On the day you retire, what will be the value of your nestegg?  What will be the total of all of your various accounts?  You might have 401k’s, 403b’s, CD’s, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, cash value life insurance, annuities, and other assets that you can turn into retirement income.  And you’re saving some amount each year to build these assets.  Hopefully, these assets will be growing in value over time. 

An important figure to project is the likely future value of all of these assets and continued savings.  While nobody has a crystal ball that can say exactly what that figure will be, together we can use realistic projections to give us a good handle on what the probable range is.  Working up this number can give us a good indication of where your current plan might lead, whether it's a consciously developed plan or a “default” plan.