Calculate your Financial Comeback
February 23rd, 2009 at 08:19 pmThe New York Times website added a useful (if oversimplified) link today to help you calculate how long it will take your 401K/403B/pension funds to return to where they once were. You need to enter their value at peak, their current value, your yearly contribution, and then calculate. Play with the slider to see how your funds will do at various levels of future return--the default value they have it set for is 4%, which is conservative given market performance over time, but reasonable as an estimate for the next decade or so. The calculator is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/06/business/20090.... Play around with various contributions and estimates of market return. The assumptions of the calculator are oversimplified--you'll change your annual contribution over time, market return will fluctuate--but it's good as a starting point for sitting and saying, "now what do I have to do?"