401(k) Calculator: How Much Should You Contribute to Hit Your Retirement Goal?

Your 401(k) is probably the most powerful retirement tool you have — employer match, tax-deferred growth, and automatic payroll contributions. But the most common question is also the hardest: how much should I actually contribute? The answer depends on your age, your current balance, your salary, and when you want to retire. A 401(k) Calculator turns those variables into a concrete projection.

Start With the Employer Match

Before anything else, contribute at least enough to capture the full employer match. That is free money: a typical 4% match on a $60,000 salary adds $2,400 per year to your account. Not taking it is like declining a raise. If you are not sure what your match is, check your plan documents — most are either a dollar-for-dollar match up to a percentage or a 50% match on a higher percentage.

How Much to Contribute by Age

A common rule of thumb is to save 10–15% of your income for retirement including your employer match. But the right number scales with when you started:

Age Started	Suggested Savings Rate (incl. match)	Why
20s	10–12%	Compounding does the heavy lifting over 35+ years
30s	12–15%	Catch-up window before peak earning years
40s	15–20%	Need to accelerate if starting late
50s	20%+ plus catch-up	Age-50 catch-up contributions ($7,500 in 2026) help close the gap

The 2026 employee contribution limit is $23,500 (up from $23,000 in 2025), with a $7,500 catch-up for those 50 and older. If you can max it out, do it — but most people should aim for the percentage that keeps them on track, not the maximum.

What the Calculator Shows You

The 401(k) Calculator takes your current age, target retirement age, current balance, monthly contribution, employer match, expected return, and salary growth to project:

• Total retirement savings — what your account is projected to hold at retirement
• Total contributions — what you put in out of pocket
• Employer match total — the free money your employer added over time

Run Your Own Numbers

Here is how to get a useful projection in under a minute:

• Enter your current age and planned retirement age
• Add your current 401(k) balance and monthly contribution
• Put in your employer match percentage and expected annual return (7–8% is a reasonable long-term stock-market assumption)
• Include your salary and expected growth rate for more accurate results

Then compare the projection against your retirement goal. If the number looks short, the calculator makes it easy to test what a 1% or 2% higher contribution does over time — often the difference of tens of thousands of dollars. Try it with the free 401(k) Calculator.