Can young adults afford houses and retirement? This calculator can help

Down payment or dream trip? What about retirement? Has the global pandemic derailed your plans? If you’re entering the workforce and struggling to decide how you’ll meet competing financial goals, this calculator is here to help. Simply plug in your income and monthly living costs, and the Real Life Money Launcher will help you map out how much of each paycheque should be going into short-term goals like weddings, medium-term goals like home ownership and long-term objectives like retirement.

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Real Life Money Launcher

How to set up your savings after you start working

Step 1. Start with your income

Tell us your next biweekly pay after tax and deductions…

…and we'll tell you your monthly net pay

Step 2. Plug in your monthly expenses

Student debt payment (add any other debts as well)

Rent and utilities (include cellphone, internet)

Groceries, drugstore items

Car payments, car sharing, public transit

Gas, insurance and other car costs

Entertainment (bars, restaurants, concerts, etc.)

Fitness and activities

Subscriptions

Clothes

Miscellaneous (daycare, pet costs, etc.)

Savings and investments

10% of your monthly takehome pay is a good target, but you decide your own amount. This is what we'll use to calculate your results.

Your total monthly spending + saving:

If you have your saving and investing locked in as a regular expense, it's OK to spend your whole takehome pay.

Step 3. Define your savings goals to see your results

Saving goals for the near or medium term (1-10 years)

You tell us the % of your total savings for each goal:

We tell you how much to save per month:

Emergency Fund

Travel

Wedding

Down payment or home reno

Other

Where your near or medium term money should go:

Money needed in the next few years should be kept safe and not invested in the stock market. Learn more about zero risk high interest savings accounts.

Investing for the long term (10+ years)

Building assets for various uses, including retirement

0 of 100% allocated

Where your long term money should go:

Pick your risk profile to see your results. Risk is defined here as exposure to the stock market. Stocks can be expected to deliver higher returns than bonds over the long term, but they can fall hard in the short term. Bonds help limit the pain when stocks fall. Learn more about investment risk profiles and check out Volume One and Volume Two of our millennial investing guide.

• High risk
• Med. risk
• Low risk

Not worried about stock market risk

90% stocks, 10% bonds

Reign in the risk a bit

75% stocks, 25% bonds

Nervous investor

60% stocks, 40% bonds

More from Gen Y Money

A ‘how do I compare’ guide for millennials on savings, debt and home ownership

With so much disruption, it’s difficult to know what a normal debt load, a normal mortgage balance and a normal amount of savings is if you’re a young adult