This free retirement withdrawal calculator answers the question every retiree asks: how long will my money last? Enter your portfolio and a planned withdrawal to see the exact year and age your savings would run out, or switch modes to find a safe, sustainable withdrawal for any number of years. It grows your spending with inflation, tests the famous 4% rule against your own numbers, and shows a full year-by-year breakdown. Works in any currency. No signup required.
Grows every year with inflation to keep your spending power steady.
A conservative retirement portfolio often assumes 4-6%.
Grows your withdrawal each year. Long-run average is about 3%.
Lets us show the exact age and year your money could run out.
Your money lasts
33 years
Runs out around age 98 (about the year 2,059).
The 4% rule says
$40,000.00/yr
$3,333.33 per month — the classic starting withdrawal on a $1,000,000.00 portfolio.
You are drawing 4% a year — right at the 4% guideline.
Total Withdrawn
$2,269,510.26
Across the whole horizon
Ending Balance
$0.00
When the money runs out
To never run out
$19,047.62/yr
The most you could withdraw in year one and still preserve the portfolio forever at these assumptions.
Turn this plan into a living budget in Auritrack. Track your real spending against your withdrawal, watch your balance, and adjust before a bad year forces your hand.
Try Auritrack FreePick a mode. "How long will it last?" tells you how many years a set withdrawal survives. "Safe withdrawal" works backwards from a number of years to the amount you can sustainably take.
Type in your total retirement savings — the nest egg you plan to draw down. Choose your currency from the selector; the calculator works in any currency.
In how-long mode, enter how much you want to withdraw per year or per month. In safe-withdrawal mode, enter how many years the money must last (30 years is the standard).
Set your expected annual return in retirement (a conservative 4-6% is common) and an inflation rate (about 3% long term). Inflation grows your withdrawal each year so your spending power holds steady.
See how many years your money lasts (and the age it runs out), or your sustainable withdrawal, next to the classic 4% rule figure. Expand the year-by-year table to see every balance.
The 4% rule is the most widely cited guideline in retirement planning. It comes from research in the 1990s, later reinforced by the Trinity Study, which looked at historical U.S. market returns across many overlapping 30-year periods. The finding was simple: if you withdraw 4% of your portfolio in your first year of retirement and then increase that dollar amount by inflation every year after, a diversified stock-and-bond portfolio survived almost every historical 30-year window. On a £500,000 or $1,000,000 nest egg, that first-year withdrawal is 4% of the balance, rising with prices each year so your real spending power stays flat. The rule’s power is its simplicity, but it is a planning anchor rather than a law. It assumes a particular asset mix, a roughly 30-year horizon, and that the future rhymes with the past. This calculator lets you test 4% against your own return and inflation assumptions instead of taking it on faith.
How long your money lasts is a tug-of-war between three forces: your withdrawals pulling the balance down, investment growth pushing it up, and inflation quietly raising the amount you need to take each year. This tool simulates that battle one year at a time. It withdraws your chosen amount, grows the remaining balance at your expected return, then raises next year’s withdrawal by inflation, and repeats until the money either runs out or clearly outlives you. When your return comfortably beats inflation and your withdrawal is modest, the balance actually grows faster than you spend it, and the calculator reports that your money lasts indefinitely. To see how big that starting portfolio needs to be in the first place, pair this with our retirement calculator, which projects the nest egg you are on track to build.
Averages hide a danger that catches many retirees off guard. Two portfolios can earn the exact same average return over 30 years and yet one runs dry while the other thrives, purely because of the order the returns arrived in. This is sequence-of-returns risk. During your working years, a market crash is almost a gift — you keep buying at lower prices and recover on the way up. In retirement the maths flips. Because you are selling assets every year to fund withdrawals, a steep decline in your first few years shrinks the portfolio while you are drawing it down, leaving far less capital to rebound when markets recover. A retiree who hits a bad decade early can exhaust savings that would have lasted a lifetime had the same years come later. The practical defenses are a cash buffer of one to three years of spending, a flexible withdrawal that dials back after poor years, and avoiding the temptation to lock in losses by panic-selling. This calculator uses a steady return to keep things clear, so treat its result as a central estimate and give yourself a margin of safety on top.
Inflation is the silent tax on a fixed retirement income. At 3% a year, prices roughly double over 24 years, so a withdrawal that felt comfortable at 65 buys noticeably less at 85. That is why this calculator grows your withdrawal by the inflation rate every year rather than holding it flat — it keeps your real spending power steady, which is exactly what the 4% rule intends. The trade-off is that rising withdrawals draw the balance down faster than a fixed dollar amount would, so inflation shortens how long your money lasts. The gap between your expected return and inflation, often called your real return, is what really determines sustainability. A portfolio earning 5% while inflation runs at 3% has only a 2% real cushion to work with. You can see how inflation erodes purchasing power over a full retirement with our net worth calculator to track where you stand today.
Small adjustments have an outsized effect on how long a portfolio survives. Trimming your withdrawal rate from 5% to 4% can turn a plan that runs out into one that lasts indefinitely at the same return. Staying flexible is the single most powerful lever: retirees who reduce discretionary spending in down years and restore it in good ones can support a higher average withdrawal than a rigid fixed plan. Delaying retirement even a year or two does double duty, adding to the portfolio while shortening the drawdown period. Keeping a cash reserve lets you avoid selling investments at the bottom of a downturn, directly softening sequence-of-returns risk. And where you draw from matters for tax: coordinating withdrawals across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts can stretch every dollar further. If financial independence itself is still the goal, our FIRE calculator shows the number you need to retire early. The habit underneath all of these tactics is the same: know your spending, watch your balance, and adjust before a bad year forces your hand rather than after.
See whether you are on track to retire comfortably, how large your nest egg will grow, and how much to save each month to close the gap.
Find your financial independence number, see how many years until you can retire early, and model how your savings rate changes the date.
See how your money grows over time with daily, monthly, or yearly compounding. Visualize growth with interactive charts.
Add up your assets and liabilities to see your total net worth instantly. Understand where you stand financially.
Retire Confidently
Auritrack tracks your real spending against your retirement withdrawal, so you can see your balance move and adjust before a bad year forces your hand. Works in any currency with AI-powered insights. Free to start.
Disclaimer: This tool is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, investment, or legal advice. Results are estimates based on the inputs you provide and may not reflect actual financial outcomes. Always consult a qualified financial professional before making financial decisions.
