The real question isn't how big the pile gets — it's what income the pile sustains, in today's dollars, against what you want. Set your ages, savings, contribution and mix; the calculator grows everything at real after-inflation returns, applies the 4% drawdown rule, adds your government-benefit estimate, and shows surplus or shortfall. The default — age 35, $50,000 saved, $600 a month, balanced mix, $60,000 target — lands at $35,433 a year: a $24,567 gap, closeable with about $987 more a month or a later date.
Because a retirement income of $80,000 thirty years from now sounds fine until you realize it buys what about $44,000 buys today. Working in real terms — returns net of 2% inflation, income in today's purchasing power — keeps the plan honest and the target comparable to your current life.
A planning rule of thumb from historical portfolio studies: draw about 4% of the portfolio in year one and adjust for inflation, and the money has very good odds of lasting 30+ years. It's a starting assumption, not a law — retire into a bad market or live to 100 and the safe number drifts lower.
The default $15,000 is a mid-range single-person estimate for CPP plus OAS in Canada; your real number depends on your contribution history and start age — check your My Service Canada account. Outside Canada, use your system's projection. It's an editable field precisely because this is the part the calculator can't know.
It's arithmetic on stated assumptions — steady real returns, the 4% rule, no tax. Reality adds sequence risk, taxes by account type, and pensions. Treat the gap as a direction and a magnitude, not a prophecy — and as the agenda for a conversation with a real planner.
Every calculator runs from one config: your name, your colours, your prices. Brand it below, open any tool from the catalogue, and finish a quote — the lead lands in the table here the moment the estimate unlocks. On your own site the widget works exactly like this.
| Captured | Name | Contact | Tool | Job value |
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| No leads yet — run any tool in the catalogue and finish the quote. | ||||
| Tenants signed | Avg. rent | Monthly | Annual |
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