I have had several requests for a personal rate of savings calculator, similar to the one used in the 4 physicians posts. You may enter your own numbers in the gray boxes to determine your net and gross savings rates.
Some people choose to count principal payments on a mortgage and / or student loans in the savings rate. If you choose to do so, there are entries for them. If you choose not to count it, leave those blank. I included “Other investments in both pre-tax and post-tax investments to make the sheet flexible to suit your needs.
I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong way to calculate your savings, this is just a tool to give you a better idea of how much you are saving (and spending) each year. Spending is calculated automatically. The spreadsheet assumes that all dollars unaccounted for elsewhere are spent, so this savings calculator doubles as a spending calculator.
The “Required Nest Egg for FI multiplies your calculated Annual Spending by 25. If you plan to have lower spending in retirement than you do now, enter your own anticipated retirement spending on the “Annual Spending” line.
Download all PoF calculators in one Excel file! You will be sent a link to the file and a confirmation to receive notifications of new posts and my quarterly progress note.
Very useful calculator. Thank you PoF. Quick question: I receive a separate check if I have any work-related expenses that I can deduct. These are deducted in real time from my pay and are not subjected to taxes. Where would these be best added to the calculator?
I believe they would be best added in a new line after “Match & Profit Sharing” as “Deducted Income.” Any thoughts or suggestions?
If it’s reimbursement for money you spent, I wouldn’t count it as spending or saving. It’s like it never happened, other than the fact that you received some form of goods or services. But from a savings standpoint, it’s a non-contributor.
After reading over this comment string, I am still a little confused about what needs to be recorded for the profit sharing. Between the profit sharing and monthly contributions, the total going annually to my husband’s 401K is $62K. So, do I enter the profit-sharing amount under the salary portion and then again under “other tax-deferred” since the entire amount of the profit sharing is deposited directly into the 401K by his employer?
The way profit sharing is typically presented is separate (in addition to) salary.
In the chart, I have salary, profit sharing (from employer) and employee pre-tax investments in the 401(k) as three separate line items. That works well and should reflect the way most employers / HR report compensation packages.
Best,
-PoF
Hello!
I orignally found you via Sam (FS).
Great content! You are my #2 blog after @ 2 years.
The XL Savings Calculator is the best!
I’m at 67% next savings and 41 % to FI after only 8 years working.
What an eye-opener! Thanks for the effort.
That’s great, BDJ!
The best part is your saved dollars will be working for you more and more. It took you 8 years to get the first 41%. You’ll likely have the other 59% in fewer than eight more years.
Cheers!
-PoF
Is there anyway to get access to the “code” of the calculator that I can plug into my google spreadsheet or my own Excel? I want to add lines myself for other items in my budget.
There sure is! Sign up to receive my e-mails and you’ll get a link an excel file with all the calculators, including this one. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Cheers!
-PoF
The calculator would be improved by inserting a couple of lines below 33. The first would be annual pensions and Social Security. The second would be the remainder after subtracting those pensions from Annual Spending. It could be labeled something to the effect of “required annual withdrawals”.
I know I can do that on my own but it would make it more obvious to your readers that annual spending is not the same as required withdrawals, where supplemental income sources exist.
I also realize that your target audience may be early retirees who may not have SS or pension income in the earlier part of their retirement. Defaulting the SS/pension income line to 0 would serve for them, too.
Thanks for the feedback! It would be easy enough to add a line — I’ll put it on the To Do list.
Best,
-PoF
I thought that was the case. So, if we’re maxing out our 401/403 at 24K each (over 50), the contribution we record line 19 should be 48K + employer contribution, correct?
Leave the employer contribution out on line 19 or it will be double counted . It is included in “All contributions.”
Since your income section includes deferred income (matching and profit-sharing) is it correct to assume that the 401/403 line in Pre-Tax Investments includes the employer’s contributions?
I separated them out, with Match & Profit Sharing at the top as part of “Compensation.”
On the 401(k) / 403(b) (could also be 401(a), etc…), input your employer contributions.
Hope that clears things up.
-PoF
I have NO clue how to even find my employer’s match. I am not used to getting it until more than a year after it was supposed to be put in my account and my previous job could never give me a straight answer – $ would just be put in and then taken out with teh excuse that “we over paid you” AFTER I left the job and was waiting for the match. I am starting a new job this month – what should I ask them about matching so I don’t continue to have this problem. Thanks
It should be spelled out in HR documents, or you can ask them directly. If they’re taking money back, I’d ask to see in writing why they are doing that. Weird.
Great post. Where do you find the FICA taxes to include in your table? I know 1040, line 63 shows you the federal tax but how about the FICA taxes. Doesn’t 7k on 300k salary seem low. I thought it was 6.25% (SS) up to 118.5k and then 1.45 (Medicare) up to 250k and then 0.9 additional on top. To me, those numbers seem much higher than the 7k reported. Did I miss something?
Good catch. SS tax would be $7347 in 2016, but I didn’t include the medicare tax, which is on gross earnings (no deductions, not even for tax deferred investments). For $300,000 in gross earnings, an employee’s medicare tax is $4350. If you are self-employed and paying full tax (i.e. not taking some earnings as a distribution), it’s $8034.45.
You can enter your own SS + Medicare taxes in the FICA line above. I’ve updated the chart with $12,000 (rounded up) as the baseline.
is this file downloadable?
I have made all calculators downloadable in one eel file on the main calculators page.