Retirement calculator
| Birth year | Full retirement age | Claiming at 62 pays |
|---|---|---|
| 1943–1954 | 66 | 75% |
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months | 74.2% |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months | 73.3% |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months | 72.5% |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months | 71.7% |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months | 70.8% |
| 1960 and later | 67 | 70% |
Born on 1 January? Use the previous year. Social Security figures a birthday on the first of a month as falling in the month before, so 1 January 1955 is read against 1954.
A projection, not a plan. It assumes a steady return, steady contributions and steady inflation, and none of the three behaves that way. State pensions, tax relief and employer contributions are not included, and the full retirement ages quoted on this page are the US Social Security schedule — other countries set their own and several are raising them. The age-62 percentages are the statutory reduction to a retired worker’s own benefit, before any spousal, survivor or earnings-test adjustment.
A retirement projection compounds what you have saved plus what you add, then applies a withdrawal rate. Saving $500 a month from 35 to 67 on top of $50,000, at 6%, reaches about $918,000 — about $3,061 a month at 4%, or $1,389 in today’s money. Full retirement age is a separate and fixed schedule: 66 for anyone born from 1943 to 1954, rising two months per birth year to 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Claiming at 62 pays between 75% and 70% of the full benefit, depending on which band the birth year falls in.
How to use this calculator
The two income figures are the important pair. The nominal monthly income looks generous and is quoted in the money of decades hence; the today’s-money figure is the same income measured against present prices, and it is usually less than half as large. Plan against the second one.
Two different retirement ages
The first is when you can afford to stop, which is the arithmetic on this page: whenever the pot supports your spending sustainably. The opening question is therefore what you actually spend, not what age you would like to reach. Each extra working year then moves the date twice over, adding a year of contributions and growth while removing a year of drawdown, so one more year is worth considerably more than one more year of saving on its own.
The second is when a state scheme will start paying you, and that one is a fixed schedule with nothing to negotiate. Under US Social Security the full retirement age — FRA, in the agency’s own paperwork — is 66 for anyone born from 1943 to 1954, then climbs by two months per birth year (66 and 2 months for 1955, 66 and 4 months for 1956, and so on) to reach 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Birth years before 1943 sit on an earlier ladder running from 65 to 65 and 10 months; every one of them reached full retirement age in 2008 or before, which is why the table on this page starts at 1943.
Claiming early, and what it actually trades
Claiming at 62 is allowed and permanently reduces the benefit to about 70% of the full amount where the full retirement age is 67. Delaying past that age adds roughly 8% a year until 70. For someone of average life expectancy the two are close to actuarially neutral: smaller cheques for longer roughly balance larger cheques for less time, so the decision turns on circumstance instead of arithmetic. Poor health or an immediate need for the income usually points to claiming early; good health and other income to live on makes waiting a purchase of inflation-linked longevity insurance.
Married couples have a further consideration, because the higher earner’s benefit often continues as a survivor benefit. Delaying the larger of the two claims therefore protects the household income of whoever lives longer, which is a different question from maximising either person’s own total.
One US quirk catches people at the boundary: benefits are payable from the month you attain the age, and someone born on the first of a month is treated as attaining it in the previous month. Where a claim date sits close to a boundary, the scheme’s own calculator is the authority. Enter a birth year in the panel and this page gives you the full retirement age to the month, and what claiming at 62 would pay, to check against it.
What people use it for
- Checking whether a target retirement age is realistic
- Counting the years left until you can stop
- Reading the pot in today’s money rather than the nominal figure
- Seeing what working two more years does to the pot
- Looking up the full retirement age for a birth year
- Deciding whether to claim early at a permanent reduction
- Estimating retirement income from a current pot
- Comparing saving rates
Questions
Whenever the pot supports your spending sustainably. Access rules set a floor, but the arithmetic sets the real answer, and the years-to-go figure here is where it starts.
From a 1994 study by William Bengen of historical US portfolios, which found that a 4% initial withdrawal, adjusted for inflation, survived every thirty-year window tested. It is a rule of thumb, not a guarantee, and it was never meant for retirements longer than thirty years.
The age at which the unreduced benefit is payable: 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later, and 66 plus two months per birth year for those born between 1955 and 1959.
It is permanently reduced, for life. A full retirement age of 67 pays 70% at 62 and an age of 66 pays 75%; the birth years in between land between the two — 74.2% for 1955, 73.3% for 1956, 72.5% for 1957, 71.7% for 1958 and 70.8% for 1959. The reduction is five-ninths of one percent a month for the first 36 months early and five-twelfths of one percent a month after that.
Delayed credits add roughly 8% a year until 70. The trade is close to actuarially neutral, so health and other income decide it rather than the arithmetic.
Yes, though earnings before full retirement age can temporarily reduce the benefit under the earnings test. The withheld amount is restored later through a higher payment.
It can. US rules treat someone born on the first of a month as attaining their age in the previous month, which can move an eligibility date by a month.
No. The arithmetic on this page does; the ages do not. Other countries set their own state pension ages and several are raising them.
That is a judgement, not a calculation. Four to five per cent above inflation is a common long-run planning figure for a diversified portfolio; use less if you are conservative.
Enter the nominal return and let the inflation field do the deflating. Entering a real return and an inflation figure would deflate it twice.
Considerably. Each extra year adds contributions and growth while removing a year of drawdown, so it moves both sides of the sum at once.
No. Add it separately. It can meaningfully reduce what the private pot needs to cover, which is why the two questions sit on the same page.
Add them to the monthly figure. If your employer matches five per cent of salary, that money compounds exactly like your own.
No. Whether the pot is taxed on the way in, on the way out, or not at all depends on the account type and the country, and it changes the answer substantially.
It divides the projected income by inflation compounded over the same period, so you can see what it would buy at present-day prices rather than in future currency.