Introduction
This Retirement Spending Calculator shows you how long your money can last. You enter your savings, your yearly spending, and your income from Social Security or a pension. The tool then maps out each year of your retirement, from the day you stop working until the last year of your plan.
You can test five ways to take money out of your accounts. You can spend a fixed dollar amount, raise that amount with inflation, take a set percent each year, use guardrails that shift your spending up or down, or take only the minimum the IRS requires. The calculator compares all five side by side, so you can see which one fits you best.
It also handles the real-life stuff. Add rising health care costs, one-time bills like a new roof, taxes on your 401(k) and IRA withdrawals, and a spouse with their own Social Security. Turn on the crash test to see what happens if the market drops 30% right after you retire. Turn on the Monte Carlo test to see your odds of success across thousands of market paths.
The results show the age your savings run out, your yearly withdrawal, your total taxes, and what is left at the end. A chart, a year-by-year table, and a step-by-step math breakdown show you exactly how the numbers work. Move the sliders to change your return, your spending, or your plan age, and watch the results update right away.
How to use our Retirement Spending Calculator
Enter your age, savings, spending plan, income sources, and tax rates. The calculator shows how long your money lasts, your yearly withdrawals, taxes paid, and your balance each year.
Current Age: Type how old you are today.
Retirement Age: Type the age you plan to stop working.
Plan Until Age: Type the last age your money must cover. Age 90 or higher is a common choice.
Marital / Partner Status: Pick Single or Couple. Couple adds spouse fields.
Spouse Current Age: Type your partner's age today.
Spouse Plan Until Age: Type the last age your partner's plan must cover. The chart runs to the later of the two ages.
Current Retirement Savings: Enter the total value of all your retirement accounts.
Pre-Tax Balance (401k / IRA): Enter the part held in pre-tax accounts. This money is taxed when you take it out and is used for RMDs.
After-Tax / Roth Balance: Enter the part held in Roth accounts. This money comes out tax free.
Taxable / Brokerage: This fills in on its own. It is your total savings minus pre-tax and Roth.
Expected Annual Return (%): Enter the yearly growth rate you expect on your investments.
Asset Allocation Preset: Pick Conservative, Moderate, Aggressive, or Custom. A preset sets the return and risk level for you.
Stock %, Bond %, Cash %: If you pick Custom, split your mix so the three add up to 100%.
Annual Spending: Enter what you need each year in today's dollars.
Inflation Rate (%): Enter how fast you think prices will rise each year.
Withdrawal Strategy: Choose how you take money out: a fixed dollar amount, a fixed amount that grows with inflation, a percent of your portfolio, dynamic guardrails, or RMDs only.
First-Year Portfolio Withdrawal: This fills in on its own. It is your spending need minus your guaranteed income in year one.
Withdrawal Percentage (%): If you chose the percent strategy, enter the share of your balance you take each year, like 4%.
Upper Guardrail (%): If you chose guardrails, enter how far your rate must fall before you raise spending by 10%.
Lower Guardrail (%): Enter how far your rate must rise before you cut spending by 10%.
Healthcare Cost Escalator: Turn this on if health costs will rise faster than other prices.
Annual Healthcare Spending: Enter what you expect to pay each year for care.
Healthcare Inflation Rate (%): Enter how fast those health costs will grow.
One-Time Future Expenses: Add up to five big one-time costs. Give each a name, the age it happens, and the amount.
Social Security — Self (monthly): Enter your monthly benefit.
Social Security Start Age: Enter the age you will claim it, from 62 to 70.
Social Security — Spouse (monthly): Enter your partner's monthly benefit.
Spouse Social Security Start Age: Enter the age your partner will claim.
Pension Income (annual): Enter your yearly pension amount, or leave it at $0.
Pension Start Age: Enter the age your pension begins.
Pension COLA (%): Enter the yearly raise your pension gets. Use 0 if it never rises.
Other Annual Guaranteed Income: Enter other steady income, like rent or an annuity.
Other Income Description: Name that income so it is easy to spot.
Other Income Start Age and End Age: Enter the ages that income starts and stops.
Effective Federal Tax Rate (%): Enter the average federal rate on your pre-tax withdrawals.
