Retirement Assessment
Are You On Track for Retirement?
Answer 10 quick questions to get a personalized score across savings rate, asset benchmarks, and funding projections.
I built this assessment around the same benchmarks I use with my own clients, so you get a real answer, not a generic one.
No sign-up required · Instant results
How old are you?
By Jay Chang, VP, Wealth Advisor
Last updated July 6, 2026
What Does a Retirement Readiness Score Measure?
It measures whether your current savings, savings rate, and timeline are likely to fund the retirement you described. This assessment scores three things: how much of your income you save, how your assets compare to age-based benchmarks, and your funded ratio, the projection of what you will have against what your spending requires.
Guaranteed income counts too. Pension and Social Security estimates reduce what your portfolio must cover, so the required nest egg is calculated after netting them out. The result is a 0 to 100 score plus a dollar comparison of projected versus required assets.
When Is It Worth Checking Your Retirement Readiness?
Whenever the plan has to hold up against a real decision. The moments I see most:
- Ten to fifteen years out. There is still time to change the outcome. A low score at 50 is a to-do list; a low score at 64 is a problem.
- Before retiring earlier than 65. Retiring at 58 or 60 means funding health insurance and living costs before Medicare and Social Security begin. I wrote about what changes when you retire at 58 in a system built for 65.
- After a layoff or package offer. A severance window compresses the retirement question into weeks. My guide to forced early retirement decisions covers the 60-day version of this math.
- After a big income or family change. A raise, a divorce, an inheritance, or a spouse leaving work all shift both sides of the projected versus required equation.
- Once a year, on a schedule. The score is a snapshot. Tracking it annually shows whether the trend is moving your way.
A score tells you where you stand. It does not tell you which lever to pull first, in what order, or how taxes change the answer. That sequencing is the core of my retirement planning work.
How to Use This Calculator
- Answer 10 quick questions about your age, income, savings, and planned retirement spending. It takes about 60 seconds.
- Include pension and Social Security estimates if you have them. Guaranteed income lowers what your portfolio has to cover.
- Read your 0 to 100 score and the projected versus required comparison, which shows the dollar gap if one exists.
- Retake it with a higher savings rate or a later retirement date and watch how the score moves. The levers matter more than the snapshot.
Retirement Readiness Questions I Hear Most
How do I know if I'm on track for retirement?
Compare what your savings will grow to by retirement against what your planned spending requires. This assessment does that comparison and scores it across three inputs: your savings rate, your assets relative to age-based benchmarks, and your projected funded ratio.
How much money do I need to retire?
A working estimate is about 25 times the annual spending your portfolio must cover, the inverse of a 4 percent initial withdrawal rate. The assessment uses that math after first netting out Social Security and pension income. Guaranteed income directly reduces the nest egg you need.
Does Social Security count toward readiness?
Yes. Every dollar of guaranteed monthly income is a dollar your portfolio does not have to produce. The assessment subtracts expected Social Security and pension income from your spending need before calculating the required nest egg. That is why claiming strategy can move the answer meaningfully.
What should I do if my score is low?
You have four levers: save more each year, retire later, spend less in retirement, or restructure how your money is invested and taxed. Small moves compound. Retake the assessment with one lever changed to see which moves your score most. That is usually where planning should start.
Is the 4 percent rule still reliable?
It is a screening tool, not a plan. It ignores the order of market returns, taxes, and how spending actually changes through retirement. Use it for a first estimate, then stress-test the same plan across hundreds of market sequences to see how it holds up when returns arrive in an unlucky order.