Short version: use these calculators to plan, not to replace your plan statement or a professional's advice. The long version follows.
Typing an age, a balance, or a contribution rate into any tool on this site does not open an account, request advice, or establish a relationship with an advisor, broker, or plan administrator, because RetirementCalc is none of those things. It is a set of formulas, wrapped in an interface, that turns the numbers you type into a projection. Nothing that comes out of a calculator is a benefits statement, an official required-distribution figure from your custodian, or a substitute for what your actual plan documents say.
Fields that ask for an expected return or an inflation rate start with a default value; that default is a reasonable planning assumption, not a forecast of what markets will do, and swapping in your own number is expected. Fields tied to a federal rule, a 401k contribution ceiling, an IRA catch-up amount, an RMD factor, are pulled from the tax year named on the editorial standards page, which also explains how often we check them against a new IRS release.
Every number a calculator returns assumes the inputs stayed constant for the whole period you asked about: same contribution, same return, same rate. Actual accounts rarely behave that way. Fees, plan-specific rules, a market that does not move in a straight line, and a contribution habit that changes with a raise or a rough year, all push a real balance away from a clean projection. That gap is not a bug in the math; it is the difference between a model and a life.
A decision you make because of a number from this site, including whether to save more, retire on a given date, or choose one account type over another, is your decision, and the outcome belongs to you, not to RetirementCalc. We are not responsible for losses tied to that decision or to a third-party page you reached by clicking a link here. Treat the calculators as a way to compare scenarios and sharpen the questions you bring to your plan provider or a licensed professional, not as a stand-in for either one.
RetirementCalc carries Google AdSense advertising and a small number of affiliate links, Amazon Associates among them; buying something through one of those links can pay us a commission without costing you extra. The editorial standards page covers why that arrangement does not touch a calculator's formula or output.
A material change to how the site or its calculators work gets reflected here, dated at the top. Keep using the site after that date and the current version is the one that applies.