Roth IRA Calculator
Project a Roth to retirement and price the three things it gives you that a traditional account does not: untaxed growth, permanent access to your contributions, and no forced withdrawals.
Roth IRA Calculator
Results recalculate instantly on every keystroke. Nothing you type is transmitted.
What this result does not account for
- Results are a model, not a quotation — an institution's own figures govern.
- Every input is an assumption; change one and the answer changes with it.
- Rounding is applied only at the display layer, so totals may differ by a cent from a statement that rounds each line.
In short: Contributing $7,000 a year for 30 years at 7% builds $711,649.75, of which $501,649.75 is growth that is never taxed — worth $110,362.94 at a 22% retirement rate. Your $210,000 of contributions stays withdrawable at any time, and because Roths have no required minimum distributions, leaving it untouched for ten further years adds $718,525.26.
Formula
C = contribution · i = monthly return · n = months. The growth mathematics is identical in both accounts; only the tax applied at the end differs.
Worked Example
- Grow the contributions. $7,000 a year for 30 years at 7% = $711,649.75.
- Separate the growth. $711,649.75 − $210,000 contributed = $501,649.75.
- Price the tax that never arrives. At a 22% retirement rate, that growth would have attracted $110,362.94.
- Note the true cost of contributing. A $7,000 Roth contribution is made with after-tax money, so at 24% you must earn $9,210.53 to fund it.
- Add the no-RMD advantage. Left untouched a further ten years, the balance reaches $1,430,175.01.
Analyst's note. The Roth's real asset is the growth, not the contributions — $501,649.75 of it, permanently outside the tax system. But note the honest cost on the other side: funding $7,000 of Roth contributions requires $9,210.53 of pre-tax earnings, $2,210.53 more than the traditional equivalent. The Roth wins when your retirement rate exceeds today's, and the absence of required minimum distributions is a genuine second advantage that the rate comparison alone never captures.
Strengths & Limits Of This Model
Where this engine is strong
- Runs entirely in your browser — no figure you type is transmitted or stored.
- Shows the full working, so every number can be traced and challenged.
- Free, unmetered and free of affiliate incentives.
Where it stops
- Generalised assumptions cannot capture every individual circumstance.
- Jurisdiction-specific rules and mid-year changes may not be reflected.
- A model output is not a substitute for a professional review of your position.
Practical Use Cases
Deciding between Roth and traditional
The rate comparison is the core of it, and the IRA Calculator runs both sides on equal after-tax cost. Come here afterwards to price the features the rate comparison misses: penalty-free access to your basis, and no forced withdrawals.
Front-loading contributions early in a career
A Roth is usually strongest when your current rate is low — early career, a sabbatical year, or any period of reduced income. Contributions made then are taxed cheaply and grow untaxed forever. Model the compounding runway with the Compound Interest Calculator.
Planning an estate
Because there are no required minimum distributions during the owner's lifetime, a Roth can be left to compound while other accounts are drawn down first. On these figures that is worth $718,525.26 over ten years. Coordinate the drawdown order with the Retirement Calculator.
Methodology & Editorial Standards
Contributions are grown on a monthly grid at the stated annual return, assumed constant. The tax never paid is computed on the growth component only, at the retirement rate, since contributions were already taxed on the way in. The pre-tax cost of a contribution is the gross earnings required to net it at your current rate. The no-RMD figure compounds the retirement balance forward at the same return with no withdrawals, which is the correct counterfactual against a traditional account forced to distribute. Contribution limits, income-based eligibility phase-outs, the five-year rule and state taxes are not modelled. The engine implements the standard published formula for this calculation. Inputs are validated for domain and sign before evaluation, and any undefined case returns an em-dash rather than a spurious value.
Computation runs in IEEE-754 double precision at full internal precision; rounding to two decimal places occurs strictly at the display layer, so no cumulative drift enters the result. All monetary outputs use accounting presentation — grouped thousands, two decimals, negatives in parentheses — so figures can be transcribed directly into a model or working paper. Division-by-zero and out-of-domain inputs return an em-dash rather than a misleading number.
This engine was reconciled against an independent reference implementation and hand-verified for the worked example above before release. Our full five-stage review process is published on the About Us page.
Disclaimer. This calculator is provided for informational and modelling purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, medical, or engineering advice. Verify all figures with a qualified professional before acting on them.
