👫 Retirement Estimator

Plan retirement as a couple in one place — two careers, real Social Security and pensions, savings and bills. Enter each of you once and everything updates live: can you both retire when you want, what changes if one keeps working, and what happens to whoever is left. Runs entirely in your browser.
Your plan: ☕ Buy me a coffee Everything you enter is saved in this browser automatically — nothing is uploaded. Download the plan to back it up or move it to another device. (To pull in one person from a calculator file, use Pre-fill on their card.)

🧭 New to this? What a retirement is made of

👥 People

Children

Social Security pays benefits to your children on your record — 50% of your full retirement amount once a parent claims, 75% once a parent has died. That normally ends at 18. If a child's disability began before age 22, there is no age limit at all and it pays for life, and it lets a surviving spouse draw a caregiver benefit at any age. Everything on one record is capped by the Social Security family maximum.
What the “family maximum” is. Social Security caps the total it will pay on any one person’s record. The cap is set by your full retirement amount and works out to roughly 150–188% of it — higher earners land nearer the bottom of that range. You always receive your own benefit in full; your spouse and children share whatever is left underneath the cap, and if their claims add up to more than that, each one is cut by the same proportion. This is why a child can be paid less than the headline 50% while you are alive: your own benefit is taking up most of the room. Once you have died there is no benefit of yours in the way, so survivors share the whole cap — which is usually why the figure goes up rather than down. Two things sit outside it: a benefit your spouse draws on their own work record, and any delayed retirement credits you earned by claiming late, which is why a family can lawfully be paid more than the maximum.

⚙️ Assumptions

The rates and settings every other section uses. The defaults are reasonable middle-of-the-road figures — change them to see how sensitive your plan is to each one.

Assumptions

Tax & dollars

📈 Social Security today's dollars

Each person's benefit: a quick estimate from the SSA statement, or the full earnings record for the exact formula — then how it is built and what each claim age pays. Amounts follow the “Show dollars as” setting.
The formula is progressive by design: the first slice of average earnings converts to benefits at 90%, the middle at 32%, the top at just 15%. High earners get a bigger check but a smaller share of their pay replaced, which is why extra working years past a point add only a little.
Does working past 60 still count? Yes — and this trips a lot of people up. Age 60 is only when the indexing stops: earnings from before that year are scaled up to age-60 wage levels, while earnings from 60 onward are counted at face value. They are not ignored. The benefit uses the best 35 years, so a high-earning year at 61, 64 or 67 still replaces a low or zero year from early in a career — Social Security recomputes it automatically each year there are new earnings. What is fixed at 62 is the bend points in the formula, not the earnings record.
Why claim age matters so much: claiming at 62 locks in ~70% of the full benefit for life; waiting to 70 gives ~124%, about 76% more every month, forever (and it raises a surviving spouse's benefit too). The trade-off is the years of checks skipped by waiting.
Every projection here, and the estimate on an SSA statement, assumes Congress keeps paying scheduled benefits in full. That is current law. It is not what the Trustees project: the 2026 Trustees Report has the retirement fund unable to pay full benefits from late 2032. Tick one to see the plan with that haircut applied to every Social Security stream below (each person's own benefit, survivor and children's benefits alike) — pensions are untouched.

💰 Savings today's dollars

Each person's retirement accounts (TSP, 401(k), 403(b), IRAs — traditional and Roth pooled by tax treatment): what is there today, what goes in, and how it grows. Contributions stop when they stop working; own deferrals are capped at the IRS limit for their age, employer money is not. Amounts follow the “Show dollars as” setting.

How you withdraw

The household draws from savings whatever it takes to cover your bills after Social Security, pensions and any wages — so the balance chart shows whether the money actually lasts. There's no "start withdrawals at age X" setting: money comes out only in years your income doesn't cover the bills.
Assumption — penalty-free money first. "Draw savings from" chooses between Traditional and Roth. When pre-tax money is taken, this tool pulls from whichever of you can access it without the 10% early-withdrawal penalty before touching the other's, rather than splitting it pro-rata. That mirrors what you'd actually do: if one of you left work at 55+ (or is past 59½) and the other didn't, there's no reason to pay a penalty on the second account while the first is available. A penalty only appears if the penalty-free balance runs out, or neither of you qualifies yet — and the year table shows a Penalty column when that happens.

