Retire
Savings Rate Calculator (and What It Buys You)
One percentage controls your working years more than any stock pick — see yours, and the years-to-financial-independence curve it puts you on.
The classic FI shortcut: 25× annual spending, 5%/yr real return, 4% withdrawal, spending held constant. Every one of those is arguable — which is why the app has a simulator instead of a slogan.
How it works
Early in the journey, your savings rate matters more than your returns — and it's not close. A brilliant year in the market on a small portfolio is a few hundred dollars; a decent savings rate is a few hundred dollars every month, set by your own behavior instead of the market's mood. The rate also does something returns never can: it works both ends of the equation at once. Save more and you're simultaneously growing the pot faster and proving you need a smaller pot to live on.
The pot you need is sized by the classic 25× shortcut: financial independence is roughly 25 times your annual spending, the arithmetic inverse of a 4% withdrawal rate. On the defaults — $6,000 in, $4,338 out — you're saving $1,662 a month, a 27.7% rate, and your FI number is 25 × $52,056, which is $1,301,400. Growing $17,455 at 5% a year real with $1,662 added monthly reaches that in about 28 years. Change the spending field and watch both ends move: the FI number shrinks as the savings grow.
The curve is the point of this page. It plots years-to-FI against every savings rate from 5% to 80%, holding your income fixed, with the white dot at your rate. Read it like a menu: want out in ten years? Find where the curve crosses ten and look down — on these defaults that's around a 65% savings rate. Notice how brutally steep the left side is: going from a 10% to a 20% rate takes over a decade off the timeline, while the same ten points from 60% to 70% buys far less. The first improvements are the cheap ones.
The formula
rate = (income − spending) / income → 27.7%
FI = 25 × 12 × spending → $1,301,400
years : balance × (1 + 0.05/12) + savings, month after month,
until balance ≥ FI → ≈28 yr
Example: $6,000 − $4,338 = $1,662/mo saved, from $17,455 today
Honest assumptions
- The FI number is 25× annual spending — the 4% rule inverted. It's a rule of thumb with real research behind it and real critics.
- Growth is 5% a year after inflation, arriving smoothly every month. Real markets pay unevenly, and the order matters.
- Everything you don't spend is assumed saved and invested — the whole gap, every month, no drift.
- Spending stays constant, both now and in retirement. Every one of these assumptions is arguable — which is why the app has a simulator instead of a slogan.
- This page does arithmetic. It doesn't know your life — it's a starting point, not a plan, and not advice.
Questions people ask
What counts as savings?
Anything that builds net worth: retirement contributions, brokerage deposits, cash set aside on purpose, and — reasonably — extra payments on debt beyond the minimums. Moving money between your own accounts doesn't count, and neither does money you'll spend next month. The precise definition matters less than consistency: pick one and measure the same way every month.
Should I use gross or after-tax income?
After-tax, and this calculator assumes it. Taxes aren't available to save or spend, so including them just flatters the denominator and understates your real rate. One wrinkle worth handling deliberately: pre-tax retirement contributions (like a 401(k)) are genuine savings taken out before your paycheck lands — if you have them, add them to both income and savings so they count.
Is 25× spending really enough?
It's the standard shorthand, built on the 4% withdrawal rule and its 30-year research window — and it's argued about constantly. Retire very early and you may want a fatter multiple; retire with a pension or part-time income and you may need less. Treat 25× as the unit of measurement, not the verdict; the drawdown calculator shows what actually happens when you start spending the pot.
What savings rate do I need to retire in 10 years?
Read it off the curve: find where it crosses ten years and look down at the rate. On this page's defaults it lands around 65% — a rate that sounds impossible at most incomes and merely hard at high ones, which is itself the honest answer. Your own inputs move the curve, so type your numbers and let it answer for you.
Related calculators
ClariFi makes tools, not advice. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy, sell, or sign anything.
In the app
ClariFi runs this math on your real accounts.
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