FORTE LIFE
Certainty · Liquidity · Legacy
FORTE LIFE · The Actual Net Return Calculator
Forte Life

The Actual Net Return Calculator

What you should have if the market really paid its average — and what it actually paid you. Enter your numbers; every figure updates live.

Your numbers

works from your start age through retirement and beyond
your current salary if still working
your own contributions; the match is added for you
401(k) + IRA, all in
contributions stop here; after this the balance just grows
Assumptions (edit if you like)
the S&P's long-run headline average (%)
traditional 401(k)/IRA is taxed as income (%)
the disciplined best case
set to the present year for a live estimate
resets every field — your numbers, assumptions, and any edited rows — back to the modeled defaults

Your result

Total you actually contributed
What you SHOULD have · at the advertised average
What you actually have
The money that never arrived
Actual Net Return · before tax
Actual Net Return · after tax

Year by year

The Contribution and Employer Match columns are pre-filled with the modeled amounts. Type your real numbers into any year to override — the result updates live. Clear a cell (or use “Restore all”) to return to the modeled value.

YearAgeYour income Contribution %Your contribution $ Match %Employer match $Total in Years to growGrows to (@ avg)
Where this number comes from

See the same gap told as a story — two disciplined savers, the same start, two very different endings — and the four forces that open the distance between the market's advertised return and the number you actually keep.

Read The Two Retirements — the Accumulation series →
Rather look at your own numbers?

A Capital Coordination Session is a focused look at what your money has actually kept — and what a coordinated plan would do with it. You leave knowing your real number, whether or not you change a thing.

Book a Capital Coordination Session →

For educational and informational purposes only. Not investment, tax, insurance, or legal advice. The income path (SSA National Average Wage Index), savings-rate curve (Vanguard/EBRI), employer-match schedule (BLS/Vanguard), and balances (Federal Reserve 2022 SCF via the Center for Retirement Research) are drawn from primary sources; results are estimates and individual circumstances vary. Past performance is not indicative of future results.