401(k) Calculator
Project your 401(k) balance at retirement from salary, contribution rate, employer match, raises and expected return, and see how much of it the match and growth provide.
Enter your salary, what you contribute, what your employer matches, and how long until retirement. The calculator grows the account year by year, raising your salary and contributions as you go, and shows what the match alone is worth.
How the projection works
Each year the account earns the return you enter, your salary grows by the raise, and contributions are recomputed from the new salary. Employer match is applied to your contribution up to the cap. Contributions are assumed to arrive evenly through the year, so they earn about half a year of return in the year they are made. Employee deferrals are capped at the IRS limit ($23,500 in 2025; catch-up contributions after 50 are not modeled).
The match comes first
A 50% match is an immediate 50% return before the market does anything. If the calculator shows money left on the table, fixing that beats almost any other financial decision available to you this year.
What return to use
7% is a common real (after-inflation) assumption for a stock-heavy portfolio over decades; use 5% for a balanced fund, or 10% for a nominal stock estimate. Fees matter: a 1% expense ratio turns 7% into 6%, which over 30 years removes roughly a quarter of the final balance.