Virginia 401(k) calculator

A retirement projection is only as honest as its assumptions, and the assumptions are usually hidden. This one is not. Every figure that drives the result is a field you can see and change, and the two most important ones, the return and the number of years, are entirely yours to choose.

What the tool adds is the part people get wrong by hand: the contribution limit, the shape of an employer match, and the fact that money paid in during a year does not earn a full year of growth.

What does this 401(k) calculator project?

It projects a balance forward year by year from your current balance, your contribution, your employer match and an assumed annual return. It caps your contribution at the 2026 elective deferral limit for your age. It does not adjust for inflation, does not grow your salary, and does not model fees, vesting or withdrawals.

The eight inputs are Current balance, Annual salary, Your contribution, Employer match, Match applies up to, Your age, Years to project and Assumed annual return.

How this calculator works

Three calculations happen before the projection starts.

Your contribution is salary multiplied by the contribution percentage, then capped. The 2026 elective deferral limit is $24,500. If you are 50 or older a $8,000 catch-up is added; if you are aged 60 to 63 the catch-up is $11,250 instead. If your percentage would take you above the resulting cap, the tool uses the cap and says so in a caveat.

The employer match is the smaller of your contribution and the match limit slice of salary, multiplied by the match percentage. So a 50% match up to 6% of salary on an $80,000 salary caps the employer money at 50% of $4,800, which is $2,400. Contributing 10% instead of 6% does not increase that figure by a cent.

Then it compounds. Each year the existing balance grows by the full return, and that year contributions grow by half the return, because money paid in across twelve months earns roughly half a year of growth. In formula terms: new balance equals old balance times (1 plus return), plus contributions times (1 plus return divided by 2).

The growth line at the bottom is the ending balance minus everything contributed during the projection minus the starting balance, so it isolates what the market did.

What does a worked example look like?

A 35-year-old on $80,000 with $30,000 already saved, contributing 6%, matched at 50% up to 6% of salary, projected 25 years at a 6% assumed return.

Watching the balance build makes the shape clearer than the endpoint does.

The last five years add $166,615, more than the first fifteen years added in total. That is compounding doing its work late, and it is the argument for not interrupting a projection in the middle.

How much is the employer match worth?

Enough that it is usually the highest return decision available. Same person, same 25 years, contributing 3% instead of 6% and so collecting only half the available match.

Raising the contribution from 3% to 6% costs $2,400 a year and ends $203,437 higher, because the employer adds a matching $1,200 every year alongside it. The match limit is the line worth finding in your plan documents.

What is my contribution limit at my age?

The tool sets it from the age you enter, using the 2026 figures.

The 60 to 63 band is a higher catch-up window, and it closes again at 64. One thing the projection does not do is age you: if you enter 48 and project 25 years, it uses the under-50 limit for all 25 of them. Full detail is in the 2026 contribution limits guide.

How do I use it, step by step?

1. Enter your Current balance from your latest plan statement, including any employer money already vested.
2. Enter Annual salary as gross pay before deductions.
3. Set Your contribution as the percentage on your deferral election, not a dollar amount.
4. Find the two match numbers in your plan summary. Employer match is the share the employer adds, and Match applies up to is the percentage of salary the match stops at. A dollar-for-dollar match up to 4% is 100 and 4.
5. Enter Your age so the right catch-up applies, and Years to project as the years until you expect to stop contributing.
6. Set Assumed annual return conservatively and then try it again a couple of points lower. The spread between those two answers is the honest range.

Common mistakes

Reading the balance as spending money in today terms. It is in future dollars. At 3% inflation, $535,631 in 25 years buys roughly what $255,800 buys now. The projection deliberately does not deflate the figure, so do that arithmetic yourself before deciding it is enough.

Contributing above the match limit and expecting more match. The employer figure stops at the match limit slice of salary. Going from 6% to 10% on the worked example adds $3,200 of your own money and $0 of employer money.

Entering a match of 100 when it is 50. The Employer match field is the share the employer adds to your contribution, and Match applies up to is where it stops. Mixing the two up is the most common input error on this tool and it doubles or halves the employer line.

Assuming a flat salary is conservative. It is not conservative, it is just wrong in a particular direction. Salaries usually rise, so a percentage contribution rises too, and the projection understates the contributions while overstating them in real terms because inflation is ignored. The two errors run in opposite directions and do not reliably cancel.

Treating the return as a known quantity. A 6% assumption is a smooth line through an unsmooth reality. The sequence matters: a poor decade at the start does far more damage than the same decade at the end, and no average return figure shows that.

Where this projection stops

It has no fees. Plan administration charges and fund expense ratios come straight out of the return, and a difference of half a percent a year is visible over 25 years. Subtract your all-in fee from the assumed return before entering it.

It has no vesting. Employer contributions frequently vest over several years, so leaving early can mean giving some of the match back, and the projection counts every dollar as yours from day one.

It has no tax. A traditional 401(k) balance is taxed on withdrawal at ordinary income rates; a Roth balance is not. The same projected number means different spending power depending on which one you hold. And it has no withdrawals, no loans, no required minimum distributions and no employer profit-sharing contributions.

It also caps at the elective deferral limit only, which is the employee limit. The separate overall annual additions limit that covers employer money is not modeled.

Before you change your contribution

• Find the exact match formula in your summary plan description, not from memory
• Check whether you are contributing at least up to the match limit
• Look up your plan fees and subtract them from the return you assume
• Check the vesting schedule if you might change jobs in the next few years
• Confirm whether your plan offers a Roth option, and which one suits your current rate
• Re-run the projection at a return two points lower to see the downside case
• Check whether an IRA belongs alongside the plan, especially if the plan menu is poor

Contribution limits are inflation adjusted most years, so the $24,500 figure and both catch-up amounts will move, and the projection holds them flat. Revisit the numbers each January, and if a bonus is coming, decide before payday whether part of it should go into the plan. Where the money is invested matters as much as how much of it there is, which is the subject of our broker comparison.