A retirement contribution is one of the few moves that lowers this year's tax bill and builds something at the same time. See your contribution against the 2026 limits, what the employer match adds, what it saves you in April, and where compounding takes it.
Enter your salary and contribution rate to project the balance.
Your deferral, the match it earns, and how much room is left under the limit.
The deduction means the money leaving your paycheck is worth more than it feels.
End-of-month contributions, compounded monthly at your assumed return.
Educational estimate only, not tax, legal, or accounting advice. Every situation is different; book a consultation for guidance specific to you.
These are the exact 2026 figures this calculator applies.
How the projection works: your annual contribution plus employer match is divided by twelve and treated as an end-of-month payment, compounded monthly at your assumed rate, alongside any current balance growing at the same rate. Contributions are held flat in nominal terms, no salary growth, no annual limit increases and no inflation adjustment. Not modeled: Roth contributions, the overall combined limit on employer plus employee additions, vesting schedules, plan fees and expense ratios, investment risk or sequence-of-returns risk, required minimum distributions, tax on withdrawal, state income tax, and the Section 199A interaction for business owners. The tax saving shown is federal income tax only, a 401(k) deferral does not reduce Social Security or Medicare tax.
People spend hours arguing about 6% versus 8%. These three choices move the outcome further.
An employer match is the only guaranteed return in the whole exercise. A 50% match on the first 6% of pay is an instant 50% on those dollars. Contributing less than the match threshold leaves money on the table every single payroll run.
If you own your practice, a solo 401(k) lets you contribute as both employee and employer, often well beyond a standard deferral. SEP and SIMPLE IRAs are simpler but have different ceilings and rules once you have staff. The right plan is an entity question, not just a savings question.
The growth column at the end of the chart is mostly compounding, not contributions. Ten years of a modest deferral usually beats five years of a heroic one, which is why we push retirement conversations to the beginning of a client relationship rather than the end.
We help practice owners choose between a solo 401(k), SEP and SIMPLE, weigh Roth against traditional, coordinate contributions with reasonable compensation if you run an S corporation, and set the plan up so it actually gets funded rather than intended.
