Retirement math, finally made clear
Retire Projector exists for one reason: most people have no idea what their 401(k) will actually be worth - and the answer is too important to leave to a guess.
Open a typical retirement calculator and you get a single number with no story behind it, buried in jargon, often using last year's tax figures. We thought savers deserved better: tools that show your exact numbers, against the current IRS limits and brackets, with the reasoning laid bare.
What makes us different
Three things shaped how we built this site:
- Current, sourced numbers. Our contribution limits, catch-ups and tax brackets come straight from the IRS annual notice and Revenue Procedure, cited and dated. When the IRS updates the figures, we do too.
- Decisions, not just arithmetic. Anyone can multiply by a growth rate. The hard part is deciding: Roth or Traditional? Roll over or leave it? Cash out or wait? Our tools are built around those real choices.
- Instant and honest. Drag a slider and the projection, the year-by-year table and the chart move with you - no reload, no sign-up. And every result carries a plain reminder that these are estimates, not promises.
How it works under the hood
The IRS rules - limits, brackets, RMD factors - live in a small, carefully curated database that we update once a year from primary sources. The calculators themselves run in your browser, so your salary and balances never leave your device. It's fast, private, and built to stay accurate.
A word on trust
We are not advisors, and nothing here is personalized financial advice. We're a tool - a very good one, we hope - to help you understand your options and have better conversations with the professionals who can advise you. We make money through unobtrusive ads and the occasional affiliate link, never by selling your data (we don't even collect your inputs).
Built by people who use it
We're builders and savers who got tired of spreadsheets and wanted a tool we'd actually trust for our own retirement planning. If it helps you contribute a little more, capture your full match, or finally understand the Roth question - it's doing its job.