How much money do I need to retire?

Two guidelines dominate. Fidelity suggests saving about 10 times your annual salary by age 67 ( Fidelity ). The 4% rule suggests 25 times your annual retirement spending ( Bengen, via AAII ). For someone earning $75,000, the salary rule points to $750,000. Once Social Security is counted, the spending-based number often lands near $900,000. Your real figure depends on what you plan to spend, when you retire, and your other income. The retirement calculator gives you a personal number in about a minute.

What is the 4% rule and how do I use it to find my number?

The 4% rule says you can withdraw 4% of your savings in your first year of retirement, then adjust that dollar amount for inflation each year, with a high probability the money lasts about 30 years ( Bengen, via AAII ). To turn it into a savings target, work backward: multiply the annual income you need from savings by 25. If you need $40,000 a year from your portfolio, that's a $1,000,000 target. If you need $30,000, it's $750,000. It's a starting estimate, not a guarantee, and it assumes a diversified portfolio and a roughly 30-year horizon.

Does Social Security count toward how much I need to retire?

Yes, and it changes the math significantly. Social Security is guaranteed, inflation-adjusted income, so every dollar it provides is a dollar your savings don't have to. If you need $60,000 a year and Social Security covers $24,000, your savings only need to produce $36,000, which is a $900,000 target at the 4% rule rather than $1,500,000. That's why the salary-multiple rule and the spending-based rule can look so different: the first quietly assumes Social Security fills part of the gap. Estimate your own benefit with the Social Security calculator .

How much do I need to retire at 55, 60, or 65?

Earlier retirement raises the number for three reasons. The drawdown lasts longer. And there is no Social Security until at least 62 and no Medicare until 65, which means paying for your own health coverage in the gap years. A 55 year old typically plans for 35+ years of spending and a decade of self-funded healthcare, so the target runs well above the standard 10x salary. A 65 year old, with Social Security and Medicare both in reach, can often retire on less. See the age-specific breakdowns for 55 , 60 , and 65 , or model it directly in the early retirement calculator .

Is $1 million enough to retire?

It can be, depending on your spending and where you live. At the 4% rule, $1,000,000 supports about $40,000 a year from savings. Add a typical Social Security benefit and a household can often spend $60,000 to $70,000 a year. That's comfortable in a low-tax, lower-cost state and tight in a high-cost metro. The honest answer is that $1 million is a means to an income, not a finish line by itself. Model your own spending against it in the retirement income calculator .

How Much Do I Need to Retire?

The common rule of thumb is 10 times your annual salary saved by age 67. The more precise answer is 25 times the amount you plan to spend each year, minus whatever Social Security covers. Here is how both methods work, and how to find the number that fits your life.

The short answer

Most people need somewhere between 10 and 15 times their pre-retirement income saved by the time they stop working (Fidelity). A more personal way to say the same thing: save 25 times the annual income you'll need from your savings, after Social Security and any pension. For a household spending $60,000 a year with $24,000 from Social Security, that's a target near $900,000.

Skip the rules of thumb and run your own numbers

The retirement calculator takes your age, income, savings, and target spending and returns a personal number, a projected balance, and a readiness score. It accounts for Social Security and your time horizon, which the salary-multiple rule cannot.

Open the calculator →

Three ways to estimate your number

There is no single formula, but three methods cover almost everyone. The first is the fastest, the second is the most personal, and the third connects the two. Good practice is to run all three and see where they cluster.

1. The salary-multiple rule (fastest)

Fidelity's guideline is to save a growing multiple of your salary as you age: 1x by 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, 8x by 60, and 10x by 67. The appeal is speed. If you earn $80,000, your rough target at 67 is $800,000. The limitation is that it says nothing about how you actually plan to live. Two people earning the same salary can need very different amounts if one plans to travel and the other plans to stay put.

