How much do you need to save?
One number. No jargon. An estimate of what you need to save each month.
What could your pot support?
The 4% rule gives a rough guide to what your pot could support, based on how you're invested.
Inflation not included. These are nominal figures, so your real purchasing power may be lower over time.
See how your money could grow
Pick an amount and timeframe, and compare how different assets could grow.
Select assets and adjust the sliders to see compound growth in action.
Nominal only. No inflation, no tax. Past performance ≠ future results. Illustrative only - not financial advice. Use Guided mode for real planning.
Projected final value
60/40 Balanced
Savings rates Best high-yield ~3.5%; avg savings ~0.4%; typical bank ~0.01%. As of March 2026. FDIC ↗What could your portfolio earn?
Enter your asset mix and see an estimate of your expected annual return.
This calculator is based on the 4% rule - one of the most widely used retirement planning guidelines. The idea: a large enough pot invested may support a first-year withdrawal of around 4% of the starting balance over a long retirement.
This uses a long-run nominal return assumption of 9% per year for a diversified global equity fund. All figures are nominal: no inflation adjustments. Want the inflation-adjusted version? Use Guided mode.
For expats, locals, and anyone who wishes they'd started sooner.
Tom Talks Finance is written by a British writer based in Asia, with a background in economic affairs and data analytics, and a (perhaps unhealthy) obsession with the FIRE movement. Financial Independence, Retire Early.
The idea came from watching friends and colleagues drift into a retirement gap they hadn't seen coming. No employer pension, no home-country safety net, the problem invisible until it's much harder to fix. And from seeing local friends across the region treat property, gold, or diamonds as their primary options, not knowing that a simple index fund or ETF could outperform them.
It's also personal. Expats and locals alike are often sold products marketed as retirement planning, but which come with lock-ins, layered fees, high management charges of 1-3%, and unnecessary complexity. What many don't realise is that index fund investing is relatively straightforward: a low-cost fund, consistent contributions, and time.
The goal is simple: make retirement planning accessible, clear and actionable.
Tell me about your retirement goal
Four numbers. That's enough to build a simple plan.
General information, not personal advice.
The 4% rule in plain English
To spend £36,000 a year, you'll need about £900,000 invested: 25 times your yearly spending. That comes from the 4% rule: take about 4% of your pot in year one, then raise it with inflation each year. I work backwards from there to the monthly saving you need.
A planning estimate. Tax isn't included here. The Sandbox can add it.
Here's what you need to save
Starting simple: no inflation, just the raw numbers.
What inflation does to the numbers
Here's what inflation does to that goal.
Add any state pension
Add any guaranteed pension income. This reduces what your pot needs to fund once the pension starts.
Explore different scenarios
This sandbox lets you explore scenarios. Change any assumption and see how the result changes.
General information, not personal advice.
Future money what the amount will say on the day. Today's money what it would buy now.
