401(k) Calculator
Project your 401(k) retirement balance including employer match and compound growth.
About the 401(k) Calculator
A 401(k) is the backbone of American retirement saving, and the employer match is the closest thing to free money most workers will ever get. The AlarmDaddy 401(k) Calculator projects your balance at retirement based on your contributions, your employer's match, and expected investment growth.
Enter your age, salary, your contribution percentage, your employer's match percentage, and an expected annual return. The calculator compounds your combined monthly contributions to age 65 and shows the projected balance, how much you contributed, and how much came from investment growth. The lesson is always the same: contribute at least enough to capture the full employer match, and start early — the final decade of compounding does most of the heavy lifting.
How to use this calculator
- 1Enter your current age and salary.
- 2Set your contribution percentage.
- 3Set your employer match percentage.
- 4Enter an expected annual return (7% is a common long-run assumption).
- 5Read your projected balance at 65.
The formula
Your contribution plus the employer match (capped at the lesser of your rate and the match cap) forms a monthly investment. That stream compounds monthly at the expected return until age 65. The result separates total contributions from investment growth.