401(k) Calculator
With annual salary 80000 usd, you contribute 6 percent, employer matches 50 percent, match applies up to 6 percent and 4 more fields, 401(k) comes to $629,178 — balance at retirement. It is reached in 11 steps, the last of which is 143135.46 + 486043.02, and each one is printed on the page with its numbers filled in. The formula is the one published by IRS, not an approximation fitted to it.
What a 401(k) grows to, how much of it is the employer match, and whether your contribution rate leaves any of that match unclaimed.
Formula and sources checked · How we check
Annual salary 80000, You contribute 6, Employer matches 50, Match applies up to 6
$629,178
Balance at retirement for the example below. Editing a field recomputes the calculator below; this figure holds the answer the page was loaded with.
It is written into the HTML rather than drawn by a script, so a search engine reading this page without running JavaScript still finds an answer.
- Your contribution a year
min(80000 * 6 / 100, 24500)$4,800- Amount over the IRS limit
max(0, 80000 * 6 / 100 - 24500)$0- Share of salary that gets matched
min(6, 6)6 %- Employer contribution a year
80000 * 6 / 100 * 50 / 100$2,400- Match you are not claiming
80000 * max(0, 6 - 6) / 100 * 50 / 100$0- Going in each year
4800 + 2400$7,200- What the current balance grows to
25000 * pow(1 + 0.0058333, 300)$143,135- What future contributions grow to
(7200 / 12) * (pow(1 + 0.0058333, 300) - 1) / 0.0058333$486,043- Balance at retirement
143135.46 + 486043.02$629,178- Employer money over the whole period
2400 * 25$60,000- What it costs your take-home, at a 22% bracket
4800 * 0.78$3,744
Worked example
On $80,000 at 6%, you put in $4,800 and the employer adds $2,400 — free money that costs nothing to claim. Over 25 years at 7% the account reaches $629,178, and $60,000 of what went in came from the employer.
How to work it out yourself
- 1.Check the match line first. Contributing less than the percentage your employer matches to is turning down part of your salary, and no investment decision matters more.
- 2.Watch the IRS limit: $24,500 of elective deferrals for 2026, with a catch-up allowance on top from age 50. Front-loading a high contribution rate can hit the limit early and stop the match for the rest of the year at some employers.
- 3.The take-home line is the point of a traditional 401(k): a dollar contributed costs less than a dollar of pay, because it comes out before income tax.
The formula
- Your contribution a year
min(80000 * 6 / 100, 24500) - Amount over the IRS limit
max(0, 80000 * 6 / 100 - 24500) - Share of salary that gets matched
min(6, 6) - Employer contribution a year
80000 * 6 / 100 * 50 / 100 - Match you are not claiming
80000 * max(0, 6 - 6) / 100 * 50 / 100 - Going in each year
4800 + 2400 - What the current balance grows to
25000 * pow(1 + 0.0058333, 300) - What future contributions grow to
(7200 / 12) * (pow(1 + 0.0058333, 300) - 1) / 0.0058333 - Balance at retirement
143135.46 + 486043.02 - Employer money over the whole period
2400 * 25 - What it costs your take-home, at a 22% bracket
4800 * 0.78
Source: IRS — 401(k) and profit-sharing plan contribution limits, US SEC Investor.gov — compound interest calculator
Questions people actually ask
- How much should I contribute to get the full match?
- At least the percentage your employer matches up to. A "50% match on the first 6%" means contributing 6% earns 3% of salary from the employer; contributing 4% earns only 2% and leaves the rest permanently unclaimed. The line above puts a dollar figure on whatever you are leaving behind.
- What is the 401(k) limit for 2026?
- $24,500 in elective deferrals, set by the IRS and adjusted for inflation each year. Catch-up contributions are allowed on top from age 50, and the overall limit on all contributions to the account — yours, the employer’s and forfeitures — is higher again. The employer match does not count against the elective deferral limit.
- Is the employer match really free money?
- Yes, once it vests. A 50% match is an immediate 50% return on the contribution, which nothing in an investment portfolio comes close to. Vesting schedules mean it may not be yours until you have been there a few years, and leaving before then forfeits the unvested part — which is worth checking before a job move.
- Traditional or Roth?
- Traditional deducts now and taxes withdrawals; Roth taxes now and withdraws tax-free. The arithmetic favours whichever bracket is lower — traditional if your rate now is higher than in retirement, Roth if lower. A common approach is to split them, since nobody knows what rates will be in thirty years.
Related
- Investment CalculatorWhat regular contributions grow to over time, with the inflation-adjusted figure beside the nominal one.
- Compound Interest CalculatorFuture value of a starting balance plus monthly contributions, separating what you put in from what the interest earned.
- Salary CalculatorPay converted between every period — hourly, daily, weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, monthly and annual — with unpaid holidays and days off taken out.
- Roth IRA CalculatorWhat a Roth IRA grows to, how much of that balance is growth the IRS never taxes, and what the same money would be worth in a taxable account.
- Retirement CalculatorWhat your savings reach by retirement and how many years they last against the spending you plan, with inflation applied to both sides.
- Pension CalculatorA defined-benefit pension from years of service and final salary, with the age-62 multiplier cliff and the early-retirement reduction both priced.
Part of a job
- Planning retirement — 9 pages, in the order the questions arrive
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