(Yr 1 Retirement)
| Fund | Ticker | What it tracks | Annual fee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⭐ Vanguard FTSE Global All-Cap | VALL/VALU | ~7,000 global companies incl. small caps | 0.07% | → |
| Vanguard FTSE All-World | VWRL/VWRA | ~3,800 global companies | 0.14% | → |
| Vanguard S&P 500 | VUAA | 500 biggest US companies | 0.07% | → |
| Invesco Nasdaq-100 | EQQQ | Top 100 US tech companies | 0.30% | → |
| iShares Core FTSE 100 | ISF | 100 biggest UK companies | 0.07% | → |
| iShares Core DAX | Varies by exchange | 40 biggest German companies | 0.16% | → |
| Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% | A fund, no ticker | 60% global stocks / 40% bonds | 0.20% | → |
| Your situation | First to check | Also on Start | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
 GBLiving in the UK | InvestEngine | Trading 212, Interactive Brokers, Vanguard Investor | Use a Stocks and Shares ISA: no UK tax on the growth, up to £20,000 a year. |
 USAmerican, at home or abroad | Fidelity | Charles Schwab, Interactive Brokers | Use the US guide even if you live abroad. Funds from other countries can bring heavy US tax. Fidelity takes US residents only. |
 FRLiving in France | Fortuneo | Bourse Direct | A PEA: no income tax on gains after 5 years, only 18.6% social charges, up to €150,000 paid in. |
 DELiving in Germany | Trade Republic | Scalable Capital, ING | Trade Republic: savings plans free, €1 per single trade. |
 AULiving in Australia | Stake | CommSec, Pearler | Stake: good if you make lots of small buys, at a flat $3 each. |
 CALiving in Canada | Wealthsimple | National Bank Direct Brokerage | Wealthsimple: $0 on Canadian-listed ETFs. |
 Living anywhere else | Interactive Brokers | Trading 212 | Trading 212 is only in some countries, so check the list. |
 ZASouth African, living abroad | Interactive Brokers | Trading 212 | EasyEquities gives non-residents international and demo accounts. Its rand, TFSA and RA accounts are for South African residents. |
 SGLiving in Singapore | Interactive Brokers | Trading 212 doesn't list Singapore | Generally no tax on share gains. Local accounts and tax: see the Singapore guide. |
| Living in Southeast Asia Thailand · Malaysia · Indonesia · Cambodia · Vietnam | Interactive Brokers | Trading 212 (Thailand) | Each guide covers local tax and moving money. Vietnam has no guide yet, so use Living anywhere else. |
 AELiving in the UAE | Interactive Brokers | Trading 212 | No personal income tax on investment income. |
A fund's annual charge is called its OCF (Ongoing Charge Figure) or expense ratio. It's taken automatically each year as a percentage of what you have invested. You never see it as a direct bill, which is exactly why it's so easy to ignore.
The problem is compound growth. A 1% annual fee doesn't just cost you 1% per year. It compounds against you every year, just as your returns compound for you. Over 30 years, the drag is enormous.
→ 0.07% fee (index fund): ends at roughly
→ 0.75% fee (typical mixed fund): ends at roughly
→ 1.5% fee (active/managed fund): ends at roughly
Same market. Same person. The fee quietly took .
The calculator's Management Fee slider (in the Advanced Options of Sandbox) lets you model exactly this. Try setting it to 1% and watch what happens to your retirement pot. Then set it to 0.07%, the going rate for a good index fund. That gap is money you keep.
The 4% rule is a rule of thumb: withdraw 4% of your pot in year one of retirement, then raise that amount with inflation each year. It's also called the 25x rule: multiply your annual spending by 25 and that's roughly the pot you need. Spend a year? You're targeting a portfolio. As a rough guide, that's the idea.
It also works in reverse: if you're already retired, divide your portfolio by 25 to get a rough guide to what your pot could support each year.
Can it fail?
Yes, in extreme circumstances, it can. The outcome depends on market returns, inflation, retirement length, and the order those returns arrive in. The 4% rule is best treated as a rule of thumb, not a promise. It worked well in much of the historical US data, including if you were to retire right before the Great Depression. William Bengen, who created the rule, later said retirees could safely withdraw 4.7% or more. However, different markets and longer retirements can justify a more cautious assumption.
Important caveat: the 4% rule is built on US historical market data going back to 1926. That does not automatically make it the right assumption for every country, portfolio, or retirement length. For the hyper-vigilant, people prefer to plan around 3.5%, especially for long retirements or non-US assumptions.
The rule was created by William Bengen, a financial planner from California, who published his research in the Journal of Financial Planning in October 1994. He wanted a data-driven answer to: "How much can I actually spend in retirement?"
He ran numbers against historical US market data back to 1926 and found that about 4% (originally 4.15%, later rounded down) held up in his historical analysis over a 30-year retirement. One of the toughest starting points was 1968, when retirees faced both weak markets and high inflation.
Nominal means the actual number on the price tag in the future: what your bank statement will say. Today's money means what that future amount can actually buy, adjusted for the fact that prices rise over time.
A simple example: if inflation runs at 2.8% for 30 years, you'd need roughly in future money to buy what buys today. The nominal figure is - that's the cash. The today's money figure is - that's the purchasing power.
