. FIRECalc’s Financial Independence / Early Retirement Calculator

The FIRECalc calculator helps you to understand how safe or risky your early retirement plan will be, based on the unsteadiness of the market. You can see whether your financial plan is robust enough to stand up to the worst we’ve seen in the history of the stock market.

FIRECalc scores “100% safe” for any financial plan that would have survived the Great Depression, and every other financial calamity we’ve encountered.

When I entered my hypothetical nest egg of $1 million, with annual spending of $48,000 for 30 years, FIRECalc determined that my financial plan is 75.4% safe. It only failed–that is, I would run out of money before the end of the 30 years–in 29 out of the 118 possible 30-year historical cycles.

Also, FIRECalc offers several places to put in optional additional information. This allows you to see how your spending, additional income, investing, and portfolio choices can affect your retirement income.

• Pros: FIRECalc is completely free to use. They also provide great explanations for every detail of their tools.
• Cons: It’s old. They don’t allow you to split your taxable and non-taxable savings.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Unable to test.

15. The Flexible Retirement Planner

If you are looking for a downloadable retirement tool that gets more in-depth, the Flexible Retirement Planner may be the retirement calculator you need. Available as a downloadable tool now, Flexible allows you to input just about any financial details to create a better picture of your retirement savings.

Flexible Retirement Planner uses Monte Carlo Simulation, which is a method to assess risk and uncertainty. Using this method with retirement planning allows you to see all potential outcomes, good and bad, so you have a better idea of where you stand financially. One nice feature is they allow you to adjust the Monte Carlo Simulation’s sensitivity.

• Pros: Flexible Retirement Planner gives you a very detailed picture of your retirement plan.
• Cons: It’s a bit dated in format. If you want a quick snapshot of your retirement savings, Flexible Retirement Planner isn’t the right retirement calculator. There are plenty of other calculators listed that would be a better choice.
• Pricing: Free
• Test Results: Unable to test.

Other Retirement Calculators

Other calculators we’d like to add in the future:

• Nesteggly’s Ultimate Retirement Calculator
• cFIREsim
• Playing with FIRE Retirement Calculator

What do you think is the best retirement calculator?