Retirement Withdrawal Calculator
See how long your savings last when you draw on them, or how much you can take out each month for a set number of years. Withdrawals can rise with inflation, and the calculator can also work out the savings a given income needs.
How to Use
- Pick what to work out: how long the money lasts, the withdrawal it can support, or the savings you need.
- Enter the other two of savings, withdrawal and years. Choose whether the withdrawal is a monthly or a yearly amount.
- Enter the yearly return you expect on what is left invested.
- Choose whether withdrawals stay fixed or rise with inflation each year, and enter the inflation rate if they rise.
- Add your age to see the age the money runs out, then read the answer in its field, the chart and the year-by-year table.
Worked Example
$1,000,000 and the 4% rule. You retire at 65 and take $40,000 in the first year, $3,333.33 at the start of each month, raising it 2.5% each year with inflation. A 5% yearly return is (1.05)1/12 − 1 = 0.4074% a month. In year 1 you withdraw $40,000 and the rest earns $48,925, so the balance ends at $1,008,925. The withdrawals keep rising, and in month 468 the $1,311.95 left can’t cover a full one: the money lasts 38 years 11 months, to 103, after paying out $2,584,112.
The most you can take for 30 years. To make $500,000 last exactly 30 years at 5%, with the withdrawal rising 2.5% a year, add up what $1 a month rising each year is worth today: 253.6825. Then $500,000 ÷ 253.6825 = $1,970.97 a month to start, a first-year rate of 4.73%. By the last year it has risen to $4,033.40 a month.
The common mistake: leaving inflation out. Without raises, the same $500,000 pays $2,639.52 a month for 30 years, a third more at the start. But at 2.5% inflation that fixed $2,639.52 buys about half as much in the 30th year. And a fixed $40,000 from $1,000,000 at 5% never runs out at all, while the same income kept level with prices runs out after 38 years 11 months. Plan with rising withdrawals unless your spending really will fall.
Show Work
Formulas
The Search for a Safe Withdrawal Rate
For decades planners worked out retirement income from average returns, and that is the trap William Bengen described in the October 1994 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning. Averages hide the order in which returns arrive: a crash early in retirement, while withdrawals continue, does lasting damage that later good years can’t repair. Bengen replayed US stock, bond and inflation data from 1926, year by year, and found that a first-year withdrawal of 4%, raised with inflation afterwards, never ran out in less than 33 years. At 4.25%, some starting years ran out in 28.
Four years later, Philip Cooley, Carl Hubbard and Daniel Walz, finance professors at Trinity University in Texas, published “Retirement Savings: Choosing a Withdrawal Rate That Is Sustainable” in the February 1998 AAII Journal, the paper now called the Trinity study. Together the two made “4%” the best-known number in retirement planning.
This calculator uses one steady return, which is why a 4% plan at 5% lasts far longer than 33 years here. Use it to compare plans and see the effect of inflation and the withdrawal rate, and use a cautious return to allow for bad years.
About This Tool
This calculator follows a retirement pot month by month: a withdrawal at the start of each month, then a month’s growth on what is left. Withdrawals can stay fixed or rise with inflation once a year. Solve for how long the money lasts, the withdrawal that empties it in a chosen number of years, or the savings a withdrawal needs; the answer appears in its own field, with the balance chart, the first-year withdrawal rate and a year-by-year table. To see what your savings will grow to before you retire, use the Retirement Calculator.
It does not include taxes on withdrawals, fees, required minimum distributions or market ups and downs. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere. Estimates for planning and education — not financial, tax or legal advice.
Related tools: Retirement Calculator, FIRE Calculator, and RMD Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long will $1 million last in retirement?
It depends on the withdrawal, the return and inflation. Taking $40,000 in the first year (4%) and raising it 2.5% a year with inflation, at a steady 5% return, $1,000,000 lasts 38 years 11 months. Taking $50,000 (5%) on the same terms lasts 27 years 8 months. A fixed $40,000 that never rises would last indefinitely at 5%, because the growth is larger than the withdrawals.
How much can I withdraw so my savings last 30 years?
Choose Withdrawal and enter the savings and the years. $500,000 at a 5% return lasts exactly 30 years with $1,970.97 a month to start ($23,652 in the first year, 4.73%), rising 2.5% a year with inflation to $4,033.40 a month in the last year. If you never raise it, you could take $2,639.52 a month, but it buys less every year.
What is the 4% rule?
A rule of thumb from William Bengen’s 1994 study in the Journal of Financial Planning: withdraw 4% of your savings in the first year, raise that dollar amount with inflation each year after, and in US market history since 1926 the money lasted at least 33 years. The calculator shows the first-year withdrawal rate for any plan. A steady average return, as used here, is kinder than history: at 5% the 4% plan lasts 38 years 11 months, because it ignores a bad run of markets early in retirement.
How much do I need to retire on $5,000 a month?
Choose Savings needed. To withdraw $5,000 a month, rising 2.5% a year, for 25 years at a 5% return, you need $1,115,255. You would take out $2,049,466 in all; growth pays the other $934,211. Social Security or a pension lowers the amount you need to withdraw, so enter only the part your savings must pay.
Are withdrawals taken at the start or the end of the month?
At the start, as most retirees take income before spending it, and the rest of the balance then earns that month’s return. The return compounds monthly so that a year adds exactly the yearly rate: 5% a year is 0.4074% a month. With $250,000 at 4% and $2,000 a month never rising, the money lasts 13 years 4 months, until 80 if you start at 67.
How do I use the Retirement Withdrawal Calculator?
Just type your numbers. The answer shows up right away — there is no button to press. Change anything and it updates by itself.
Does it cost anything or need an account?
No. The tool is completely free, there is no account to create, and it keeps working offline after the page first loads.
Is anything I type uploaded?
No. The tool works entirely on your device, so the values you enter never leave your browser.
Common Use Cases
Testing the 4% rule
$1,000,000 with $40,000 a year rising 2.5% with inflation lasts 38 years 11 months at a steady 5% return.
Setting a safe income
$500,000 over 30 years at 5% supports $1,970.97 a month to start, rising 2.5% a year.
Checking a fixed income
$250,000 paying $2,000 a month at 4% runs out after 13 years 4 months, at 80 for someone starting at 67.
Sizing a nest egg
$5,000 a month for 25 years, rising with 2.5% inflation, needs $1,115,255 at a 5% return.
Living on the growth
$800,000 at a 6% return can pay a fixed $3,000 a month for ever, because each month’s growth is larger than the withdrawal.
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