Are you really ready for retirement?

A retirement plan begins with today’s monthly household expenses and the parts of that spending you expect to continue. Some costs may reduce, while health, support and leisure costs may change in another direction.

Write down the assumptions rather than hiding them inside a single target. The quality of the conversation improves when the expense estimate is visible.

The first year of retirement is only the beginning of the period your savings may need to support. Inflation can increase the monthly expense over a long retirement, even when the lifestyle itself does not become more extravagant.

Life expectancy is an important planning assumption. It is not a prediction; it is the age through which you want to test whether the plan remains funded.

Existing retirement savings may continue to grow before retirement under an assumed return. New contributions, pensions or other resources may also be relevant, but should be considered clearly and without double-counting.

A funding gap is a signal to review the assumptions and choices. It is not a recommendation to buy a particular fund, policy or product.

Try a higher expense assumption, a longer retirement period or a different return assumption. A result that changes dramatically is telling you where more thought may be useful.

The Retirement Calculator provides a transparent, indicative view of future monthly expense, corpus requirement, projected existing savings and potential gap. The output is educational, not personalized investment advice.