When can you actually retire?
Enter your numbers — your earliest retirement age, your portfolio at 55, 60, 65 & 70, and the gap to your target appear in seconds. Built on the 4% safe-withdrawal rule and compound-growth math.
Target portfolio
$1.5M
4% rule basis
25× $60K
Earliest year
Age 53
Current shortfall
$1.35M
Save your retirement date
Richify tracks your accounts in one place, so you can watch your retirement date move as you save.
Earliest retirement age
53
Target portfolio
$1.5M
Portfolio now
$150K
Of target
10%
Next: how does your net worth compare with other Americans your age? See your net worth by age →
Projection assumes constant 7% real (inflation-adjusted) annual return + constant $30K/year savings. Target ($1.5M) = 25 × your annual retirement spending, per the 4% rule.
Retire at 55 vs 60 vs 65 vs 70
How your portfolio looks at each milestone retirement age — and the annual spending it can support on the 4% rule.
“Sustainable spending” = portfolio × 4%. “vs target” = portfolio − $1.5M (your 25× target). Green rows are scenarios where the projection meets or exceeds your target — you could choose to retire earlier and spend less, or work longer for cushion.
Hit 53 faster — automatically.
Richify projects your numbers across all your accounts (401k, IRA, taxable, real estate) and tells you the exact monthly contribution increases that move your retirement date forward.
When can I retire? Retirement age by savings and annual contribution
Find what you have saved today in the left column and what you add each year across the top. Each cell is the age you reach a $1,500,000 portfolio, enough to fund $60,000 a year at the 4% rule. With $150,000 saved and $25,000 a year going in, that is age 55; raising the contribution to $40,000 brings it to 51.
Assumes starting age 35, a 7% real (inflation-adjusted) return, contributions added at the end of each year, and a target of 25 × $60,000 spending, the calculator's defaults. Excludes Social Security and taxes.
Spending a different amount moves every cell. The FIRE calculator lists the target for each spending level and the years to retire by savings rate; the calculator above solves your exact numbers.
Retirement age calculator: when can I retire if I am 40, 45, 50, 55 or 60?
Find your age today on the left and what you have saved across the top. Each cell is the age your portfolio reaches $1,500,000, enough for $60,000 a year at the 4% rule, with $25,000 going in every year. A 45-year-old with $300,000 saved gets there at 61; with $600,000 saved, at 55. At these inputs the target is 21, 16 and 10 years away from $100K, $300K and $600K saved, whatever age you start from.
Assumes $25,000 invested at the end of each year, a 7% real (inflation-adjusted) return and a target of 25 × $60,000, in today's dollars. Excludes Social Security, pensions and taxes. The calculator at the top of the page runs your own age, savings, contribution and spending.
How much do I need to save to retire at 50, 55 or 60?
The grid above runs forwards from what you save; this table runs backwards from the age you want. Each cell is the amount to invest every year, starting at 35, to reach a $1,500,000 portfolio ($60,000 a year at the 4% rule) by that age. With $100,000 already saved, retiring at 55 takes about $27,150 a year; waiting until 60 cuts it to $15,135, and retiring at 50 raises it to $48,712.
Yearly amount invested at the end of each year from age 35, 7% real return, today's dollars. $0 means what you already have grows to the target on its own. Excludes Social Security, pensions and taxes.
Retiring at 50 means the money has to last 40 years or more, longer than the 30-year retirements the 4% rule was tested on. At a more cautious 3.5% withdrawal rate the same $60,000 of spending needs $1,714,286, which takes about $57,240 a year from $100,000 saved at 35.
Can I retire now? How much you need to retire early, by yearly spending
The portfolio test is the rule of 25: invested savings of at least 25 times one year of spending, which is the 4% rule read backwards. Find your yearly spending in the left column. Spending $80,000 a year takes $2,000,000 at 4%, or $2,285,714 at the more cautious 3.5% rate this page uses for retirements longer than the 30 years the 4% rule was tested on. The last column is the portfolio needed once Social Security pays the average 2026 retired-worker benefit of $24,852 a year: $1,378,700 for the same spending.
Today's dollars, before tax on withdrawals. Social Security column: 25 × (spending − $24,852), the average retired-worker benefit in January 2026 (SSA). Benefits cannot start before 62 and are reduced when claimed before full retirement age, so before then the portfolio carries the full spending.
A portfolio that passes the test still has to be reachable at your age. The next section lists the ages at which each kind of money opens up, and the retirement withdrawal calculator shows how many years a balance lasts at the withdrawal you choose.
When can I retire? The three gates that set the actual date
The savings maths above tells you when your portfolio is big enough. Three mechanical gates then decide whether you can actually use the money at that age — and each one moves the realistic date.
1. Penalty-free access to retirement accounts. 401(k) and IRA withdrawals before 59½ normally cost a 10% penalty on top of income tax. Two standard exceptions move the gate earlier: the Rule of 55 lets you tap the 401(k) of the employer you leave in or after the year you turn 55, penalty-free (that plan only, not IRAs or old 401(k)s); and 72(t) SEPP payments allow penalty-free withdrawals at any age, in exchange for locking in substantially equal payments for five years or until 59½, whichever is longer — rigid enough that breaking the schedule claws back every waived penalty. Taxable brokerage money has no age gate at all, which is why early retirees hold some.
