Free calculator · the lookup table from the video, for your numbers

How many years until you can stop working?

Your savings rate decides your timeline twice: more money goes in, and you need less at the finish line, because your target is based on what you spend, not what you earn. Enter your numbers and find your row.

Annual income (after tax)

Take-home pay is the honest number to use.

Savings rate 30%

Invested already

Starting portfolio today ($0 reproduces the video's table).

Expected return after inflation 7.0%

7% is the stock market's long-run real average.

Withdrawal rate 4.0%

Your age (optional)

Shows the age you could retire.

Your answer

Your portfolio, if returns were exactly average every year

Years to retire at every savings rate

The curve drops hard early and flattens out: the first few points you save are worth the most.

The catch

This answer assumes 7% every single year. That has never happened.

Real markets are lumpy, and which years you start in can swing your timeline by a decade or more.

Your plan run through every starting year since 1928, with the real returns and real inflation of each one
The chance you're done within 10, 15, 20, 25 years — no guesswork about recent years
Fastest / median / slowest at every savings rate, plus a CSV of every result

Run it through every real starting year →

How this is calculated

You save your income × savings rate every month and it grows at the return you choose (compounded monthly). You can stop when the portfolio reaches annual spending ÷ withdrawal rate — at 4% that's 25× your spending. Spending is what's left of your income after saving. Years are rounded up (you cross the line during that year), exactly like the table in the video.

With $0 invested, 7% and a 4% withdrawal rate, the table is 10% → 41 years, 20% → 30, 30% → 24, 40% → 19, 50% → 15. Everything is in today's dollars, so you don't need to guess inflation. Your income is assumed to stay flat in real terms.

Educational only, not personalized financial advice. The 4% rule is a historical guideline, not a guarantee.