Retirement withdrawal calculator

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$
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The pot lasts
38 years

drawing $36,000 a year, rising with inflation

Withdrawal rate4.80%
Real growth3.41%
Lasts forever at$25,610
16y31y47y62y2%4%6%8%10%never runs out4.80%: 38 years16y31y47y62y2%5%8%10%never runs out4.80%: 38 years

How long the pot lasts at each withdrawal rate. Left of the dashed line the draw is inside what the pot earns and it is never exhausted; right of it the years fall away fast.

Drawing $36,000 a year from $750,000 - a 4.80% withdrawal rate - lasts about 38 years if the pot returns 6.00% against 2.50% inflation. Rising with inflation, $25,610 a year is the most this pot sustains indefinitely.

How to use this, and the parts people get wrong
  • The draw is what you take out per year; tick inflation and it rises each year to keep its buying power.
  • The answer is the year the pot runs dry, not a verdict. A pot that outlives the horizon shows no year at all.
  • The return is an average. Real markets deliver it unevenly, so treat a close call as a close call.

Income against what it earns

After inflation the pot earns about $25,610 a year. Drawing $36,000 takes $10,390 of capital on top, and it is that second amount, compounding away, that sets the date.

38 yearsbefore the pot is gone
4.80%of the pot drawn in year one
$25,610a year would last indefinitely

The same pot at other rates

What each withdrawal rate takes, and how long it leaves you.

RateA yearLastsA month
3.0%$22,500Indefinitely$1,875
3.5%$26,250Over 60 years$2,188
4.0%$30,00058 years$2,500
4.5%$33,75043 years$2,812
5.0%$37,50035 years$3,125
6.0%$45,00026 years$3,750
7.0%$52,50020 years$4,375
8.0%$60,00017 years$5,000

Questions people ask

How long will my retirement savings last?
On these figures, drawing $36,000 a year from $750,000 at 6.00% growth against 2.50% inflation lasts about 38 years. The withdrawal is raised with inflation each year, so it keeps buying the same life.
What is a safe withdrawal rate?
Arithmetically, anything at or below what the pot earns after inflation - 3.41% here, or $25,610 a year - lasts indefinitely. The familiar 4% guideline is a historical result from US market data rather than a law, and it assumed a thirty year retirement, not an endless one.
Why does one extra point cost so many years?
Because the surplus compounds against you. Below the sustainable rate the pot grows; above it, the shortfall is taken from capital that would otherwise have earned, so the gap widens every year. That is why the curve on this page falls away steeply rather than sloping.
Is this in today's money?
Yes. The withdrawal rises with inflation each year and the pot grows at the real rate, so every figure is in the money you spend now. It is the same as running nominal numbers and deflating them, with fewer places to go wrong.
What about a bad first decade?
Not modelled, and it matters. A steady average hides sequence risk - poor returns early, while the pot is largest and withdrawals are biting, do far more damage than the same returns later. Treat the year count as a central case, not a floor.

Method and sources

  • Standard real-terms drawdown arithmeticPot compounded at the real rate against an inflation-linked withdrawal
The calculation

Everything runs in real terms. The pot grows each year at the real rate - one plus growth over one plus inflation, minus one - and the withdrawal is taken at the end of the year. The count stops when the balance reaches zero, or reports that it never does when the draw sits at or below what the pot earns. The chart repeats that run at every withdrawal rate from 2% to 10%.

What these figures do not cover
  • Returns are a steady average. Real sequences wobble, and poor returns early in retirement do more damage than the same returns later.
  • Tax on withdrawals is national and is not applied.
  • No state or workplace pension is counted; add it to the pot only if it is a lump sum, and subtract it from the draw if it is an income.
  • Sixty years is the horizon. Beyond it the page says indefinitely rather than printing a number it cannot support.

Last updated August 2026.

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