Retirement Savings Calculator: Are You on Track?

The most anxiety-producing question in personal finance isn't "am I saving enough?" — it's "how do I even know if I'm saving enough?" The answer requires a benchmark to compare against. Let's build that benchmark from the ground up, then show you how FIRE planning requires a significantly more aggressive trajectory.

The Standard Benchmarks (Fidelity's Rule of Thumb)

Fidelity Investments, one of the largest retirement plan providers, publishes widely cited savings benchmarks based on your annual salary. These are designed for traditional retirement at age 67:

So if you earn $80,000/year at age 40, you should have roughly $240,000 saved. At age 50, $480,000. These are solid benchmarks for traditional retirement, but they're completely inadequate if you want to retire in your 40s or 50s.

Why FIRE Savers Need to Be Way Ahead

The Fidelity benchmarks assume:

• You retire at 67 (Social Security kicks in immediately)
• You have a pension or other income source supplementing withdrawals
• You have roughly 20–25 years of retirement to fund

FIRE planning requires funding 30–50 years of retirement with no Social Security bridge for decades, no pension, and a much larger portfolio-to-expenses ratio. A person retiring at 45 on $60,000/year needs $1,500,000 — which is far more than 10× their salary if they earn $80,000.

The practical upshot: FIRE savers should aim to be 3–5 years ahead of the Fidelity benchmarks at every age, so they can exit the workforce early while maintaining full safe-withdrawal-rate coverage.

On-Track vs. Off-Track: The Full Picture

Here's a comprehensive table showing what "on track" looks like for two different goals at different salary levels. Assumes 7% average annual return, consistent saving:

Age	Salary	On Track (Retire 67)	On Track (FIRE at 50)
30	$60,000	$60,000	$120,000
30	$90,000	$90,000	$180,000
35	$70,000	$140,000	$350,000
40	$80,000	$240,000	$650,000
40	$100,000	$300,000	$800,000
45	$85,000	$425,000	$1,100,000
50	$90,000	$540,000	$1,500,000 (target)

The FIRE at 50 column essentially requires you to arrive at your FIRE number by age 50. Since FIRE numbers are based on spending (not salary), these are approximate — use them as directional guideposts rather than precise targets.

What "On Track for FIRE at 50" Actually Looks Like

Let's take a concrete example. Danielle is 32, earns $78,000/year, spends $4,500/month ($54,000/year), and wants to retire at 50. Her FIRE number: $54,000 × 25 = $1,350,000.

She has 18 years to reach $1,350,000 from wherever she is today. At 7% return:

• If she has $0 saved today and saves $3,500/month: she'll reach $1.35M in ~18 years ✓
• If she has $100,000 saved today and saves $2,800/month: she'll reach $1.35M in ~18 years ✓
• If she has $200,000 saved today and saves $2,200/month: she'll reach $1.35M in ~18 years ✓

Notice how the starting balance dramatically reduces the required monthly savings. That's compound interest doing its work. Every dollar saved young is worth $4–$8 by retirement at 7% returns.

Catch-Up Strategies If You're Behind

Strategy 1: Increase your savings rate

This is the most powerful lever. Going from saving 15% to 25% of a $90,000 salary means an extra $750/month, or $9,000/year. Over 15 years at 7% returns, that's an additional $235,000. A single savings rate increase, sustained, makes an enormous difference.

Strategy 2: Cut a major expense category

Housing is typically the highest-leverage target. Moving from a $1,800/month apartment to a $1,200/month one frees $600/month immediately. Alternatively, eliminating a car payment or refinancing to a lower interest rate can generate $300–$600/month of additional investable cash.

Strategy 3: Increase income

A job change producing a $15,000 salary increase, all of which goes to savings, adds $1,250/month. Over 15 years at 7%, that's $390,000 in additional portfolio value. Side income — consulting, freelancing, rental income — works the same way, especially if lifestyle spending doesn't increase with income.

Strategy 4: Adjust the target

Retiring at 52 instead of 50 doesn't sound significant, but it adds two more years of contributions and two fewer years of withdrawals. At $3,000/month savings rate and 7% returns, two extra years adds roughly $78,000 in contributions plus growth — often enough to close a meaningful gap.

Projecting Your Savings to Retirement Age

The compound growth formula for projecting where your savings land:

Future Value = PV × (1+r)^n + PMT × [((1+r)^n − 1) / r]

Where PV = current portfolio, r = monthly return, n = months to retirement, PMT = monthly contribution.

For most purposes, using round numbers at 7% annual return (0.583% monthly) is accurate enough:

Starting Balance	Monthly Savings	7% Return — 15 Years	7% Return — 20 Years
$50,000	$1,500	$618,000	$983,000
$100,000	$2,000	$919,000	$1,446,000
$150,000	$2,500	$1,220,000	$1,908,000
$200,000	$3,000	$1,521,000	$2,371,000
$300,000	$3,500	$1,964,000	$3,035,000

Using MyFIRE to Run Your Numbers

The projections above use simplified math. MyFIRE's planner layers in Monte Carlo simulation — running 1,000+ market scenarios to show you not just the expected outcome but the range: what happens if markets return 4% for a decade? What if they return 10%? Knowing the spread of outcomes is more useful than a single projected number.

Enter your current savings, monthly contribution, expected return, and target retirement age. The tool tells you whether you'll make it, and if not, exactly how much more you need to save per month to close the gap.