Employer money and tax relief go in with yours. On the UK default, £1,600 of your own money becomes £3,200 a year in the pot.
Moving from 0.5% to 1.5% a year cuts the default pot by 19%, from £236,000 to £191,000.
A pot of £534,000 in 33 years buys what £236,000 does today. Every figure here is shown that way.
UK relief and a tax-free quarter, US 401(k) and Roth, Canada’s RRSP, Australia’s 12% super and its 15% contributions tax.
On the default, the full State Pension of £12,548 is 57% of the £22,004 a year before tax. The rest comes from the pot. Check your own forecast on gov.uk before deciding how much more to save.
An employer contribution is deferred pay, so not taking a match is turning down a raise. In the UK the automatic-enrolment minimum is 8% of qualifying earnings in total, with at least 3% from the employer; in the US a match is often 3% to 6%; Australian employers must pay 12% on top of salary.
Starting at 25 rather than 35 lifts the UK default pot from £236,000 to £358,000, with the same monthly payment. Money already invested has the most time to multiply, and the last years of growth are the biggest.
Raising charges from 0.5% to 1.5% costs the default pot £45,000. Each extra half a point takes about a tenth off a 30-year pot, because the charge is taken from the balance every year, including the growth.
UK pensions add basic-rate relief to what you pay (a net £1,600 becomes £2,000) and the higher rate is claimed back. US traditional 401(k) contributions come out of pay before tax; a Roth gives no relief now and tax-free withdrawals later. Canada’s RRSP deducts the contribution from taxable income. Australia taxes contributions at 15% inside the fund instead of at your marginal rate.
UK annual allowance £60,000 (employee plus employer, and never more than earnings). US 401(k) deferral $24,500, plus $8,000 from age 50 and $11,250 at 60 to 63. Canada 18% of earnings up to $33,810. Australia $32,500 a year, including the employer’s 12%. The page holds contributions to these and tells you when it does.
A large number in decades is mostly inflation. This page deflates the pot, the income and the limits, so £236,000 means what £236,000 buys now, not in 2059. Tax thresholds are assumed to rise with prices, as they usually (but not always) do.
The 4% figure comes from US back-tests over about 30 years. It is a starting point, not a promise: a poor first decade of returns hurts far more than the average suggests, which the FIRE calculator shows. Change the withdrawal rate to see what safer or bolder looks like.
It depends on how long, how much goes in and what charges and inflation take. A 35-year-old on £40,000 paying in 5% with 3% from their employer ends up with about £236,000 in today’s money at 68. Move the sliders to see your own figure.
Work out the income you want, take off any government pension, and divide the rest by the withdrawal rate. To live on £30,000 a year with a £12,548 State Pension, you need £17,452 from the pot, which at 4% is about £436,000 in today’s money, before tax.
It is a guideline from historical US markets over about 30 years. A longer retirement, a poor start or a cautious temperament argue for 3% to 3.5%. The FIRE calculator on this site shows how the order of returns changes the outcome.
Because a pot of £534,000 in 33 years sounds large but buys what £236,000 buys now. The page deflates the pot, the income and the contribution limits by the inflation you set, so the numbers mean what they would mean if you spent them today.
A traditional 401(k) takes the contribution from pay before tax and taxes withdrawals as income. A Roth takes it after tax and withdrawals are tax-free. The same contribution costs you more now with a Roth and less later; the page shows both the cost and the tax in retirement.
Your employer pays 12% of your salary into super on top of your pay, and that and any voluntary contributions are taxed at 15% as they go in. The total is capped at $32,500 a year in 2026-27. From 60, in the retirement phase, withdrawals are tax-free, so the page shows no tax in Australia.
Usually a quarter of what you take, up to a lifetime limit of £268,275. The rest is taxed as income along with the State Pension. The page applies the tax-free quarter to each withdrawal.
In the UK from 55, rising to 57 on 6 April 2028. In the US, withdrawals before 59½ usually carry a 10% penalty. In Australia from 60 once retired. A Canadian RRSP can be drawn at any age, and what you draw is taxed as income. The page warns when you set a retirement age before that.
This page has changed in 16 archived releases, but each of those was a site-wide pass, so none is attributable to this tool on its own and none is listed here. That is not a claim that the tool never changed — a release that reworked many pages at once may well have altered this one too. The changelog has them.