When can I retire?
Back in the day, it was more common for employers to offer pensions - basically, after working for 30 or so years, an employee would receive X% of their salary for the rest of their lives. When that was the norm, the question of “When can I retire?” was much more straightforward. You could simply retire whenever you could start receiving your pension.
Pensions are becoming increasingly rare, and it's now more common for employees to fund their own retirements by saving in a 401(k), IRA, 403(b), etc. This has added a lot of variability to the answer of when one can retire. It ultimately comes down to how much you save.
How much do I need to save to retire?
It is typically recommended to save at least 15% of your pre-tax income towards retirement. With this savings rate, it would take approximately 40-45 years to save for retirement. In other words, if you started working and saving in your 20s, then you would be able to retire in your 60s. Of course, there's some variation to this depending on how both your income and your spending might vary throughout your life.
If you really want to retire sooner, you can increase your savings rate. Increasing your savings rate also means you're spending less, so you need a smaller nest egg, but you're saving even more to get there. With that, increasing your savings rate can greatly accelerate your time to retirement. Even saving 5% more of your income can enable you to retire 5-10 years sooner!
This calculator starts by determining how much you need to retire based on your monthly spending. It then looks at how much you have saved so far, how much you can save every month, and what investment returns you expect on your savings.