This calculator shows both so you can see the actual cash number and understand what it really means. When you see an amber figure labelled "today's money", it's telling you: this is the equivalent in today's prices.
Inflation silently erodes purchasing power. /year today sounds like a clear goal - but in 30 years at 2.8% inflation, you'd need ~/year just to buy the same things. That's why this calculator inflates your target to retirement before working out how much to save.
The default 2.8% rate reflects long-run Western averages. It's chosen to be cautious. The US, UK, and euro area all target 2% inflation over the medium to longer term, so if those targets are achieved, you may be able to plan with a lower savings rate.
If you're planning to retire in an emerging market, actual inflation may run significantly higher: 4-5% or more in countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, or parts of Southeast Asia. Adjust the inflation slider to match your destination country.
This is a simple compound growth model. It does not fully model market volatility, changes in spending, or life events.
Things that could mean you need less
- State pension, Social Security, or government benefits
- Employer pension contributions or matching
- An inheritance, windfall, or property sale
- Part-time income or freelance work in early retirement
Things that could mean you need more
- Market volatility and sequence-of-returns risk - see "What is the 4% rule, and can it fail?" above
- Tax is off by default; switch it on under Advanced: Tax on withdrawals in the Sandbox. Depending on your country of residence and where your investments are held, tax could reduce your effective pot by 20 to 40% or more. If your savings are in a pre-tax account (401k, SIPP, traditional IRA), every withdrawal is taxable income. Check whether a double-taxation treaty applies between your home and retirement countries.
- Currency risk: if you retire abroad, your expenses will be in a foreign currency. Exchange rate moves of 20 to 30% are common over a decade. A drop in your home currency's value raises your real costs overnight, with no change to your portfolio.
- Investment fees: fund charges and platform costs reduce your real return
- Annual compounding: contributions are modelled once a year rather than monthly, which slightly understates what you need to save. Treat the figures as a floor, not a ceiling
Yes. The returns assume your money is actively invested: in stocks, bonds, or a mix through a pension, brokerage account, UK ISA, or similar.
Investing can feel unfamiliar, so many people default to holding excess long-term savings in cash.
If you have a pension, you're already an investor. A pension isn't a savings account. It's money put to work in financial markets on your behalf, growing through compound investment returns.
If you're investing through an international broker like Interactive Brokers, you need to get money into the account - and SWIFT transfer fees can catch you off guard. Your bank charges an outbound fee, intermediary banks take a cut, and the receiving bank may charge an inbound fee. In countries like Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Colombia, and Brazil, combined fees can easily reach $25 to 50+ per transfer.
There are ways to reduce or avoid SWIFT fees entirely. IBKR integrates directly with Wise - you can link your account and deposit for under $1. Wise provides local bank details in major currencies (USD, GBP, EUR and more), so your transfer stays domestic on both ends and skips the SWIFT network altogether. If Wise isn't available in your country, check whether your broker offers local deposit options before defaulting to an international wire.
Ad - referral link. I may receive a reward if you use this link. Visit Wise
IBKR doesn't charge for deposits but charges a small fee for more than one withdrawal per month. Always check both your bank's fees and your broker's fee schedule before setting up a regular transfer pattern.
Every default assumption in this calculator is based on publicly available historical data. These are rough long-run planning inputs, not forecasts. All returns shown here are nominal (not inflation-adjusted) unless stated.
S&P 500 - ~10.5%/yrVerified against: Shiller, R.J. Online Data. Yale University. econ.yale.edu/~shiller/data.htm
Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) - ~15%/yrFTSE All-World (VWRL) - ~8-9%/yr
DAX (European stocks) - ~7-9%/yr
FTSE 100 (UK stocks) - ~6-8%/yrGold - ~9%/yr
US REITs - ~9.4%/yr
60/40 Blend (retirement default) - ~5.5%/yrUS Savings Rates
Inflation - 2.8%/yr
The 4% Rule
Life Expectancy - 80 (male) · 84 (female) · 90 (planning horizon)This tool is a planning guide, not a forecast.
