Retirement drawdown calculator

How long will my retirement savings last?

It depends on four numbers: the size of the pot, how much you take out, how fast the money left in the pot grows, and whether your withdrawals rise with prices. On the default inputs, a pot of $500,000 paying $2,500 a month (6% of the pot in the first year), raised each year by 3% inflation, with an assumed 5% growth a year, lasts 20.4 years.

Keep the same $2,500 level instead and it lasts 34.2 years. That looks much better, but a level income shrinks in real terms: at 3% inflation, $2,500 in year 30 buys what $1,060.87 buys today. The calculator shows both sides so you can see what the choice costs.

How does this drawdown calculator work?

It runs the pot forward one period at a time, monthly or yearly as you choose:

1. The withdrawal is taken at the start of the period, so you have the income in hand when the month or year begins.
2. What is left grows for that period. A yearly growth rate g becomes a monthly rate of (1 + g)^(1/12) - 1, so 5% a year is 0.4074% a month, and twelve months compound to exactly 5%.
3. If inflation increases are on, the withdrawal steps up once a year: in year y it is the first withdrawal x (1 + inflation)^(y - 1).
4. When the pot can no longer pay a full withdrawal, it pays what it has, and the calculator counts that fraction of a period. The search runs to 100 years.

Open Show the working under the result to see the rates and the count for your own numbers.

Level or rising withdrawals: which lasts longer?

A level withdrawal always lasts longer in years, because later payments are smaller in real terms. A rising one keeps your buying power but runs the pot down faster. Here is the default pot of $500,000 at an assumed 5% growth and 3% inflation:

The $2,000 level withdrawal never runs out because 5% growth adds $2,028.80 a month to a $500,000 pot, slightly more than is taken. The calculator shows this figure as the level amount growth alone covers. Below it, a level income leaves the pot intact in money terms, though not in buying power.

Monthly or yearly withdrawals?

Taking $2,500 every month lasts slightly longer than taking $30,000 at the start of each year: 20.4 years against 19.9 with rising withdrawals, and 34.2 against 32.4 when level. Monthly withdrawals leave most of the year's income invested for a few more months, so it keeps growing until it is needed.

The yearly setting suits income taken once a year, or a plan that moves a year's spending to cash at the start of each year. Switch between the two and compare the schedules.

How does each input change how long the money lasts?

• Growth rate. With $2,500 a month rising at 3%, the pot lasts 16.9 years at 3% growth, 18.4 at 4%, 20.4 at 5%, 23.1 at 6% and 27.0 at 7%. With no growth at all it lasts 13.7 years.
• Inflation. With rising withdrawals at 5% growth, 2% inflation stretches the pot to 23.0 years and 4% cuts it to 18.5 years.
• Withdrawal. Cutting the monthly amount from $2,500 to $2,000 lifts the rising plan from 20.4 to 27.1 years; raising it to $3,000 drops it to 16.4 years.
• Pot size. With growth above zero, a bigger pot at the same withdrawal lasts more than proportionally longer, because growth on the larger balance helps too: doubling the default pot to $1,000,000 stretches the rising plan from 20.4 to 54.5 years.

Worked examples in pounds and dirhams

Pounds. A £300,000 pension pot paying £1,500 a month, raised by 2.5% each year, at an assumed 4% growth, lasts 19.3 years. Kept level at £1,500 it lasts 27.0 years. Growth alone covers a level £978.92 a month on this pot.

UAE dirhams. AED 2,000,000 paying AED 120,000 at the start of each year, raised by 2% a year, at an assumed 6% growth, lasts 25.8 years, and after 25 years about AED 152,720 is left, worth AED 93,087 in today's money. Kept level, the same withdrawal lasts 49.3 years.

The calculator works in 24 currencies and never converts between them; the selector changes symbols and formatting only.

How do you work out how long money lasts in Excel?

For a level withdrawal, Excel's NPER function gives the number of periods directly. Payments taken at the start of each period need the type argument set to 1, and the pot is entered as a negative number because it is paid in. For the default pot drawn at a level $2,500 a month:

=NPER((1+5%)^(1/12)-1, 2500, -500000, 0, 1) returns 410.43 months, or 34.2 years.

The same answer comes from the formula n = -ln(1 - P x i / (W x (1 + i))) / ln(1 + i), where P is the pot, W the withdrawal and i the rate per period. NPER only handles a level payment. For withdrawals that rise each year, build a schedule with one row per year, as the table under the calculator does.

What about tax and the rules where you live?

The calculator works on amounts before tax, and the rules for drawing money from a retirement account differ by country and by account. Two examples, as each authority states them (checked November 2026):

• United Kingdom. GOV.UK says you can usually take up to 25% of the amount built up in any pension as a tax-free lump sum, up to a lump sum allowance that currently stands at £268,275; amounts above your allowances are subject to Income Tax.
• United States. The IRS says you generally must start required minimum distributions from a traditional IRA at age 73, and the rules do not apply to Roth IRAs while the owner is alive. A required withdrawal can be larger than the income you planned to take.

To model income after tax, enter the gross withdrawal that leaves you the net amount you need. The RMD calculator works out required US withdrawals.

Common mistakes, and what this calculator leaves out

• Treating the growth rate as steady. Real returns vary, and losses early in drawdown do more damage than the same losses later, because withdrawals lock them in. Our post on sequence of returns risk explains why the order of returns matters.
• Forgetting fees. A yearly charge comes straight off growth; enter growth after fees for a closer figure.
• Ignoring inflation with a level income. The years look longer, but the late payments buy much less.
• Leaving out other income. A state or workplace pension that starts later reduces what the pot has to pay; lower the withdrawal to reflect it.

The page does not model tax, fees, one-off withdrawals, annuity purchase or variable returns. It is a projection on fixed assumptions, not a plan or a forecast.

Glossary

Drawdown: taking an income from savings or a pension pot that stays invested. Pot: the amount saved when withdrawals begin. Withdrawal rate: the first year's withdrawals as a share of the pot. Inflation-linked (rising) income: a withdrawal raised each year by inflation to hold its buying power. Level income: a withdrawal that stays the same in money terms. Today's money: a future amount divided by the inflation built up since today.

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