Quick answer
If your retirement plan ignores inflation, it likely understates how much you need. The longer your timeline, the more future dollars you will need to maintain the same lifestyle.
What $1 million buys over time
| Inflation rate | 20 years | 25 years | 30 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2% | $673,000 | $610,000 | $552,000 |
| 3% | $554,000 | $478,000 | $412,000 |
| 4% | $456,000 | $375,000 | $308,000 |
How it works
Set your spending
Enter monthly retirement spending in today's dollars.
Apply inflation
Use 2.5%, 3%, or a more conservative rate to grow that target over time.
Compare the gap
See whether your current savings plan still works after inflation is included.
Run the inflation scenario
Preloaded advanced mode highlights inflation and year-by-year projections.
Why this matters
Inflation does not just raise grocery and travel costs. It also changes healthcare budgets, taxes on withdrawals, and the amount your investments need to produce each year. A retiree who plans on $70,000 per year today may need dramatically more in nominal dollars by the time retirement starts.
RetireWellCalc handles inflation in two places: it grows your required retirement target over your working years, and it uses a separate post-retirement return assumption so you can avoid overestimating what a conservative retirement portfolio may earn.
Social Security helps because benefits include cost-of-living adjustments, but it rarely covers the full household budget. That is why inflation-aware planning matters most for the spending your portfolio must fund.