Retirement Calculator Canada

Two numbers decide whether a retirement plan works: what your savings will grow to by the day you stop work, and what the retirement you picture actually costs. This calculator projects both, using your own return assumptions before and after retirement, and shows the surplus or shortfall in one line.

Your current ageAge you want to retirePlan to age (life expectancy)Savings you have today ($)Monthly saving from now on ($)Return while saving (%)Spending you want each year in retirement ($)Return during retirement (%)

A planning illustration in today’s dollars style: it does not index spending for inflation, and it does not subtract CPP, OAS or workplace pension income. Add those expected benefits by lowering the yearly spending your savings must cover.

How it works

The first half compounds what you have plus what you add each month until your retirement age. The second half works backwards from your target spending: a yearly amount, lasting from retirement to your planning age, discounted at your retirement return, is the nest egg you need on day one of retirement.

CPP and OAS matter enormously and are deliberately not guessed here. If you expect, for example, $25,000 a year combined from CPP and OAS, enter only the remaining spending your own savings must fund. That single adjustment is why many Canadians need less personal savings than headline figures suggest.

Worked example

The calculator’s own output for a 35-year-old with $50,000 saved, adding $600 a month at 6% until 65, then spending $50,000 a year to age 90 with a 4% retirement return:

Item	Amount
Age now / retire / plan to	35 / 65 / 90
Savings today + monthly	$50,000.00 + $600.00 a month at 6%
Projected savings at 65	$903,837.79
Spending target	$50,000.00 a year for 25 years at 4%
Nest egg needed at 65	$781,104.00
Projected surplus	$122,733.79

Frequently asked questions

How much do I need to retire in Canada?

It depends almost entirely on yearly spending. At a 4% retirement return, every $10,000 a year of spending for 25 years needs about $156,221 of savings at retirement, before CPP and OAS reduce the part your savings must cover.

Should I include CPP and OAS?

Yes, by subtraction. Estimate your combined CPP and OAS at your planned start ages and enter only the spending left for your own savings to fund. Starting CPP at 60 cuts it by 0.6% per month before 65; delaying to 70 raises it by 0.7% per month after 65.

What return should I assume in retirement?

A lower one than while saving, because retirees usually hold safer portfolios and cannot wait out a bad decade as easily. Testing 3% to 4% is a common cautious range.

What if the calculator shows a shortfall?

You have four levers: save more each month, retire later, spend less in retirement, or invest for a higher return with more risk. Retiring later pulls three levers at once: more saving years, more compounding, and fewer spending years.

Does this include inflation?

Not explicitly. If your return assumptions are nominal, treat the spending figure as growing with inflation in real life. A simple stress test is to rerun the numbers with returns 2 percentage points lower.

More free calculators

For education only. This calculator gives estimates, not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures use 2026 rates where a rate is built in; confirm your own numbers before making a decision.