Where does this actually end up?

This is an illustration, not financial advice. Centtavo LLC provides financial coaching and education; it is not a registered investment adviser or a fiduciary, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Projections assume a constant average return compounded monthly; real markets do not deliver steady returns, and the order in which good and bad years arrive materially changes outcomes. Fees, taxes on investment growth and withdrawals, Social Security and changes to your circumstances are not modelled; the only tax used is the marginal rate you supply in Advanced, to price a change to pre-tax contributions. Pay is asked for before your own investing, so a 401(k) taken from your paycheck should be added back to it. Figures are shown in the dollars of the year they occur, which is what an account statement would read. Because prices rise, a dollar then buys less than a dollar now; the note under the headline translates the final figure into today's buying power at an assumed 2.5% a year. Treat the number as a direction, not a promise. The marginal tax rate is one you supply, not one we look up: a real marginal rate depends on taxable income, filing status, deductions and local tax, and a figure derived from a state alone would be precise-looking and wrong.