Retirement Planning Tool

There are many ways to plan for retirement, including using a calculator and a retirement planner. These tools help you calculate your savings, estimate future expenses and compare the amount of income you’ll have to maintain your lifestyle. They can also show you what needs to change if your goals aren’t on track. Some free, easy-to-use Retirement Planning Tool include SmartAsset’s Retirement Calculator and Charles Schwab’s calculator. Others are more robust and feature a variety of different modeling options, including social security, pensions and Roth IRA conversions. Betterment’s retirement planner, which is included with its affordable robo-advisor service, is another great option.

Enter your monthly retirement savings. This includes your 401(k) and IRA contributions, as well as any other retirement savings in tax-deferred accounts. Experts recommend saving 10% to 15% of your pretax income each month.

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Add other sources of retirement income, such as rental income, pensions, and windfalls. Inflation is also considered in the calculation. You can also check the box to add annual cost-of-living increases (COLAs).

Streamline the process by linking your investment accounts. This gives you the most accurate financial projections by incorporating all your current investments and holdings. You can even monitor them in real-time, including performance, transactions, fees and investment account balances.