What Is This Calculator?

The QFINHUB 401(k) calculator projects your retirement balance from three inputs: what you have today, what you put in each month, and what your employer kicks in. I built it for people who want a number to react to, not a brochure to nod along with. Plug in your real 2026 pay stub and you'll see the trajectory in seconds.

Key Takeaways

The Formula

The first term is your starting balance compounding on itself. The second is your contributions plus the employer match, each treated as its own annuity. Standard future-value math, same formula you'd see in an MBA spreadsheet.

Why This Matters — Real-World Application

Most people I talk to in their 40s and 50s are aiming for $1.5M to $2M in retirement assets, per the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances (2022, the latest published). At 7% average annual return, you hit $1.5M in about 25 years on roughly $1,600 a month, including a typical 4% employer match. Bump your own deferral to the 2026 IRS cap of $23,000 and you're adding nearly $24,000 a year before the match even lands.

Practical Example

Key Factors That Affect Your Results

• Current 401(k) balance
• Annual contribution as percent of salary
• Employer match formula
• Expected long-term return
• Years to retirement

Tips for Using This Calculator

• 1Hit the full employer match first. A dollar matched at 100% beats a dollar invested anywhere else.
• 2Use a conservative return of 6% to 7%, not the 10% to 12% your 2025 statement might suggest. Stocks won't compound like that forever.
• 3If you're 50 or older, remember the 2026 catch-up contribution: $8,000 extra on top of the $23,000 limit. Workers 60 to 63 get an even larger super catch-up under SECURE 2.0, $11,250 in 2026.

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Sources & References