The Protected Income Calculator
See what it takes to turn the life you want into guaranteed income you can’t outlive.
What this tool actually does. Your savings has two jobs: the income bridge that carries your full paycheck from the day you retire until Social Security starts, and the income floor that takes over for life after that. This tool prices both, using the same math built into the site’s retirement guides, and shows you the share of your savings it takes.
Right now this runs on two verified retirement ages, 55 and 60, and four Social Security claiming ages, 62, 65, 67, and 70. Those are the numbers we’ve priced against real insurance factors. If your situation sits between them, the picture below will still be close. The exact number for your age is what a Blueprint Call is for.
If you’re married, we look at each of you on your own for Social Security. Two incomes blended together can land in a much higher bracket than either one alone, which would throw the estimate off.
This sets how many years the income bridge has to carry you before Social Security starts.
Waiting grows your benefit. This also sets how long the income bridge has to run.
Not bare-bones survival. The real life you want, with some travel and some time with the people you love in it. Enter a monthly number.
The income you’ll already have
If you’ve pulled it from your statement or your account at ssa.gov for that specific claiming age, enter it. If you haven’t, tell us your current income instead and we’ll estimate it using Social Security’s own published figures. The estimate gets you in the ballpark. The real number from ssa.gov gets you exact.
Any income you’ll get for life on top of Social Security, such as a pension. Add it up across both of you if you’re married. Leave it at zero if you don’t have any.
This is your 401(k), IRA, and any brokerage or investment accounts you’ll draw on, not the checking account. This is what funds both the income bridge and the income floor.
All figures from this tool are illustrative and hypothetical, as of 2026, and are subject to change. They are estimates based on standard assumptions, not a promise or guarantee of any result, and not a statement that you will or will not have enough. Social Security estimates slide between Social Security’s own published figures for low, medium, high, and maximum earners, then apply Social Security’s own published early and delayed claiming percentages for the age you selected. Social Security doesn’t publish exact income cutoffs, so this is an educated estimate, not your exact benefit; for that, see your statement or your account at ssa.gov. Nothing here is investment, tax, or legal advice, and no specific security or fund is recommended or analyzed. Kurt H. Jackson is Life and Health Insurance Licensed in MO, NE, KS, IA, and FL, and is not a securities broker, registered investment advisor, or CPA.