Saving 15% of your income

The short answer

Saving 15% of your income reaches financial independence in about 42.8 years from a standing start, at a 5% real return. Beginning at 30 that is independence around age 73, with a target of 25.0 times spending drawn at 4%. Your salary is not part of that calculation.

Change the inputs that do matter

Income is here only to show the dollar amounts. Move it and the number of years does not budge.

Saving each year $12,000
Living on $68,000
Target at 25.0x $1.70M

How much the return assumption moves it

Years to independence by real return
Real returnYearsIndependent at
3%56.186
4%48.478
5%42.873
6%39.670
7%36.266

Saving 15%

42.8years

Independent at 73, starting from 30.

Living on 85% of income
Target multiple 25.0x spending
Moving to 20% −5.0 yrs

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Against every other rate

The curve is steep at the bottom and flat at the top. Moving from 10% to 15% buys far more time than moving from 60% to 70%, which is worth knowing before setting a heroic target.

Years to financial independence by savings rate
Savings rateLive onYears to FIIndependent at
10%90%51.481
15% this page85%42.873
20%80%37.868
25%75%34.164
30%70%30.160
35%65%26.657
40%60%24.555
50%50%19.149
60%40%14.544
70%30%10.440

Worth knowing: most published versions of this table fix the target at 25 times spending, which assumes a 30-year retirement no matter how early you finish. That flatters the high rates. Save 70% and you stop in your forties, needing the money to last 50 years, where a 4% withdrawal has a poor record. The multiple here is solved rather than assumed, so it rises to 25.0 times at this rate. That is why the figures run a little longer than the ones you may have seen. Where the rate comes from covers the research.

Common questions

How long does it take to retire saving 15% of your income?

About 43 years from a standing start, at a 5% real return. Starting at 30 that puts independence around age 73. Your income does not appear in that answer, which surprises most people the first time they see it.

Why does income not matter?

Because the savings rate does two jobs at once. It sets how fast the portfolio fills, and it sets how small a portfolio you need, since what you do not save is what you live on. Earn $70,000 and save 15%, or earn $250,000 and save 15%, and the number of years is identical. Income changes how comfortable those years are, not how many there are.

Is 15% a good savings rate?

It is a normal rate and it produces a normal career: roughly 43 years to independence, finishing around age 73. Nothing wrong with it, but it is worth knowing that raising the rate a little moves the date a lot at this end of the scale.

What would move the date most?

Raising the rate. Going from 15% to 20% takes 5.0 years off the timeline. Cutting spending does it twice over, because every dollar you stop spending is a dollar saved and roughly 25 dollars off the target. Counting Social Security also lowers the target materially, which this page leaves out.

Assumptions on this page. Starting from zero invested, saving a constant share of a constant real income, at a constant real return, with the plan modelled through age 95. Real means after inflation, so every figure is in today's dollars. The target multiple is solved by iterating until the retirement age and the withdrawal rate agree, rather than fixed at 25 times. Existing savings shorten all of these; a raise you do not spend shortens them further. Social Security is excluded and counting it lowers the target materially, which the spending-level pages work through. Taxes are excluded, so read the savings rate as a share of take-home pay rather than gross. These are planning estimates, not advice; read the model's limitations.

Saving a different share

10%20%25%30%35%40%50%60%70%

Related: What is FIRE, Coast FIRE, Spending levels, All savings rates.