💵 Other income optional

Money coming in that isn't a paycheck, a pension or Social Security — a rental (net of its expenses), part-time or consulting work, an annuity, royalties, a land lease, a trust distribution. Amounts are today's $ per year; ages are Person A's (leave From blank if it is already coming in, To blank if it never stops). Infl % works like the bill planner: blank tracks inflation, 0 is a fixed dollar amount, higher grows faster.
Leave Tax-free unticked for anything the IRS taxes as ordinary income — rental profit, consulting, most annuities — so it lands in your brackets, your Social Security taxability and any IRMAA tier. Tick it for genuinely untaxed money (municipal-bond interest, a Roth annuity, child support, a qualified disability payment). Whose decides what happens at a death: a line tied to one person stops when they do; a household line keeps paying the survivor.

🧾 Bills & health

Bills in retirement

Everyday spending plus any expense that starts or ends later — a mortgage that pays off, long-term care that begins in your 80s, a one-time cost. Amounts are today's $ per month; ages are Person A's (leave blank for "from retirement" / "never ends"). Tick 1× for a one-time lump (a roof, a car — then the amount is the total, not monthly). Tick Disc on discretionary lines (travel, hobbies) so they, and only they, follow the spending-phase curve below. Infl % sets how fast each line grows: leave it blank to track inflation, 0 for a fixed dollar amount (a set mortgage payment), or higher, like 5, for medical costs that outpace inflation.

Health insurance

Per-person premiums by age, plus one plan that covers the whole household for life (FEHB for federal retirees — it continues past 65 alongside Medicarea retiree health plan, if your employer offers one). Everything here is today's $ and rises with inflation; it all counts as a bill. Typical figures if you have nothing better: ~$900/mo per person for a marketplace plan before 65, ~$250/mo per person for a Medigap + Part D supplement from 65.
⚠️ FEHB 5-year rule: to carry FEHB into retirement you must have been continuously enrolled for the 5 years before you retire. A deferred FERS retirement forfeits it — this tool drops the premium in that case, but you would then need the "before 65" and "65+" boxes instead. For a surviving spouse, FEHB continues only through a FERS survivor annuity (any election above none) and only if they were on your Self+1 / Family plan; elect no survivor benefit and their coverage ends 31 days after your death — the projection drops the premium then too. Enrollee-share estimates; confirm at opm.gov → Premiums ↗ (2026).

📊 Can you retire when you want?

Your savings last to age
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at these plans
Peak yearly savings draw
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the hardest pull
Survivor keeps
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of joint income
Leanest gap to cover
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bridge years

Income by year — where it comes from, and how much of it you keep

View

Savings balance over time

📅 Year by year

Show Balances are always the amount on hand, never divided.
One engine behind fedretirecalc.com, myretirecalc.com and household.privatecalcs.com — a plan saved on any of them loads on the others. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. Estimates for planning and education only, not financial advice.

🕊️ Survivor scenario a big reason to plan jointly

If one of you passes first, is the other OK? We default to the higher earner passing at their life expectancy.

Life insurance

The death benefit each of you carries — while still employed (FEGLI, a group policy, term insurance) and after retiring (usually far less: FEGLI Basic reduces, Option B is dropped, term expires). Paid to the other as a one-time, income-tax-free lump. A FERS employee who dies in service also leaves the Basic Employee Death Benefit plus half of final pay, and — with 10+ years of service — a survivor annuity of 50% of the pension earned so far. Children's benefits on either record are set under Household → Children and shown in their own card below.

💡 What your numbers suggest

Observations pulled straight from your plan — free money left on the table, claim ages, bracket room, IRMAA cliffs, the survivor's position. Each one points at the section that changes it. Data, not advice; hide any you've dealt with.

🧭 Help me figure out…

The decisions that are hard because they depend on things nobody knows — how long each of you lives, mostly. Each question re-runs your whole plan many times with one thing changed and shows where the answer flips. Today's dollars.

