— Retirement & FIRE
Retirement Withdrawal Calculator
Model retirement withdrawals year by year. Enter corpus, withdrawal amount or target duration, return, inflation, and pension income to see how long the money lasts, the sustainable withdrawal amount, depletion age, and withdrawal rate.
Your corpus lasts
26 yrs 10 mos
- Monthly withdrawal
- $4,166.67
- Implied withdrawal rate
- 5%
- Savings run out at age
- 91
- Total withdrawn from savings
- $1,879,960.12
Try: $1M, $50k/yr — how long?, $1M for 30 years — how much?, $750k, $40k/yr + $20k pension, $1M at the 4% rule ($40k)
— Year-by-year drawdown
| Age | Withdrawal | Growth | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 65 | $50,000 | $47,500 | $997,500 |
| 66 | $51,250 | $47,313 | $993,563 |
| 67 | $52,531 | $47,052 | $988,083 |
| 68 | $53,845 | $46,712 | $980,950 |
| 69 | $55,191 | $46,288 | $972,048 |
| 70 | $56,570 | $45,774 | $961,251 |
| 71 | $57,985 | $45,163 | $948,430 |
| 72 | $59,434 | $44,450 | $933,445 |
| 73 | $60,920 | $43,626 | $916,151 |
| 74 | $62,443 | $42,685 | $896,393 |
| 75 | $64,004 | $41,619 | $874,009 |
| 76 | $65,604 | $40,420 | $848,825 |
| 77 | $67,244 | $39,079 | $820,659 |
| 78 | $68,926 | $37,587 | $789,320 |
| 79 | $70,649 | $35,934 | $754,605 |
| 80 | $72,415 | $34,110 | $716,300 |
| 81 | $74,225 | $32,104 | $674,178 |
| 82 | $76,081 | $29,905 | $628,002 |
| 83 | $77,983 | $27,501 | $577,520 |
| 84 | $79,933 | $24,879 | $522,467 |
| 85 | $81,931 | $22,027 | $462,563 |
| 86 | $83,979 | $18,929 | $397,513 |
| 87 | $86,079 | $15,572 | $327,006 |
| 88 | $88,231 | $11,939 | $250,715 |
| 89 | $90,436 | $8,014 | $168,292 |
| 90 | $92,697 | $3,780 | $79,375 |
| 91 | $79,375 | $0 | $0 |
— Depletion curve
Download— How it works
Each year: balance = (balance − withdrawal) × (1 + return), with the withdrawal rising by inflation and reduced by any other income. Duration mode finds the year it runs dry; sustainable mode solves the withdrawal that lasts exactly your horizon.
Two questions, one engine
Decumulation runs the opposite way to saving: you start with a pot and spend it down while what remains keeps growing. There are two ways to frame it. “How long will it last?” takes a corpus and a withdrawal and finds the year the money runs out. “How much can I withdraw?” takes a corpus and a retirement length and solves the largest withdrawal that lasts exactly that long. Switch the question at the top; everything else stays the same.
Worked example — $1,000,000, withdrawing $50,000 a year, 5% return, 2.5% inflation: That’s a 5% starting rate — the corpus lasts about 26.8 years, running dry around age 91. Ask it the other way ($1M for 30 years) and the sustainable withdrawal is about $46,300 a year.
The withdrawal rate and the 4% rule
The implied withdrawal rate — your first-year withdrawal divided by the corpus — is the number to watch. The well-known “4% rule” suggests withdrawing 4% of the starting balance, rising with inflation, as a rate that historically lasted about 30 years. Push much above that and the depletion age comes forward fast; stay below it, or add Social Security or a pension, and the money stretches further. Other income is powerful here because every dollar of it is a dollar you don’t draw from savings.
The catch: sequence-of-returns risk
This uses a single, steady return every year — which makes the maths clean but hides the central danger of retirement: sequence-of-returns risk. A market slump in the first few years of drawdown, while the balance is largest and you’re still withdrawing, does far more damage than the same slump later, even at the identical average return. So treat a plan that only just lasts with real caution, stress-test it with a lower return, and revisit it as markets move. It’s a planning estimate, not a guarantee.
— Reader questions
How long will my retirement savings last?
It depends on your corpus, withdrawal, return and inflation. $1,000,000 withdrawn at $50,000 a year (5%), rising with inflation at a 5% return, lasts roughly 27 years. Lower the withdrawal or add other income and it lasts longer.
How much can I withdraw from my retirement savings?
Switch to “How much can I withdraw?”, enter your corpus and how many years it must last, and the calculator solves the sustainable annual withdrawal. For $1M over 30 years at a 5% return it’s about $46,000 — close to the 4% rule.
What is the 4% rule?
A rule of thumb that withdrawing 4% of your starting balance in year one, then increasing it with inflation, historically lasted about 30 years. It’s a useful benchmark — the implied withdrawal rate shown here lets you compare your plan against it.
Does Social Security or a pension help?
A lot. Enter it as other income and it reduces what you draw from your savings each year, so the corpus lasts longer. It’s assumed to start now and rise with inflation.
Is this safe to rely on?
Treat it as a guide, not a guarantee. It assumes a constant return, so it ignores sequence-of-returns risk — a bad run of markets early in retirement can deplete savings faster than the average implies. Plan conservatively and review regularly.