401(k) Retirement Calculator
Project your balance at retirement — with employer match, salary growth and compounding — and see how much is free match money and how much your money earned on its own. Instant, no sign-up, formula shown.
Employer match & assumptions
Quick answer
On a $70,000 salary contributing 6% from age 30, with a 50% employer match up to 6%, a $25,000 balance grows to $1,360,178 by 65. Of that, $104,988 is employer money and $1,020,213 is growth — your own contributions are the smallest part. Change the inputs above and this answer updates with your own numbers.
Your balance compounding to retirement
Notice how the curve steepens — later growth dwarfs early contributions. That's compounding.
What your contribution rate does to the outcome
Same salary, match and return. A few extra percent today is enormous at retirement.
| Contribution | You contribute | Employer match | Balance at retirement |
|---|
The employer match is the highest return you will ever be offered
A 50% match is an immediate 50% return on the money you contribute, before it is invested in anything. No investment available to you reliably does that, and it is the reason "contribute at least up to the match" is the one piece of retirement advice that is close to universal.
Here is what happens when you contribute below the match cap. Same salary, same everything, varying only your contribution rate — with the employer matching 50% up to 6%:
| Your rate | You contribute | Employer contributes | Balance at 65 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3% | $104,988 | $52,494 | $813,546 |
| 6% (the cap) | $209,977 | $104,988 | $1,360,178 |
| 10% | $349,961 | $104,988 | $1,846,072 |
| 15% | $524,942 | $104,988 | $2,453,441 |
Two things are worth reading carefully. Contributing 3% instead of 6% gives up half the match — $52,494 of free money — and ends $546,632 lower. And once you pass the 6% cap, the employer column stops moving: contributing 15% is a fine decision, but it is no longer being subsidised.
If you can only do one thing with this calculator, set your contribution to your employer's match cap and see what the difference is worth over your remaining career.
Vesting: the match may not be yours yet
Employer contributions often come with a vesting schedule — a period you must stay before the money is unconditionally yours. Some plans vest immediately, some gradually over several years, and some all at once at a cliff date.
This matters when you are thinking about leaving. Your own contributions are always yours; unvested employer money can be forfeited. If you are close to a vesting date, that date has a dollar value, and it is worth knowing what it is before handing in a notice.
Where the final balance actually comes from
In the default example, the $1,360,178 at 65 breaks down as roughly:
- $209,977 — your own contributions over 35 years
- $104,988 — employer match
- $1,020,213 — investment growth
Growth is 75% of the outcome. That is not an argument to contribute less — the growth exists only because the contributions were there to grow — but it does explain why starting age matters so much more than contribution rate at the margin. The money you put in at 30 has 35 years to compound; the money you put in at 60 has five.
What this projection deliberately leaves out
- Contribution limits. The IRS caps annual 401(k) contributions, and the cap changes over time. The calculator does not enforce it, so a very high rate on a high salary may project more than the law allows in a given year.
- Tax. Traditional 401(k) money is taxed on withdrawal; Roth 401(k) money generally is not. The projected balance is pre-tax in the traditional case, so a traditional balance is worth less in spendable terms than the same Roth balance.
- Fees. Plan and fund fees reduce the effective return. Entering a return net of fees is the honest approach.
- Inflation. The figure is nominal. At 3% inflation, $1,360,178 in 35 years buys roughly what $483,000 buys today — still a substantial sum, but not the one the headline suggests.
How the projection is calculated
Each year the calculator adds your contribution and the employer's, grows the balance by your expected return, and raises your salary by the growth rate you set, so contributions rise with pay:
The match is calculated as your employer's match rate applied to the lower of your contribution rate and their cap — which is exactly why the employer column in the table above stops rising after 6%.
See the method with your own numbers
These update live from the calculator inputs above.
Example: starting at 30 on $70,000
$25,000 already saved, 6% contributed, a 50% match up to 6%, 7% return, 2% annual pay rises, retiring at 65.
- Balance at 65: $1,360,178.
- Employer match over the period: $104,988.
- Growth: $1,020,213 — 75% of the total.
Raise the contribution to 10% and the balance reaches $1,846,072 — an extra $485,894 for an extra 4% of salary, none of it matched. Drop to 3% and it falls to $813,546.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I contribute to my 401(k)?
At minimum, enough to collect the full employer match — below that you are declining part of your pay. In the default example, contributing 3% instead of 6% forfeits $52,494 of employer money and ends $546,632 lower at 65. Beyond the match cap, extra contributions still help substantially but are no longer subsidised, so they compete with other uses of the money.
How does an employer match work?
Your employer contributes a percentage of what you contribute, up to a cap expressed as a share of your salary. A 50% match up to 6% means that if you put in 6% of pay, they add 3%. Contribute more than 6% and their contribution stays fixed; contribute less and you receive proportionally less of it.
Is the employer match immediately mine?
Not always. Many plans apply a vesting schedule requiring you to stay a certain length of time before employer contributions become unconditionally yours. Your own contributions are always yours. If you are near a vesting date, it has a real dollar value worth checking before leaving.
Is $1 million enough to retire on?
It depends entirely on your spending and on inflation. At a 4% withdrawal rate, $1 million supports about $40,000 a year in today's money. But the projected figure here is nominal — $1,360,178 in 35 years buys roughly what $483,000 buys now at 3% inflation, which would support closer to $19,000 a year in today's terms.
Traditional or Roth 401(k)?
The calculator projects the balance identically; the difference is when tax is paid. Traditional contributions reduce taxable income now and are taxed on withdrawal, so the projected balance overstates what you can spend. Roth contributions are taxed now and generally withdrawn tax-free. The usual framing is whether you expect a higher tax rate now or in retirement — which nobody knows with certainty.
What return should I assume?
Use a figure net of plan and fund fees, and be aware how much it moves the answer over 35 years. It is also worth running a cautious rate alongside an optimistic one: a projection is a range, and the range over three decades is wide.
Method & sources
- Calculation: Annual compounding with contributions and employer match added each year; cross-checked against an independent year-by-year simulation.
- Match structure (e.g. 50% up to 6% of pay) reflects common U.S. employer 401(k) plans; confirm your plan's exact terms.
- Reviewed: · Assumptions reviewed quarterly.
Educational estimate, not financial or tax advice. Excludes taxes, fees and IRS limits.
Run your own numbers
Enter your salary, contribution rate, employer match and retirement age, and see what the match alone is worth over your career.
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