2. Social Security's early-claiming cut. The earliest claim is 62, but for anyone born in 1960 or later the full retirement age is 67 — and claiming at 62 permanently reduces the benefit by about 30%. The Social Security calculator shows the check at every claiming age from 62 to 70 and the age at which waiting breaks even. Retiring at 50 also means up to 17 zero-earning years in the 35-year average that sets your benefit, so the statement estimate you see today assumes earnings you will no longer have.
3. Health insurance until Medicare at 65. Leave work at 50 and you self-fund coverage for 15 years — often the single largest line in an early-retirement budget, and the one most calculators skip. We model it separately in the FIRE healthcare bridge calculator. Sources: IRS Topics 558/72(t); SSA retirement age and benefit-reduction schedules.
Retirement ages set by the rules
Sources: IRS Topic 558 and IRC §72(t) (55 and 59½); SSA retirement age schedule (62, full retirement age, 70); Medicare.gov (65); Treasury Decision 10001 (required minimum distribution ages).
Early retirement planner: five steps in order
- Set the number. Yearly spending × 25 is the portfolio that funds it at the 4% rule; use × 28.6 (3.5%) if you plan to stop before 55.
- Find the date. The calculator at the top gives your earliest age from today's savings; the table above gives the yearly saving that hits an age you choose.
- Subtract guaranteed income. Every dollar a year that does not come from the portfolio removes 25 dollars of target. A $2,500-a-month pension ($30,000 a year) cuts the $1,500,000 target for $60,000 of spending by $750,000, to $750,000. Count a pension with no cost-of-living increase at less than that, because inflation shrinks it every year. If your plan offers a lump sum instead, the pension lump sum vs annuity calculator compares the two.
- Plan the bridge to 59½. Decide which money you live on before the 10% early-withdrawal penalty ends: taxable savings, the Rule of 55 on your last employer's 401(k), or 72(t) payments. The 401(k) withdrawal calculator shows the tax and penalty on an early withdrawal, and the Rule of 55 calculator checks whether you qualify.
- Price health cover until 65. Medicare starts at 65, so a 55-year-old retiree buys 10 years of coverage first; the healthcare bridge calculator sizes it.
Last updated November 2026. Sources: Bengen (1994) and the Trinity Study (1998) for the withdrawal rate; IRS Topic 558 and IRC §72(t) for early-withdrawal rules; SSA 2026 COLA fact sheet for the average benefit.
How the calculation works
The calculator uses the standard 4% safe-withdrawal rule from William Bengen's 1994 study and the 1998 Trinity Study: a portfolio supports an inflation-adjusted withdrawal of 4% of its starting value for a 30-year retirement, based on historical US market returns. Multiply your target annual retirement spending by 25 to get your required portfolio at retirement. For the multiple at a more cautious 3.5% rate, and the yearly and monthly income the rule pays on $1 million or $2.5 million, see the FIRE number and 4% rule tables.
Compound growth math projects your portfolio forward: FV = PV × (1 + r)n + PMT × ((1 + r)n − 1) / r — where PV is your current portfolio, PMT is your annual contributions, r is your expected real return, and n is the number of years invested. The earliest retirement age is the smallest n where the projected FV equals or exceeds your required target.
All returns are real (inflation-adjusted), so the dollar figures shown represent today's purchasing power. The 7% default is the long-run real return of a US-stock-heavy diversified portfolio; conservative planning uses 5%, aggressive uses 9%.
Things the math leaves out — Social Security (covers part of retirement spending so reduces required portfolio), taxes on withdrawals (401(k) is taxed as income; Roth is tax-free), and sequence-of-returns risk (the actual order of returns matters, not just the average). For a full multi-scenario projection that includes those, use our retirement planning calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Early Retirement Calculator?+
It's a free tool that estimates the earliest age at which you can retire and live off your investment portfolio, using the standard 4% safe-withdrawal rule. Enter your current age, savings, annual contribution, expected return, and target retirement spending — the calculator tells you (a) the earliest year you'd hit a portfolio large enough to fund that spending, and (b) what your portfolio would be at age 55, 60, 65, and 70 under your current plan.
What is the 4% rule and is it still valid in 2026?+
The 4% rule says you can withdraw 4% of your portfolio in year one of retirement (adjusted up for inflation each year after) without running out over a 30-year retirement, based on historical US market returns. It originated in the 1994 Trinity Study. Current research debates whether 3.5%–4% is the safer range given today's higher equity valuations and longer life expectancies — but 4% remains the standard benchmark in most retirement-planning tools. To target a more conservative withdrawal rate, multiply your annual spending by 30 (for 3.33%) or 33 (for 3%) instead of 25.
How is this different from a FIRE Calculator?+
FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) calculators typically lead with Lean/Regular/Fat FIRE thresholds ($600K, $1.25M, $2.5M+) and use savings-rate-to-years framing pulled from the FIRE community. The Early Retirement Calculator uses mainstream framing — your inputs are your current numbers and target retirement age, not abstract FIRE thresholds. Same underlying math (compound growth + 4% rule), different framing. If you want to dive deeper into FIRE-specific strategies, see our /us/tools/fire-calculator.