- It uses steady long-run return and inflation assumptions rather than changing year-by-year market conditions
- It simplifies saving and spending into yearly steps rather than full monthly cashflow modelling
- Its risk view is illustrative, not a full Monte Carlo model or full historical backtest
- It does not fully capture changing fees, currency moves, healthcare costs, or life events
- Tax is off by default; switch it on under Advanced: Tax on withdrawals in the Sandbox.
How is the maths applied?
Before retirement, the model adds one year of contributions, then applies growth. After retirement, it subtracts one year of spending, then applies growth. This is a yearly-step planning model, so it is designed for clarity rather than exact month-by-month cashflow precision. If a pension starts before retirement, the model assumes those payments are saved and invested until retirement.
How much difference can that make?
Usually, not much, but it's worth understanding. As an example: investing $500/month at an assumed 9% annual return over 30 years, this calculator's annual compounding model gives around $891,000. True monthly compounding gives around $922,000 - a difference of about 3.5%, or roughly $31,000. Because the annual model slightly underestimates your final pot, it plays on the safe side for planning.
The Sandbox can now model tax. Switch on Advanced: Tax on withdrawals, pick a rate, and your required saving, the tax over your retirement and the share of each withdrawal it takes all update. It's off by default, because the right rate depends on where you live, your nationality, your account type and when you sell.
What determines your tax?
- Where you live: your country of tax residence usually matters most
- Your nationality: the US taxes citizens worldwide, regardless of where they live
- Your account type: a tax-sheltered wrapper such as an ISA, pension, Roth IRA, or PEA can in some cases reduce tax to 0%
- What you sell and when: selling ETF units creates taxable events, and accumulating ETFs are not always tax-free
How much could it cost?
Tax usually falls on the gain part of what you sell, not on the whole pot. The money you paid in comes back untaxed, so what matters is how much of your pot is gain. After 25 years or more of steady saving, most of it is: at 20% on gains, about 16 to 18% of each withdrawal goes in tax. A large pot of recently added money pays much less.
Typical rates on the gain (middle band, 2026): 0% in Singapore, Malaysia, the UAE and Hong Kong; about 15% in the US, Canada, Australia and Indonesia; 18 to 20% in the UK, Germany and Thailand if remitted; about 31% in France.
For Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam, ask an adviser. A tax-sheltered wrapper such as an ISA, pension, Roth IRA or PEA can bring the rate to 0%.
Tax should be planned for, but don't let it stop you from starting. Many offshore wrappers sold to expats - often marketed as investment bonds, offshore bonds, or long-term savings plans - charge around 1-4% a year once platform, fund, advisory, and insurance charges are combined. That fee reduces the final pot substantially over time, and in some cases the product may still not improve the tax outcome on withdrawal. For the majority, a DIY approach using low-cost index funds or ETFs will leave more in their own pocket.
Any product charging layered fees should be judged on one question: after tax, after fees, and after restrictions, are you actually better off than the DIY approach? In almost all cases, the answer is no.
If you need specialist help, look for a fixed fee-only tax adviser or financial adviser - not one paid as a percentage of your portfolio. More detailed guides by country and citizenship are in development.
Useful official starting points:
Select any term to see a plain-English explanation.
For expats, locals, and anyone who wishes they'd started sooner.
Tom Talks Finance is written by a British writer based in Asia, with a background in economic affairs and data analytics, and a (perhaps unhealthy) obsession with the FIRE movement. Financial Independence, Retire Early.
The idea came from watching friends and colleagues drift into a retirement gap they hadn't seen coming. No employer pension, no home-country safety net, the problem invisible until it's much harder to fix. And from seeing local friends across the region treat property, gold, or diamonds as their primary options, not knowing that a simple index fund or ETF could outperform them.
It's also personal. Expats and locals alike are often sold products marketed as retirement planning, but which come with lock-ins, layered fees, high management charges of 1-3%, and unnecessary complexity. What many don't realise is that index fund investing is relatively straightforward: a low-cost fund, consistent contributions, and time.
The goal is simple: make retirement planning accessible, clear and actionable.