Age 30

Age 40

Age 50

Age 60

Age 67

10x

Salary

2. The 4% rule, run backward (most personal)

This method starts with spending, not salary, which is what actually drains your savings in retirement. The 4% rule comes from financial planner William Bengen. He found that withdrawing 4% of a diversified portfolio in the first year, then adjusting for inflation, historically lasted about 30 years (Bengen, via AAII). Turn it into a target by multiplying by 25:

Annual spending from savings × 25 = your target

$40,000 × 25 = $1,000,000 · $30,000 × 25 = $750,000

The key phrase is from savings. You subtract guaranteed income, Social Security and any pension, before you multiply. That is the step the salary rule hides, and it is why the two methods reconcile once Social Security is in the picture. Many retirees use a more cautious 3% to 3.5% withdrawal rate for very long or early retirements, which raises the multiple to roughly 28 to 33 times spending.

3. Income replacement (the bridge between the two)

Most households aim to replace roughly 70% to 85% of their pre-retirement income to hold their standard of living. Some costs fall away once you stop working. Payroll taxes end, the mortgage may be gone, and you are no longer saving for retirement itself. Fidelity frames the same idea from the savings side: plan for your savings to replace about 45% of your pre-retirement income, with Social Security and other income covering the rest (Fidelity). A practical shortcut is to take 80% of your income as an estimate of retirement spending, subtract Social Security, and apply the 4% rule to what's left. That chain ties income, spending, and savings together, and it is essentially what the calculator does with your real inputs.

Worked examples by income

Here is the income-replacement method run for four incomes, next to the quick salary-multiple check. Social Security is held at $24,000 a year purely for illustration. Your benefit will differ, so treat these as the shape of the answer, not your answer.

Income	Spending (80%)	From savings, after SS	Target (25×)	Salary check (10×)
$50,000	$40,000	$16,000	$400,000	$500,000
$75,000	$60,000	$36,000	$900,000	$750,000
$100,000	$80,000	$56,000	$1,400,000	$1,000,000
$150,000	$120,000	$96,000	$2,400,000	$1,500,000

Notice the two methods drift apart as income rises. That is not an error. Social Security replaces a smaller share of a high earner's income, so their savings must carry more of the load, and the spending-based target climbs faster than the salary rule suggests. Higher earners do receive larger Social Security checks than the $24,000 used here, which pulls their real target back down somewhat. The Social Security calculator gives you the figure to drop into this math.

What changes your number

The rules above give a baseline. These five factors move it, sometimes by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When you retire

Retiring at 55 instead of 67 adds twelve years of spending and removes twelve years of saving and compounding. It also means no Social Security until at least 62 and no Medicare until 65, so you self-fund both income and health coverage in the gap. Every year earlier raises the target. Model it in the early retirement calculator.

Where you live

Housing costs and state taxes swing the number hard. Some states don't tax retirement income or Social Security at all; others tax both. The same $60,000 lifestyle can require noticeably different savings depending on your zip code. Compare the tax treatment on the state retirement pages.

Healthcare before 65

Medicare starts at 65. Retire before then and you buy coverage on the open market, which for a couple can run well into five figures a year. This is the single most underestimated line item in early-retirement plans, and it is why the target for a 55 year old sits so far above the 10x rule.

Social Security and other guaranteed income

A pension, an annuity, or a larger Social Security benefit each directly lowers what your savings must produce. Claiming Social Security at 70 instead of 62 raises the monthly check by more than three-quarters, which can shrink your required nest egg substantially. See how claiming age moves the number in the Social Security calculator.

Inflation and longevity

A target that feels generous today buys less in 25 years, and a retirement that lasts 35 years needs a more conservative withdrawal rate than one that lasts 20. Planning to a longer life and building in inflation protection both push the number up. The inflation calculator shows what your spending target becomes over time.

Find your exact number

The rules of thumb get you to a ballpark. To get to a number you can plan around, use the tools that account for your spending, your timeline, and your other income.

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