Roth IRA Calculator — 20 Expert FAQs
20 analyst-written answers to the questions practitioners actually ask — optimised for voice and answer-engine retrieval.
What exactly is tax-free in a Roth?
Qualified withdrawals in full — both your contributions and all the growth. On these figures the growth alone is $501,649.75, which at a 22% retirement rate represents $110,362.94 of tax that is never paid. That is the entire economic case for the account.
Can I withdraw money before retirement?
Your contributions — the basis — can be withdrawn at any time, for any reason, without tax or penalty, because they were already taxed. Here that is $210,000, or 29.5% of the balance. Earnings are different and generally attract tax plus a 10% penalty before 59½.
What is the five-year rule?
Earnings can only be withdrawn tax-free once five tax years have passed since your first Roth contribution, in addition to the age-59½ requirement. Converted amounts each carry their own five-year clock for penalty purposes, which catches people out on conversion ladders.
Does a Roth IRA have required minimum distributions?
No, not during the original owner's lifetime — a real advantage over traditional accounts. It lets the balance compound untouched for as long as you like: ten further years adds $718,525.26 on these figures. Inherited Roths do face distribution rules.
Is a Roth better than a traditional IRA?
Only if your tax rate in retirement is higher than it is today. On equal after-tax cost the two are algebraically identical when the rates match. Use the IRA Calculator for that comparison, then weigh the Roth's access and no-RMD features on top.
What does a Roth contribution really cost me?
More than the contribution, because it is made with after-tax money. At a 24% marginal rate, funding $7,000 requires $9,210.53 of gross earnings — $2,210.53 more than the same nominal contribution to a deductible traditional account.
Can I contribute if I earn too much?
Direct Roth contributions phase out above income thresholds that change annually. Many higher earners use a backdoor contribution — a non-deductible traditional contribution converted to Roth — but the pro-rata rule makes that costly if you hold other pre-tax IRA money.
How much can I contribute each year?
The IRS sets an annual limit across all your IRAs combined, with a catch-up allowance from age 50. It is index-linked and changes most years. You also cannot contribute more than your earned income for the year.
Should I convert my traditional IRA to a Roth?
Conversions are taxable in the year you make them, so they work best in low-income years or when you expect materially higher rates later. Converting a large balance in a high-earning year usually costs more than it saves.
Can I have both a Roth and a 401(k)?
Yes, and most people should. Capture the full employer match in the 401(k) first, since no other instrument pays a guaranteed 50% on deposit, then direct further savings to a Roth for the wider investment choice and tax diversification.
What return should I assume?
Use something defensible for your actual allocation. 7% nominal is a common long-run assumption for an equity-heavy portfolio; a balanced portfolio warrants less. Test the plan at 5% before treating it as adequate.
Does this account for inflation?
No, the figures are nominal. At 3% inflation, $711,649.75 in 30 years has roughly the purchasing power of $293,000 today. Always judge a retirement target in today's money using the Inflation Calculator.
What happens to my Roth when I die?
It passes to your beneficiaries, generally free of income tax, though most non-spouse beneficiaries must now empty the account within ten years. A spouse can usually treat it as their own and continue with no RMDs at all.
Is a Roth worth it if I am close to retirement?
The tax-free growth argument weakens with a short horizon, but the no-RMD feature and the estate treatment do not. For money you do not expect to spend, a Roth remains attractive even late.
Are Roth withdrawals counted as income?
Qualified withdrawals are not, which is a subtle but valuable feature: they do not push you into higher brackets, do not increase the taxable portion of Social Security, and do not raise income-based Medicare premiums.
Is this roth ira calculator free to use?
Yes. It is free, requires no account, and has no usage limits. ApexConverter is funded by contextual advertising, never by selling user data.
Is my data sent to a server?
No. The engine runs as Vanilla JavaScript inside your browser under our Zero-Server Client-Side Execution model. Your figures are computed locally and are never transmitted, logged, or stored.
How accurate is this calculator?
It applies the standard closed-form formula in IEEE-754 double precision, rounding only at the display layer. The engine is reconciled against an independent reference implementation before release.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. The interface is mobile-first with numeric keypad hints and is tested down to a 320-pixel viewport with no horizontal scrolling.
Can I use it offline?
Largely, yes. Because computation is client-side, the page continues to calculate without a network connection once it has loaded.