🪜 Roth conversion ladder optional advanced strategy

What it is. Each year you voluntarily move some money from a Traditional (pre-tax) account — TSP, 401(k), IRA — into Roth, and pay ordinary income tax on the amount that year. It's not a withdrawal; the money stays invested.
Why do it. Three wins: (1) it shrinks future Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs at 73 are based on the Traditional balance and can force you into a higher bracket); (2) Roth then grows 100% tax-free and has no RMDs; (3) it's a gift to heirs (Roth is inherited tax-free). For a couple there is a fourth: it locks in today's married-filing-jointly rates before the survivor faces single-filer ones.
When it works best. In the low-income “gap” years — after you retire but before Social Security and RMDs start — taxable income dips, leaving “room” at the bottom of the brackets. You fill that cheap room now (say at 12% or 22%) to avoid emptying a huge Traditional balance later at higher rates.
The catch. You pay tax now, and a big conversion can spike your income into a higher IRMAA tier — Medicare premium surcharges that hit about two years later (modelled, and shown in the panel below) — or, before 65, blow an ACA health-subsidy cliff. So you convert in measured annual slices: the “ladder.”
Pay the tax from cash, not from the retirement account. The tax has to come from money outside the account. Dollars pulled out to pay it are their own taxable withdrawal (plus a 10% penalty before 59½) and shrink what actually lands in Roth. A taxable brokerage account works too, but selling there can trigger capital-gains tax. The clean way is a side pot of cash to feed each year's tax bill — the table below shows how much you'd need.
Want to stress-test one specific year? This section plans the multi-year strategy; the companion Roth Conversion Calculator takes a single year's actual income and shows the true marginal cost of each converted dollar, the Social Security tax torpedo, IRMAA cliffs, capital-gains stacking, and your state's exact treatment.

🗺️ Where should you retire? state tax + cost of living

This isn't meant to tell you where to retire — that choice is personal, and a lot goes into it (family, climate, friends, lifestyle, things no spreadsheet can weigh). What it does do is estimate the financial implications of wherever you ultimately choose to go, or stay, so the money side of that decision is on the table with everything else.
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set by your State (and optional city) under Household → Tax
Each state's yearly cost = state income tax on the household's retirement income (pensions, taxable draws, and Social Security where the state taxes it — with each state's own exclusions and income phase-outs) + property tax (home value × the state's or city's effective rate) + cost of living (your recurring bills scaled by the cost-of-living index relative to your baseline). A representative mid-retirement year, in today's dollars.

Based on your numbers, these states may benefit you most

Enter your plan above to see suggestions.

Compare your shortlist

Your baseline shows first; cities are town-level estimates so you can compare moves within a state (e.g. Arlington → Front Royal).
Total/yr = the three columns added up (state income tax + property tax + cost-of-living-adjusted living expenses) — your estimated yearly cost in that place. vs baseline: green −$X = that much cheaper than where you are now, amber +$X = that much more. A Roth ladder adds a one-time column: what the conversions would cost in state tax there.
⚠️ Estimates for comparison, not tax advice. State rows use state averages; city rows (“city ~est”) use town-level cost-of-living (BestPlaces) + county property-tax rates, so they are a notch more approximate — good for ranking, not for a budget. Sales tax, vehicle tax, insurance costs and local quirks are not modelled.

