Year-by-year projection of salary, contributions, and retirement savings until your planned retirement age.
Plan your retirement benefits and income gap with realistic projections
Retirement Benefit Planner for long-term income security
The Retirement Benefit Planner helps you estimate how much income your savings can provide in retirement, based on your current age, planned retirement age, salary growth, contributions, investment returns, and inflation. Instead of relying on rough rules of thumb, this tool uses a structured projection model to show whether you are on track to achieve your desired retirement income.
How the retirement savings projection works
The calculator simulates your financial path from today until your chosen retirement age. Each year, your salary is projected forward using an expected salary growth rate. If your current salary is \( S_{0} \) and your salary growth rate is \( g \), the salary in year \( n \) is approximated as
\[ S_{n} = S_{0} \cdot (1 + g)^{n} \]
For each projected year, the tool adds your annual contributions and your employer match. If your own annual contribution is \( C_{\text{emp}} \) and your employer contributes a percentage \( m \) of your salary, the total annual contribution in year \( n \) becomes
\[ C_{n} = C_{\text{emp}} + m \cdot S_{n} \]
Your retirement savings balance then grows with an expected annual investment return \( r \). If the balance at the start of year \( n \) is \( B_{n} \), the balance at the end of that year, after contributions and investment growth, is
\[ B_{n+1} = (B_{n} + C_{n}) \cdot (1 + r) \]
By iterating this process until your retirement age, the planner derives your projected retirement savings and your final salary before retirement.
Translating your savings into retirement income
Knowing your total savings at retirement is not enough; you need to understand how much reliable income those savings can generate. The Retirement Benefit Planner models retirement income using a fixed planning horizon and a real rate of return, which adjusts the nominal investment return for inflation. If the nominal return is \( r \) and inflation is \( i \), the real return \( r_{\text{real}} \) is approximated as
\[ r_{\text{real}} = \frac{1 + r}{1 + i} - 1 \]
Assuming you want an income that lasts for \( N \) years in retirement, the sustainable annual withdrawal \( W \) from a balance \( B_{\text{ret}} \) can be estimated with a standard annuity formula
\[ W = B_{\text{ret}} \cdot \frac{r_{\text{real}}}{1 - (1 + r_{\text{real}})^{-N}} \]
If the real return is effectively zero, the tool simplifies this to a straight-line drawdown:
\[ W = \frac{B_{\text{ret}}}{N} \]
Comparing your target income to achievable benefits
The planner lets you define a desired income replacement rate, such as 70 percent of your final salary. If your final salary before retirement is \( S_{\text{ret}} \) and your replacement rate is \( q \), your target annual retirement income \( I_{\text{target}} \) is
\[ I_{\text{target}} = q \cdot S_{\text{ret}} \]
The calculator compares this target to the sustainable annual withdrawal \( W \) from your savings and computes a funding ratio
\[ \text{Funding ratio} = \frac{W}{I_{\text{target}}} \]
A funding ratio of \( 1 \) (or 100 percent) means your savings are projected to fully support your target income. Values below 1 indicate a shortfall, while values above 1 suggest a potential surplus relative to the target.
Using the year-by-year table to fine-tune your plan
The results table lists each year between today and retirement, showing your age, projected salary, employee and employer contributions, and the end-of-year balance. Rows where the projected balance is still too low to support the desired retirement income are highlighted, helping you see how your path changes as contributions and investment growth accumulate over time.
You can customize which columns are visible, reorder them, and export the data to CSV or Excel for further analysis. This makes it easier to compare multiple scenarios, such as higher savings rates, later retirement ages, or different assumptions for investment returns and inflation.
Practical ways to improve your retirement benefits
If the tool shows a funding gap, there are several levers you can adjust:
- Increase monthly employee contributions to raise yearly savings.
- Negotiate or seek plans with better employer matching where possible.
- Extend your working years to allow more time for contributions and compound growth.
- Reassess investment strategy to target a risk-adjusted return that matches your horizon and risk tolerance.
- Moderate the desired replacement rate if it proves overly ambitious relative to feasible savings.
By experimenting with different inputs and reviewing the detailed projections, you can build a retirement strategy that is both realistic and aligned with your long-term financial goals.