Free tools for healthcare workers
Retirement Calculators for Nurses and Healthcare Workers
Find your FIRE number, see when you’ll reach it, and check what an extra shift is really worth after tax. Pick your job to start from typical numbers, then change anything.
Your FIRE number and when you’ll hit it
Your FIRE number is 25 times what you’ll spend in a year, the amount the 4% rule says can support you without a paycheck. This calculator shows how far along you are, the age you’ll get there at your current pace, what it takes to get there by the age you want, and whether you’ve already reached Coast FIRE.
Fills in median pay and an example budget.
Gross, before tax.
In retirement, with taxes on withdrawals.
Retirement, HSA and brokerage. Not your home.
Include your employer match.
After inflation.
You’re 0% of the way there.
32 years from now.
Monthly investing at the end of each month, at a steady return after inflation. Today’s dollars, before taxes and fees. Social Security isn’t included.
Your balance, year by year
At your current monthly amount, and at the amount it takes to retire at your goal age.
- At your current pace
- On pace for your goal age
- Your FIRE number
Same math as the results above: monthly investing at the end of each month at the return you entered, today’s dollars, before taxes and fees. Hover or tap the chart to see each year.
What an extra shift is worth after tax
An extra shift is the fastest raise most people in healthcare can give themselves, but the check is smaller than the hourly rate suggests. Enter the shift, pick how it’s paid, and see what you keep and what it grows to if you invest it.
For W-2: regular rate used for overtime, including applicable differentials. For 1099: profit per hour after business costs.
Hours paid at 1.5 times the regular rate. Confirm your employer's overtime rules, including any 8-and-80 arrangement.
22% starts at $50,400 of taxable income single, $100,800 joint.
Other filing statuses: use Single / head of household for this simplified estimate.
Before these extra shifts. Use wages subject to Social Security and Medicare; this estimate treats the two bases as equal.
For the joint Additional Medicare threshold, not your Social Security limit.
Time-and-a-half alone does not establish eligibility. See the IRS link below.
Modified adjusted gross income, including your spouse's income on a joint return. Used for the overtime phaseout.
Only the qualifying extra half of time-and-a-half, excluding the shifts modeled here. Include both spouses if joint.
After inflation.
Where this shift’s pay goes
- You keep
- Federal income tax
- Social Security and Medicare
Marginal-rate estimate. It assumes the shift doesn’t push you into a higher bracket and leaves out local taxes.
More calculators
Each one starts from an example for your job and runs on 2026 rules. Change any number.
How the math works
- FIRE number: yearly spending times 25. That’s the 4% rule, from studies of how much retirees could withdraw over 30-year retirements. Retiring in your 40s or early 50s means a longer retirement, so some people plan on 28 to 33 times spending instead.
- Returns: one steady return after inflation, compounded monthly. Real markets jump around, so treat the ages as estimates, not dates.
- Coast FIRE: the amount that, left alone at the same return, reaches your FIRE number by 65. Once you have it, your paycheck only needs to cover your spending until then.
- Extra shift, W-2: annual marginal-tax estimate using your selected federal bracket and state rate. The model handles crossing the 2026 Social Security wage base ($184,500) and applies the 0.9% Additional Medicare tax at $200,000 single/head of household, $250,000 joint or $125,000 married filing separately. Your spouse's wages affect only the joint Medicare threshold. Paycheck withholding may differ.
- Overtime: the deduction is off until you confirm eligibility. Eligible premium is capped at $12,500 ($25,000 joint), reduced by $100 per full $1,000 of MAGI above $150,000 ($300,000 joint), and unavailable when married filing separately. Other qualified overtime uses the same household cap. The model includes the change in the deduction caused by these shifts, including lost deductions from higher income. It stops applying the deduction after 2028.
- 1099: enter profit after business costs. The model uses 92.35% of profit as net self-employment earnings, applies the remaining Social Security wage base, and deducts half of regular self-employment tax for federal income-tax estimation. Additional Medicare tax is not included in that deduction. This assumes no other self-employment income and excludes QBI, retirement contributions, benefit costs and other deductions.
- Projection: full modeled years beginning in 2026, end-of-month investing and your after-inflation return. Except for the overtime deduction ending after 2028, 2026 tax parameters are held constant in today's dollars. This is a scenario, not a forecast of future tax law. State tax is a flat estimate on gross wages or profit and does not apply state deductions. Federal bracket changes, credits, local taxes and investment taxes are excluded.
Model updated October 21, 2026. Sources: IRS overtime eligibility, Schedule 1-A phaseout method, SSA wage bases, and IRS Additional Medicare tax.
FAQ
How much does a nurse need to retire early?
About 25 times your yearly spending. A nurse who spends $60,000 a year needs about $1.5 million invested. Starting at 30 with nothing saved, that takes about $2,561 a month to retire at 55 or $1,840 a month to retire at 60, at a 5% return after inflation.
Is overtime worth it after taxes?
It depends on the rate, your tax situation and the costs of working. At $46.90 an hour, a regular 12-hour shift keeps about $396 using a 22% federal bracket, 7.65% employee payroll tax and no state tax. An all-overtime shift keeps about $594 without the overtime deduction, or $656 when the full qualifying premium is deductible. Eligibility, annual caps and income phaseouts matter; the deduction ends after 2028. These examples assume all shift wages remain below the Social Security wage base and Additional Medicare threshold.
Why does a 1099 shift keep less than a W-2 shift?
On a 1099, no one pays the employer half of Social Security and Medicare, so you pay both halves as self-employment tax. You can lower the bite with a solo 401(k) and by deducting real business costs.
Does the FIRE calculator include Social Security?
No. Your benefit will lower how much your portfolio has to cover once it starts, so leaving it out builds in a cushion. You can see your estimate in a my Social Security account at ssa.gov.
Keep going
I’m an emergency physician, not a financial advisor, CPA or attorney. These calculators are for education, use simplified tax math and can’t know your full situation. Talk to a professional before acting on the results.