How do I know when I can retire based on my savings rate?+
Work out your target first: yearly retirement spending × 25 (the 4% rule). Then grow what you have now plus what you add each year at a real return until it reaches that target; the age you get there is your earliest retirement age. Your savings rate matters twice, because money you save is also money you have learned to live without. Starting at 35 with nothing saved and $100,000 a year of take-home pay at a 7% real return: saving 20% (and spending the rest in retirement too) gets you there at 66, saving 40% at 55. Enter your own numbers in the calculator above, or see the savings-rate table in our /us/tools/fire-calculator.
What return rate should I use?+
The 7% default reflects the long-run historical real return (inflation-adjusted) of a diversified US stock-heavy portfolio over 30+ year periods. Conservative planning uses 5%; aggressive uses 8%-9%. The return assumption matters a lot over long horizons — at 5% real, a $300K portfolio with $20K/year contributions doubles in 13 years; at 7% it doubles in 10; at 9% it doubles in 8. Build in a margin of safety by stress-testing with a return rate 1-2 percentage points below your central estimate.
Should I include Social Security in this calculation?+
No — the calculator gives you the portfolio you need to fully self-fund retirement on the 4% rule. Social Security is a separate income stream that shrinks the portfolio you need. The average retired-worker benefit was $2,071 a month in January 2026 (SSA), about $24,852 a year. Against $60,000 of yearly spending that covers about 41%, so the portfolio only has to fund the rest: 25 × ($60,000 − $24,852) = $878,700 instead of $1,500,000. Most planners still model the portfolio on its own, because claiming-age decisions are complex and the early years (before 62 at the earliest) leave the portfolio carrying the full load.
Can I retire now?+
The 4% rule's test is one comparison: your invested portfolio against 25 times your yearly spending. For $60,000 a year that is $1,500,000; at a more cautious 3.5% withdrawal rate it is $1,714,286. Income that does not come from the portfolio lowers the figure: once the average 2026 Social Security retired-worker benefit of $24,852 a year is being paid, the same spending needs $878,700. Social Security cannot start before 62, penalty-free access to 401(k) and IRA money generally starts at 59½, and Medicare starts at 65, so the portfolio test is one of several. Enter your savings and spending in the calculator above: when your savings already meet the target, the earliest age it shows is your age today.
At what age can I retire?+
Two different ages answer that. The first is the age your savings reach 25 times your yearly spending, which depends on what you have and what you add: at $25,000 a year going in and $60,000 of yearly spending, a 45-year-old with $300,000 saved reaches the target at 61 and a 50-year-old with the same savings at 66 (7% real return). The second is set by the rules: 59½ for penalty-free 401(k) and IRA withdrawals, 62 for the earliest Social Security claim, 65 for Medicare and 67 for full Social Security benefits if you were born in 1960 or later.
Can I retire at 55?+
Yes, if your portfolio reaches 25 times your yearly spending by then and you have a plan for the years before 59½. Starting at 35 with $100,000 saved and $60,000 a year of spending in mind (a $1,500,000 target at a 7% real return), you need to invest about $27,150 a year to retire at 55, against $7,821 a year to retire at 65. For the years before 59½, the Rule of 55 lets you withdraw penalty-free from the 401(k) of the employer you leave in or after the year you turn 55 (that plan only): /us/tools/rule-of-55-calculator.
What about taxes on withdrawals?+
The 4% rule operates on the PRE-tax portfolio size — withdrawals from 401(k)/Traditional IRA are taxed as income, Roth withdrawals are tax-free, and taxable account withdrawals trigger capital gains. To approximate after-tax: increase your target spending by your expected effective tax rate in retirement (typically 12-18% for middle-income households after standard deduction). For example, $50,000 of true spending need with a 15% effective tax rate means modeling against $58,800 of gross spending.
What if I can't reach my target age?+
Three levers. (1) Save more — every additional $5K/year in contributions cuts roughly 1-2 years off the timeline. (2) Reduce target spending — every $10K/year reduction in target spending cuts your required portfolio by $250K (4% rule). (3) Work longer — each additional year of work means both more contributions AND another year of compound growth on the existing balance. The third lever is the most powerful but also the one most retire-early-curious users want to avoid. Use the scenario table on this page to see the trade-offs concretely.
How accurate is this?+
The calculation is mathematically exact given your inputs — it solves the compound-growth equation directly. The real-world accuracy depends entirely on whether your assumptions hold: actual returns vary year-to-year (the calculator assumes smooth average returns), expenses change with life events, and the 4% rule is a historical benchmark not a guarantee. Use this as a planning anchor, not a precise prediction. Stress-test by re-running with worse assumptions (lower returns, higher spending) to find your margin of safety.
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Start 7-day free trialBased on the 4% safe-withdrawal rule (Trinity Study, 1994) and compound-growth math. For education only — not financial advice. © 2026 Richify.
