Retirement Withdrawal Calculator

How to Use This Retirement Withdrawal Calculator

Enter the portfolio balance available at retirement, starting age, annual spending, and any pension or other recurring annual income. Enter recurring income on an annual, after-tax/spendable basis consistent with your spending figure — pension and Social Security quotes are often gross, so do not subtract a gross figure from an after-tax spending need. Then add a nominal investment-return assumption, annual portfolio fee, and inflation rate. Choose whether recurring income remains fixed in nominal terms or increases with inflation.

If that income starts later than retirement — a pension or Social Security benefit claimed years after you stop working, for example — enter the age it starts in the optional Recurring income starts at age field. Leave it blank to keep the default: income available from the first modeled month, as before.

This retirement drawdown calculator estimates how long retirement savings may last in one deterministic scenario. Use it to compare assumptions, not to identify a guaranteed depletion date. For a full explanation of low, base, and high scenarios, read How Long Will My Retirement Savings Last?

Formula, Monthly Simulation, and Timing

If income starts immediately (blank start age, or a start age equal to your current age): first-year portfolio withdrawal = max(0, annual spending need − annual recurring income). The first-year withdrawal rate is that amount divided by the starting portfolio. For later years, spending is multiplied by (1 + inflation rate)^year. Income uses the same factor only when the inflation-linked option is selected, starting from month one.

The gross annual return minus the annual investment fee is treated as the net annual rate and converted to an effective monthly rate. Growth is applied first, then the required withdrawal is taken at month-end. Spending changes once each modeled year. The simulation stops at depletion or the 100-year technical cap.

Bridge period and income start age. With a later start age entered, the formula above does not apply in year one. Instead, the portfolio covers 100% of the modeled spending need for every month before that age — no recurring income is credited early. Once the projection reaches the start age, the entered recurring-income amount begins immediately, from that month's actual portfolio balance (there is no reset to a separate phase), and only then does it begin following the inflation-linking setting above; it is never indexed for the years before it started. Spending inflation keeps counting from retirement throughout, unaffected by when income starts — so even if the entered income equals the entered spending, activation-month spending has already inflated through the bridge years while income starts at its entered nominal amount, and the portfolio withdrawal in the activation month is not necessarily zero. A blank start age, or a start age equal to your current age, keeps the month-one behavior above. A start age below your current age is not a valid input.

Worked Example: Retirement Drawdown Duration

Suppose a 65-year-old starts with $750,000, wants $50,000 of annual spending, and receives $15,000 of fixed annual recurring income. The portfolio must provide $35,000 in year one, a 4.67% initial withdrawal rate. With a 4% gross annual return, 0.30% annual fee, and 2.5% inflation, the modeled net annual return is 3.70%. Under the calculator's monthly convention, the portfolio is depleted during month 272—about 22 years and 8 months, near age 87 years and 8 months.

With a bridge period: using the same inputs but with that $15,000 of recurring income starting at age 70 instead of immediately, the first five years (ages 65-69) draw the full $50,000/year from the portfolio with no offset. From age 70 on, the $15,000 reduces the portfolio-funded spending need as before, applied to whatever balance remains after the bridge years — one continuous projection, not two separate scenarios.

How to Interpret the Result

A depletion result identifies the first modeled month in which the remaining balance is used for the required withdrawal. “Not depleted within 100 years” means only that the balance stayed above zero inside this fixed scenario and technical horizon. It does not mean the plan is guaranteed.

Test lower returns, higher inflation, higher fees, and different income-indexing assumptions. Compare the initial withdrawal with the 4% Rule Calculator, review a target portfolio with the FIRE Number Calculator, and examine purchasing power separately with the Inflation Calculator.

Common Mistakes and Limitations

Common mistakes include entering a real return while also inflating spending, subtracting the same fee twice, entering a gross pension or Social Security amount against an after-tax spending figure, leaving the income start age blank when a pension or Social Security benefit actually starts later, and reading a constant-return scenario as a market forecast. The start age is a value you supply — the calculator does not determine Social Security eligibility, look up a benefit amount, or model program rules. The calculator does not model sequence-of-returns paths, taxes, account withdrawal order, asset allocation, one-off expenses, or changing benefit rules. Actual results may differ.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if recurring income covers all spending?

If income is active from month one (blank or current-age start), the first-year portfolio withdrawal is zero, and it stays zero for as long as income and spending keep rising at the same inflation rate; if income stays nominally fixed while spending rises, a portfolio withdrawal may begin in a later year. If instead income starts at a later age, no income is credited before that age, so the portfolio funds full spending through the bridge period regardless of the eventual income amount — a zero gap can only occur from the activation month forward, and even equal entered spending and income amounts do not guarantee a zero withdrawal in the activation month once spending has already inflated through the bridge years. In every case, once income is active it can reduce the portfolio-funded withdrawal to zero but never produces a negative withdrawal or a contribution back into the portfolio.

How does the delayed income start age work?

Enter the age at which the pension, Social Security, or other recurring income actually begins. Before that age, the portfolio funds 100% of the modeled spending need — no income is credited early. At that age, the entered annual amount starts being credited immediately from that month's actual carried-forward portfolio balance, and the inflation-linking setting only takes effect from that point forward, counting from zero at activation — it is not applied retroactively to years before the income started. This is a single continuous projection: the balance carries through the transition, it is not reset. A blank start age, or a start age equal to your current age, keeps the original behavior of income applying from the first modeled month. A start age below your current age is not a valid input.

Is the investment return nominal or real?

It is nominal. Inflation separately increases spending, while the fee reduces the entered gross return. Keeping these assumptions separate makes their effects visible and avoids silently mixing today's purchasing power with future nominal amounts.

Does the calculator prove that my retirement savings will last?

No. It is a deterministic projection based on constant rates. It does not capture market sequence, taxes, changing income, unexpected expenses, asset allocation, or behavioral changes. Actual results may differ materially.

How should I choose an investment fee?

Use a portfolio-level estimate that reflects fund expense ratios and any recurring advisory or platform fee you want to model. Avoid adding the same fee twice. Product terms differ across the United States, Canada, Australia, and other markets.