Returns and inflation vary widely by country, currency, and time period — the starting numbers are neutral placeholders, not a prediction. Replace them with your own expectations.
If these assumptions hold, your savings would land about $500,394 below the $1,075,000 needed to draw $50,000 a year at a 4% withdrawal rate. Contributing more, retiring later, or a stronger return would each narrow that difference.
The target does not assume you spend the same amount every year forever. Real retiree spending tends to run high through the active early years, ease through the seventies, then lift again later as care costs arrive — the spending smile. Across ages 65–95 that averages about 86% of the income you entered, roughly $175,000 less capital than a flat-spending assumption would ask for. OptiAI uses the same model, so this should match what you see in the app for the same inputs.
Educational estimate, not financial advice, and every figure is conditional on the assumptions you entered — if they hold. Everything is shown in today's money: the projection grows at the Fisher real return (your nominal return adjusted for inflation), so it is directly comparable to the income figure you typed. It does not model taxes, Social Security beyond whatever you enter as guaranteed income, sequence-of-returns risk, healthcare costs rising faster than general inflation, or a safety margin.
How to read your result
The projection compounds your current savings and monthly contributions up to your retirement age at your real return — your nominal return adjusted for inflation using the Fisher formula, r = (1+nominal)/(1+inflation) − 1. That keeps the projection in today's purchasing power, so it is directly comparable to the income figure you typed in rather than to some larger, inflated future number.
The target is the capital needed to draw that income at your chosen withdrawal rate, after subtracting any guaranteed income such as a pension. The difference between the two is your projected surplus or shortfall — a difference, not a verdict.
Spending is not assumed flat forever
Dividing your desired income by a withdrawal rate assumes you spend the same amount every year until you die. Real retiree spending tends to run high through the active early years, ease through the seventies, then lift again later as care costs arrive — the spending smile. The target scales your income figure by the average across your horizon, and the flat-spending target is shown alongside so you can see the size of the difference.
This is the same model OptiAI uses in the app, so the number does not move when you sign up. The app additionally lets you edit the spending stages and apply a safety margin; this tool keeps the standard three stages and no margin.
How OptiAI helps
OptiAI keeps your retirement goal alongside your net worth and other life goals, so you can revisit assumptions as life changes and ask an AI assistant how you are tracking — instead of redoing the math by hand.