Retirement target calculator
Enter your spending in retirement and your Korean national pension, and it works out what has to be in place by the time you stop.
Enter what you expect to spend each month in retirement and what Korea's National Pension is projected to pay, and this works out how much has to be in place on the day you stop. It can run for one person or a couple, and a couple's two pensions are counted separately. Inflation, returns after retirement and the gap before the pension starts are all included.
Your numbers
What you enter is saved in this browser, so it is still here next time
One person spending, one pension
The longer you set it, the more you need
Enter what you could live on at today's prices; inflation is added for you
Leave it at 0 if you do not know — the target then comes out conservative
Korea's National Pension starts at 65 for anyone born in 1969 or later. Retire before that and you live on assets alone in between.
A mortgage, for instance. It is treated as repaid at retirement and added to the target. Enter 0 if there is none.
Most people invest more cautiously after retiring, so 3–4% is common
What you need to have saved
Needed by age 60
₩1.06B
First year of retirement (after inflation)
- Living costs a month
- ₩4,915,849
- Pension a month
- ₩0
- Shortfall a month (taken from assets)
- ₩4,915,849
When each pension starts (on your age)
- You — from age 65 (5 years after retiring)
- ₩1,853,944 a month
5 years with no pension
- Retire at 60 → first pension at 65
- 5 years of nothing
- Needed for living costs over that stretch
- ₩286.6M
The assumptions
- Years left to save
- 20 yrs
- Years retired
- 30 yrs
- Share of living costs the pension covers
- 33%
- Real return (return − inflation)
- 1.46%
For 5 years after retiring there is no pension, so living costs come entirely out of assets. That stretch is the single biggest driver of the target — retiring later, or setting money aside specifically for it, is the safer course.
The real figure depends heavily on the returns you actually get, on inflation, on how long you live and on your health. This estimate assumes living costs and pensions both rise with inflation, that assets earn the return you entered throughout retirement, and that withdrawals happen at the start of each year.
The three steps
Set a target, save towards it, then work out how to spend what you saved — each step carries into the next
Make a link with these numbers
Opening the link fills this screen with the same values. Useful for going through it with a partner, or for comparing two sets of conditions.
Common questions
QHow much does retirement usually need?
There is no single right answer. The starting point is monthly spending times the length of retirement, but inflation raises what the same life costs while the remaining savings keep earning, so it differs from plain multiplication. This calculator applies both and gives a figure as of the day you retire.
QWhere do I find my projected national pension?
The National Pension Service website or app shows your projection. Leaving it at zero is fine — the calculation then ignores the pension, which makes the target conservative (larger).
QWhat inflation and return should I enter?
2–3% for inflation and a conservative 3–4% for returns after retirement are common. What drives the result is the gap between the two (the real return), so rather than trying to pick one exact number, vary them and read the result as a range.
QWhat life expectancy should I use?
A longer figure is safer but raises the target. Five to ten years beyond average life expectancy is common. If the target looks out of reach, pushing back the retirement age usually helps more than cutting spending.
QWhat is the pension gap?
The years between stopping work and the national pension starting, when savings alone have to cover everything. Anyone born after 1969 receives it from 65, so retiring at 55 leaves a ten-year gap. Spending comes entirely out of savings in that window, which raises the target sharply. Enter a pension start age later than the retirement age and this period is included, with the amount it needs shown separately.
QWhat about a loan that is still outstanding?
Put whatever will still be owed at retirement — a mortgage, say — in the outstanding balance field. It is treated as repaid from savings at that point and added straight to the target. Interest is not modelled precisely, so if you plan to keep paying it down, leave extra room for the remaining interest.
QWhat changes for a couple?
Spending, savings and debts are entered once, for the household, but the national pension is counted separately because each person receives their own. The two amounts differ, and different ages mean they start at different times, so the spouse's pension, their start age and the age gap are entered separately. If a spouse is three years older and claims at 65, their pension begins when you are 62 and yours joins three years later.
QFor a couple, whose life expectancy do I enter?
Use whichever of you is likely to live longer — when one dies the survivor's costs continue. The calculator does not model spending falling after that point, nor survivor benefits, so the result is somewhat conservative (a larger target).