📐 Methodology every assumption & rule this is built on

The published formulas are exact; the projections beyond them use your assumptions. Expand a section to see what is baked in.
① Social Security — the benefit formula
Index earnings. Each year's Social-Security-taxed earnings (capped at that year's wage base) is scaled to wage levels at the year the person turns 60 using the National Average Wage Index (AWI). Earnings from 60 on count at face value.
AIME. Sort the indexed years, keep the top 35, sum, ÷ 420 months, floor to the dollar. Years not worked are $0 and sit at the bottom.
PIA (bend points). Full benefit at FRA = 90% of the first AIME slice + 32% of the middle + 15% of the top. The bend points are set the year the person turns 62, from the AWI two years earlier (the 2026 bend points, $1,286 / $7,749, are reproduced exactly).
Claiming age. Before FRA: −5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months, −5/12 of 1% beyond (≈70% at 62). After FRA: +2/3 of 1% per month, +8%/yr, to 70 (≈124%). FRA comes from the birth year (67 for 1960+). COLAs apply every year from 62.
Statement estimate. Without an earnings record the tool anchors on the FRA amount from an SSA statement (today's dollars) and applies the same claim-age factors.
Survivor benefit. Built from the deceased's PIA, not the check they happened to be drawing: dying before claiming forfeits nothing, delayed-retirement credits earned up to death carry to a widow(er), and a deceased who claimed early leaves the greater of what they drew or 82.5% of PIA (the widow's limit). Nothing is payable before the survivor is 60; 71.5% at 60 rising to 100% at the survivor's FRA. The survivor keeps the larger of their own benefit or the survivor benefit — never both.
Children. 50% of a parent's PIA while that parent is alive and claiming, 75% once they have died, to 18 — or for life if the child's disability began before 22. A caregiver benefit (75%) is available at any age while a child under 16 or a disabled adult child is in the survivor's care. Everything on one record is capped by the family maximum (150–188% of PIA by the 2026 bend points); the worker's own benefit is never cut, dependants share what is left, and a widow's delayed credits sit outside the cap. Children's benefits are the child's income and stay out of the parents' taxable income.
Trust-fund stress test. Off by default (current law schedules full benefits). When ticked, every Social Security stream is paid at 78% from late 2032 (OASI) or 83% from 2034 (OASDI), per the 2026 Trustees Report; the depletion year is a blend of full and reduced months.
② Savings — contributions, growth & drawdown
Contributions. Contribution % × salary, capped at the IRS elective-deferral limit: 2026 = $24,500 base, +$8,000 catch-up at 50+, +$11,250 super catch-up at 60–63, indexed with your inflation assumption; the employer's share sits outside the limit. They stop when that person stops working, prorated in the final year. The balance-as-of date makes the first year a partial year: balances grow only for the rest of it and only that fraction of the year's contributions still arrives. Contributions earn half a year's growth.
Two drawdown models. A set percentage: the first withdrawal is your rate × the balance in the first withdrawal year, then that dollar amount rises with inflation while the balance keeps earning (the "4% rule" as commonly modelled). Only what the bills need: each year draws just enough — after every other income stream and the tax on the draw itself — to cover bills and health costs plus your cushion, taking the already-taxed side account first. RMDs are a floor for both.
Penalty-free money first. A traditional draw is allocated across the two people so that whoever's pre-tax money is already penalty-free (59½, the Rule of 55 / 50 for public safety, or a 72(t) plan) is drawn before anyone pays a 10% penalty; within the same status the split is by balance. Roth is split by balance.
Surplus. Once fully retired, income above bills is banked in an after-tax side account (taxed on its gains) rather than vanishing.
RMDs. Forced from 73 using the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, from traditional balances; if the RMD exceeds the planned draw the larger amount is withdrawn and taxed.
Roth conversions. Fill to the top of a chosen bracket (solved against the real taxable income, including how much of Social Security becomes taxable) or a fixed amount, between two ages. The year's draw comes out first and the conversion moves what is left. The impact panel re-runs the whole plan without the ladder and nets income tax saved against any IRMAA it triggers; break-even projects both to 115.
③ Pensions — FERS and private
FERS basic annuity = high-3 × creditable service × 1.0% (or 1.1% at 62+ with 20+ years; unused sick leave counts toward that 20-year test). Special-provisions employees earn 1.7% for the first 20 years. High-3 is modelled as the last three projected salary years. Creditable service runs from the Service Computation Date to the last day worked, plus sick leave at 2,087 hours = 1 year (it counts toward the computation, not eligibility).
Eligibility. Immediate and unreduced at 62+/5, 60+/20 or MRA+30; MRA+10 is reduced 5% per year under 62; below that it is deferred (no sick-leave credit, no FEHB continuation, no supplement).
FERS COLA is the "diet" COLA and starts at 62: inflation ≤2% in full, 2–3% capped at 2%, above 3% inflation minus 1. Special-provisions retirees get COLAs from retirement.
