Project your 401(k) balance at retirement. Model your contribution rate, employer match formula, salary growth, and expected return.
Projected 401(k) at retirement
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Your contributions
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Employer match
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Investment growth
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Year-by-year balance
| Age | Balance | You | Employer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fill the form. | |||
Worked example
Take a 30 year old earning $100,000, with $50,000 already in the plan, contributing 10% of salary and receiving a 50% employer match on the first 6% of pay, with salary growing 3% a year and the portfolio returning 7% a year until age 65. In year one the employee puts in $10,000, comfortably under the 2026 employee limit of $23,500. The match counts only the first 6% of salary, so the employer adds 6% times 50%, which is 3% of $100,000, or $3,000. The balance grows from $50,000 to $63,000 in contributions, then earns 7%, ending year one near $67,410. Repeating this for 35 years, with contributions rising as salary grows, the balance compounds to roughly $3,268,090 at age 65. Of that, about $604,621 came from employee contributions, $181,386 from the employer match, and $2,432,083 from investment growth. After 3% inflation, that ending balance is worth about $1,161,425 in today's dollars.
| Component | Amount at age 65 |
|---|---|
| Starting balance | $50,000 |
| Employee contributions | $604,621 |
| Employer match | $181,386 |
| Investment growth | $2,432,083 |
| Projected balance | $3,268,090 |
How it is calculated
The projection steps forward one year at a time from your current age to your target retirement age. Each year it computes your contribution as a percentage of that year's salary, caps it at the 2026 elective deferral limit of $23,500, or $31,000 once you reach 50 with the catch-up, and adds the employer match. The match applies your employer's match rate only to salary up to the match cap, which is why contributing above the cap earns no extra match. Contributions are added to the running balance, then the whole balance grows by your expected annual return, so earlier dollars compound for more years. Salary grows by your chosen raise rate each year, which lifts both your contribution and the match. The real value figure discounts the ending balance by your inflation assumption to show its purchasing power in today's dollars.