Retirement calculator: what the lifestyle you want could cost from 65 to 95
This calculator estimates what the retirement lifestyle you want could cost, year by year, from age 65 to 95. Spending is split into three stages: the active Go-Go years, the slower Slow-Go years and the No-Go years closer to home. Each year is adjusted for the inflation rate you choose. It shows a spending need, not a savings target, and it leaves out taxes, government benefits, pensions and savings. It is an illustration for planning, not advice.
The retirement reality calculator
Here is something worth thinking about. Most people spend more time planning a two week vacation than planning the thirty years that come after work. They picture retirement as one number. It is not one number; it is three chapters. And quietly, year after year, inflation rewrites the price of every one of them. Take two minutes. Look at the real number. You cannot change what you refuse to look at.
Your numbers
Begin where you are. Every plan worth having starts with the truth about today.
Your current gross annual income, in Canadian dollars.
The share of today's income you would like retirement to feel like.
Used to carry your income need forward to age 65.
The Bank of Canada aims for 2%. The calculator starts at 2.5% as a cautious long-term assumption; you can change it.
Your results
Retirement spending is not one flat line. It moves. It is highest in the active early years, it eases as life slows, and later it shifts toward care and comfort. Three seasons, three numbers, each adjusted for inflation.
At 65, your full Go-Go lifestyle could cost $0 in the first year alone.
Go-Go years
Age 65 to 74 · 10 years · 100% of your target
$0
The active years: travel, long-awaited projects, hobbies. Spending is at its peak.
Slow-Go years
Age 75 to 84 · 10 years · 85% of your target
$0
Winding down: still independent, at a gentler pace, with fewer and shorter trips.
No-Go years
Age 85 to 95 · 11 years · 75% of your target
$0
Closer to home: less spent on travel, more on health care and help at home.
Your projected 31 year retirement need
$0
Total projected cost of the three stages, age 65 to 95, at the inflation rate you chose.
The question behind the numbers
Are you ready?
Retirement does not arrive on a birthday. It arrives one decision at a time, years before the date.
The number above is not a verdict. It is an invitation to decide.
Some people will see that total and look away. Others will see it and begin. The difference is rarely luck. It is a decision made early, and kept.
One discipline worth learning is building capital you control before you need it, so that the purchases of the next thirty years do not all depend on a lender's terms. It is not a promise, and it does not suit everyone. It is a conversation worth having.
Thirty minutes, at no cost. Sometimes the answer is that this approach is not for you, and that is a good outcome too.
How to read your number
The first time you see the total, it can feel too large to be useful. Read it the other way around. The total is not a bill that arrives on your sixty-fifth birthday; it is thirty-one separate years, each paid from whatever income and capital you have arranged by then. The question is not whether the number is frightening. The question is which part of it is already covered, and which part is still waiting for a decision.
Start with the first year of the Go-Go stage. That single figure tells you what one year of the life you described could cost once inflation has done its work between today and 65. Then look at how much the total moves when you change the inflation rate by half a point. That difference is the price of assuming the future will be kind.
Then change your age. Move the slider five years later and watch what happens. Every year you wait is a year the price keeps rising while the time to prepare keeps shrinking. That is not a reason for alarm; it is a reason to begin.
Three questions to ask after you see the number
What already stands behind it? Government benefits, a workplace pension, registered savings and any other capital you hold each carry part of the load. This calculator leaves them out on purpose, so the next step is to set them beside the total.
What would you need to finance along the way? Cars, a roof, help for a child, a move closer to family. Retirement is not only income; it is also the purchases that keep arriving. Deciding now how those will be paid for is part of being ready.
Who will you review it with, and how often? A number looked at once is a surprise. A number looked at every year is a plan. Choose the people who will review it with you: a licensed insurance professional, an accountant, a lawyer or notary.
The quiet force behind these numbers
Inflation is patient, and that is what makes it powerful. Below is Canada's annual average inflation (Consumer Price Index) for recent years. Past inflation does not predict future inflation; it simply shows why a fixed income loses ground over time, and why a plan has to account for it.
20200.7%
20213.4%
20226.8%
20233.9%
20242.4%
20252.1%
Sources, to check the figures yourself: Statistics Canada, Consumer Price Index portal and Consumer Price Index: annual review, 2025; Bank of Canada, inflation-control target and inflation calculator.
What this calculator shows, and what it leaves out
It is an educational illustration only. It is not personalized financial, insurance, tax or legal advice, and it is not an offer or a recommendation of any product or strategy. It estimates the future cost of a retirement lifestyle across three stages, carried forward at one constant inflation rate that you choose. It is a spending need, not a savings target and not a shortfall.
It deliberately leaves out income tax, government benefits (the Canada or Quebec Pension Plan and Old Age Security), workplace and personal pensions, existing savings, the cost of long-term care, debts and your own spending pattern. Your real number will differ, often by a great deal.
Inflation is unpredictable. The 2.5% starting rate is a planning assumption, not a forecast. The Bank of Canada aims for 2% within a range of 1% to 3%, yet yearly inflation has ranged from 0.7% in 2020 to 6.8% in 2022. Small differences in the rate compound over 31 years. All figures are in Canadian dollars.
The Go-Go, Slow-Go and No-Go shares of 100%, 85% and 75% are illustrative planning assumptions. Costs in the No-Go years in particular can rise sharply when significant care is needed.
Before any financial decision, speak with a licensed life insurance professional (a Financial Security Advisor in Quebec, or a licensed life insurance agent in other provinces), and with an accountant and a lawyer or notary who understand how retirement, insurance and tax interact in Canada.
A thirty-minute discovery meeting
A first conversation establishes whether this fits. No illustration is prepared and nothing is arranged.
Often the answer is no, and you will hear it during the call rather than in a proposal afterwards.
This form reaches Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc. Any meeting, any advice and any insurance product is provided by Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc., through its representatives who are licensed in the client's province. IBC Financial is the company's educational website: it distributes no product and no financial service, and it gives no individualised advice.
Common questions
Why does the calculator split retirement into three stages?
Why does the default inflation rate say 2.5%?
Does the result tell me how much I need to save?
Is my information stored or sent anywhere?
Last reviewed 2026-09-26.