State Income Tax Rate (%): Enter your state rate. Use 0 if your state has no income tax.
Tax-Efficient Withdrawal Order: Leave this on to draw from taxable, then pre-tax, then Roth. Turn it off to draw a little from each account.
Early Market Crash Simulation: Turn this on to test a 30% drop early in retirement.
Crash Year: Pick year 1 or year 2 for the drop.
Monte Carlo Simulation: Turn this on to test many random market paths and get your chance of success.
Number of Simulations: Pick 500, 1,000, or 5,000 runs. More runs take longer.
Return Volatility (%): Enter how much returns swing up and down each year.
Click Calculate to see your results, then use the sliders to test new returns, spending, or ages. Click Reset to start over.
Retirement Spending: What It Means
Retirement spending is the money you pull from your savings each year after you stop working. The big question is simple: will your money last as long as you do? Your answer depends on four things: how much you saved, how much you spend, how long you live, and how your investments grow.
Where Your Retirement Income Comes From
Most retirees use two buckets of money. The first is guaranteed income, like Social Security, a pension, or an annuity. This money shows up every month no matter what the market does. The second is your portfolio, which holds your 401(k), IRA, Roth, and brokerage accounts. You only need to withdraw the gap between your spending and your guaranteed income. So if you spend $60,000 a year and Social Security pays $24,000, your portfolio only has to cover $36,000.
Common Withdrawal Strategies
- Fixed Dollar (Nominal): You take the same dollar amount every year. It is easy, but inflation slowly shrinks what that money can buy.
- Fixed Inflation-Adjusted: You take the same amount but raise it each year with inflation. This is the classic "4% rule" idea: start at about 4% of your savings, then give yourself a raise for inflation4.
- Percentage of Portfolio: You take a set percent (like 4%) of whatever your balance is that year. You can never run out, but your income drops in bad market years.
- Guardrails (Dynamic): You spend more when markets do well and cut back when they do poorly. This often lets you spend more over a full retirement.
- RMD Only: You take just the minimum the IRS forces you to take from pre-tax accounts, starting at age 73.1 If you were born in 1960 or later, that age is 75.2 This keeps the most money invested, but may not cover your bills.
Taxes and Withdrawal Order
Not every dollar you withdraw is worth the same. Money from a 401(k) or traditional IRA is taxed as income. Roth withdrawals are tax-free. Because of this, many retirees pull from taxable brokerage accounts first, then pre-tax accounts, and save Roth money for last. That order can stretch your savings by years. Withdraw a little extra to cover the tax bill. If you need $40,000 to spend and pay 25% in taxes, you have to take out about $53,300.
Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
At age 73, the IRS makes you start taking money out of pre-tax retirement accounts.1 If you were born in 1960 or later, the starting age is 75.2 The amount is your balance divided by a life expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table.3 At 73 the factor is 26.5.3 That means you must take about 3.8% of the account. The factor drops each year, so the required amount grows. If you do not need the cash, you can pay the tax and reinvest the rest.
Risks That Can Break a Plan
- Inflation: At 3% inflation, prices double in about 24 years. A $60,000 lifestyle at 65 costs roughly $120,000 at 89.
- Sequence of returns risk: A big market drop in your first few years of retirement hurts far more than the same drop later, because you are selling shares while prices are low.
- Healthcare costs: Medical costs usually rise faster than everything else. Long-term care is the biggest wild card.
- Living longer than planned: A healthy 65-year-old has a real chance of reaching 90 or beyond. Planning to 90 or 95 is safer than planning to 85.
Ways to Make Money Last Longer
If a plan comes up short, you have real levers to pull. Delay Social Security, since each year you wait past full retirement age adds about 8% to your benefit for life.5 Trim spending a little in the early years. Work part-time for a few years. Shift more of your savings into growth assets if you can handle the swings. Small changes made early beat big changes made late.
Why Run a Simulation
Markets do not return the same amount every year, so a single average-return projection can be too rosy. A Monte Carlo simulation runs your plan hundreds or thousands of times with random returns and reports how often your money lasted. A success rate of 80% or higher counts as a solid plan. Below 70%, the plan needs work.