How Much Do I Need to Retire?
Work out your retirement savings target from your spending, Social Security and pension with the 4% rule, and check your progress against Fidelity's salary milestones for your age.
How much do I need to retire? Calculator
How much do I need to retire? Two quick methods
1. The spending method (4% rule). Work out what you'll spend each year in retirement, subtract Social Security and any pension, and divide the gap by a safe withdrawal rate. At 4%, that's the gap × 25. Example: $60,000 of spending minus $24,000 of Social Security leaves a $36,000 gap; at 4% you need about $900,000. The 4% guideline comes from historical studies of 30-year retirements with a stock and bond mix; a lower rate (3% to 3.5%) is more cautious for early retirees or long retirements.
2. Salary milestones. Fidelity's guideline is to save 1× your salary by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8× by 60 and 10× by 67. It assumes saving 15% of income a year from age 25 (including any match), investing more than half in stocks, retiring at 67 and savings covering about 45% of pre-retirement income, with no pension. On an $80,000 salary, 10× is $800,000.
What changes the number
- Social Security: claiming at 70 instead of 62 raises your benefit by about 77% for anyone with a full retirement age of 67, which shrinks the gap. Check your estimate with the Social Security quick calculator.
- Taxes: withdrawals from pre-tax 401(k)s and IRAs are taxable, so spend targets should include tax.
- Health care before Medicare at 65, and long-term care later.
- Retirement age: each extra working year adds savings and shortens the years you draw on them.
To see what you'll actually have, run the retirement calculator; to check how long a nest egg lasts at a set withdrawal, use the annuity calculator.
Common questions
How much do I need to retire?
Roughly your yearly spending gap (spending minus Social Security and pensions) × 25 at a 4% withdrawal rate; Fidelity suggests 10× salary by 67.
What is the 4% rule?
Withdraw 4% of savings in the first year of retirement and adjust for inflation after; it comes from historical 30-year retirement studies.
How much should I have saved by 40?
Fidelity's guideline is 3× your salary by 40 (6× by 50, 8× by 60).
Is $1 million enough to retire?
At 4%, $1 million supports about $40,000 a year plus Social Security; whether that's enough depends on your spending.
Sources
- Fidelity Viewpoints: How much do I need to retire? (Sep 2026)
- SSA: Retirement age and benefit reduction
- SEC Investor.gov: Financial tools and calculators
More retirement calculators: 457 Account · Custodial Roth IRA · Long Term Care Insurance · Maximum Social Security Benefit
Related
General information, not financial, tax or legal advice. Check important numbers with the official source before acting on them.