How is the Roth IRA projection calculated?

Each year the calculator grows your existing balance by the return rate, then adds your contribution. End-of-year timing grows the balance first and adds the contribution after; start-of-year timing adds the contribution first so it compounds for the full year. It repeats this for every year from your current age to retirement.

Why is a Roth IRA balance tax-free?

Roth IRA contributions are made with money you have already paid income tax on. In return, qualified withdrawals in retirement — including all the investment growth — are not taxed, provided you meet the age and holding-period rules. That is why this tool labels the final figure tax-free.

What return rate should I assume?

There is no live market data here — you choose the rate. A broad stock-market portfolio has historically averaged roughly 6 to 8 percent a year after inflation over long periods, but returns are never guaranteed and vary year to year. Try a conservative and an optimistic rate to see the range.

Does the calculator know my contribution limit?

No. Annual Roth IRA limits and income eligibility change by year and country, so the tool lets you enter any contribution. Check the current limit for your tax year and make sure you are eligible before relying on a projection.

What does the contribution step-up do?

The step-up increases your contribution by a fixed percentage each year, which models raising your savings as your income grows. Leave it at 0 percent for a flat contribution every year.

Is my financial data private?

Completely. Every figure is calculated in your browser and your inputs are saved only in your own browser storage. Nothing is ever uploaded to a server.

Roth IRA Calculator — Gera Tools

A Roth IRA calculator that turns three simple choices — how much you contribute, how many years you have, and the return you expect — into a projected tax-free balance at retirement. It draws a growth chart separating your own contributions from compound investment growth, and gives you a full year-by-year breakdown so you can see exactly how the number is built. It is for anyone planning long-term retirement saving who wants to understand the power of tax-free compounding rather than just trust a single headline figure.

How it works

A Roth IRA is funded with after-tax money, so qualified withdrawals in retirement are completely tax-free, including every dollar of growth. This tool models that growth year by year. Starting from your current balance, each year it applies your expected annual return and then adds your yearly contribution. You can choose whether contributions land at the start of the year, where they compound for a full extra year, or at the end of the year, which is the more conservative assumption. An optional step-up lets your contribution rise by a fixed percentage each year to mirror a growing income.

The engine repeats this loop for every year between your current age and your chosen retirement age, accumulating three things: your total contributions, the compound growth on top, and the running balance. The result splits cleanly into money you put in versus money the market earned for you — usually the larger share over a long horizon.

The core relationship is compound growth on a balance plus a recurring contribution:

Balance next year = Balance now × (1 + r) + Contribution

where r is your annual return as a decimal (for example 7% becomes 0.07). The chart plots the projected balance against the cumulative amount you contributed, so the widening gap between the two lines is your tax-free growth.

Worked example

Suppose you are 30 years old with $10,000 already in a Roth IRA and you contribute $7,000 a year until you retire at 65, assuming a 7% annual return with end-of-year contributions.

Over those 35 years you contribute $245,000 of your own money on top of the $10,000 you started with — about $255,000 invested in total. Yet the projected balance at age 65 is roughly $1.07 million, meaning compound growth adds well over $800,000 on top of what you put in. Because it is a Roth, that entire balance is tax-free to withdraw in retirement. At a 4% safe-withdrawal rate that is around $3,500 a month of tax-free income.

Switching contributions to the start of each year, or nudging the assumed return up by a single percentage point, moves the final figure by tens of thousands of dollars — which is exactly why testing a few scenarios is more useful than any single number. Every calculation runs in your browser, and no figures are uploaded or stored anywhere.