Special Retirement Supplement. Immediate, unreduced retirement before 62 adds ≈ (SS at 62) × (FERS years ÷ 40) until 62.
Survivor election. 50% (annuity −10%), 25% (−5%) or none. The survivor receives that share for life.
Death in service. A FERS employee who dies before retiring with 10+ years leaves 50% of the annuity earned so far (1% × years × pay), plus the Basic Employee Death Benefit ($41,714 in 2026, indexed) and half of final pay as a lump.
Private pensions are entered as a monthly amount in today's dollars with their own COLA rule (none, fixed, or full inflation) and survivor share.
Military retired pay is taxable ordinary income, COLA'd, for life; VA disability is tax-free and excluded from every tax base. Each stops at that person's death (SBP/DIC not modelled).
④ Taxes
A federal estimate on 2026 brackets and the standard deduction (with the 65+ addition per person actually 65+), indexed forward by your inflation assumption. Married filing jointly while both are alive, single for the survivor — the "survivor tax torpedo" is modelled, not assumed away.
Taxable: wages, pensions, the supplement, military pay, traditional withdrawals and conversions. Up to 85% of Social Security via the provisional-income formula, whose thresholds are frozen in law. Roth withdrawals, VA pay and children's benefits are not taxed here.
State tax is a flat top rate on ordinary income (Social Security included only where the state taxes it), chosen from the "retire in" state.
Medicare IRMAA (65+, per person) is set by the MAGI from two years earlier and counted as a bill with the Part B premium and health plan, not netted out of income. The conversion's own tax is reported separately in the ladder panel as the cash it needs.
⑤ Bills, health, and the timeline
Bill lines are today's $/month with a start and end age (Person A's), a one-time option (the total lands in a single year), a Disc flag, and their own growth rate (blank = inflation, 0 = fixed dollars, n = n%/yr). The go-go / slow-go / no-go curve bends only Disc lines. Bills start when the first person retires, prorated in that year, and drop to the survivor share once someone has died.
Health. A per-person premium before 65 and a per-person Medicare supplement from 65, plus one household plan for life (FEHB for feds — forfeited by a deferred FERS retirement), the Part B base premium from each person's 65 (full year), and IRMAA. All inflate with your assumption.
Calendar accuracy. Retirement and claiming are placed on the real calendar by birth month and day: the retirement year has a partial year of salary (down to the day for a mid-month exit), the pension starts the month after separation, Social Security the month it is claimed. Ages in the table are the age reached that year.
Dollars. "Today's dollars" deflates every year back to now by your inflation assumption; "future dollars" shows the actual nominal amounts. Life-insurance face values are never inflated.
⑥ What this does NOT model
• Sequence-of-returns risk — growth is a smooth average, not real volatility.
• The SS earnings test (claiming before FRA while still working) and WEP/GPO.
• ACA subsidies before 65; precise state brackets and exclusions; local taxes; the temporary 2025–28 senior bonus deduction.
• HSA drawdown, SBP/DIC, the 27-pay-period year, the 18-month BEDB service requirement, SSI interactions for a disabled adult child (the DAC calculator covers that in depth).
Treat every number as a planning estimate. Authoritative figures live at ssa.gov, OPM and tsp.gov.
⑦ Key numbers baked in (2026)
Social Security: AWI through 2024 = $69,847 · wage base 2026 = $184,500 · bend points $1,286 / $7,749 · family-maximum bend points $1,643 / $2,371 / $3,093 at 150/272/134/175%.
IRS: elective deferral $24,500 · catch-up 50+ $8,000 · super catch-up 60–63 $11,250 · a governmental 457(b) has its own equal limit · IRA $7,500 (+$1,100 at 50+) · RMDs from 73 (Uniform Lifetime Table).
FERS: 1.0% / 1.1% (special provisions 1.7% first 20 yrs) · sick leave 2,087 hrs = 1 yr · MRA 57 (1970+) · diet COLA from 62 · BEDB $41,714.
Tax & Medicare: standard deduction $32,200 MFJ / $16,100 single, +$1,650 / $2,050 at 65 · SS up to 85% taxable, thresholds frozen · Part B $202.90/mo · IRMAA tiers from $218k MFJ / $109k single.
⑧ Glossary
AIME, Average Indexed Monthly Earnings. · PIA, Primary Insurance Amount — the full benefit at FRA. · FRA, Full Retirement Age (67 if born 1960+). · AWI, Average Wage Index. · COLA, the annual inflation adjustment. · DRC, delayed-retirement credits for claiming after FRA. · DAC, disabled adult child — a child whose disability began before 22.
RMD, Required Minimum Distribution. · Rule of 55, separate at 55+ and workplace-plan withdrawals are penalty-free before 59½ (50 for public safety). · 72(t), substantially equal periodic payments, penalty-free at any age. · IRMAA, the income-based Medicare premium surcharge. · MAGI, modified adjusted gross income.
FERS, the federal pension. · SCD, Service Computation Date. · High-3, the highest three consecutive salary years. · MRA, Minimum Retirement Age. · SRS, Special Retirement Supplement. · FEHB, federal health insurance. · FEGLI, federal group life insurance. · BEDB, Basic Employee Death Benefit. · TSP, Thrift Savings Plan — the federal 401(k).
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Last updated 2026-09-09 · tax & Social Security figures current for 2026