Savings Rate Calculator
Enter your take-home income and what you spend. The calculator gives your savings rate and - the part nobody forgets after seeing it - how many years of work that rate leaves, interpolated on the classic savings-rate-to-retirement table.
Retirement calculators demand portfolio guesses before they say anything. This one answers from two numbers you already know, and shows the shock that keeps the table famous: the curve from 51 years at 10% down to 8 at 70% is not linear.
How to use
- Use take-home pay (after tax) - gross income is a number your payslip already ate.
- Enter real spending from records; be honest, the rate is only as true as the spend line.
- Read the years figure, then the +10-point row: each extra ten points of rate buys back years of life.
Frequently asked questions
What savings rate do I need to retire in 10 years?
About 60% of take-home, at 5% real returns with a 4% withdrawal assumption. Every household's answer differs with spending: the rate matters because it is both the speed and the destination size at once.
Why is the savings-rate table so nonlinear?
Each saved coin does double duty - it grows the fund and shrinks the target it must fund. Saving 10% leaves 51 years of work; saving 70% leaves 8: the last decades fall away because spending fell too, not just because the pot grew.
Does this work on gross or net income?
Net. Tax is a spending-like leakage your future self never sees; the table's arithmetic lives entirely on take-home pay and real spending. Using gross flatters the rate and hides the truth it exists to tell.
Is 5% real return realistic?
It is the table's long-run assumption for a diversified equity-heavy portfolio after inflation - historically reasonable, never guaranteed. Pessimists can read the table one band up: at 4% real, every duration stretches a few years, not a decade.