Retirement drawdown calculator
See what a withdrawal rate pays you after tax, how long your pot lasts, and what your guaranteed pension changes.
Retirement drawdown calculator
Only guaranteed, after-tax income you can count on: state pension plus any secured workplace or annuity income, entered at the yearly amount you expect when it starts. Leave out any pot projection that can fall.
Advanced options
The default is trimmed for a retirement mix, below what a growth portfolio averages. Set it to what you actually hold: higher if you are still growth-heavy, lower if you lean on bonds and cash.
An editable assumption, not a statutory rate. Most European investment taxes hit only the gain share of what you sell, so the drag on a whole withdrawal usually runs lower than the headline rate and depends on your base cost. It runs higher when a long-held holding is mostly gain, or under Ireland's deemed-disposal rules: raise it accordingly. The Netherlands taxes deemed wealth instead, on the whole pot every year, which a drag on withdrawals can only approximate: treat Dutch pot longevity here as optimistic.
--
Illustrative only. Investment values can fall as well as rise; you could get back less than you put in. Actual outcomes depend on returns, their order, charges, and taxes. Balances are shown in future money; at your inflation rate they buy less than the same number today.
Year-1 income after tax, incl. pension
--
Year-1 portfolio income (gross)
--
Highest rate that lasts your horizon
--
Assumes the same return every year and ignores the order of returns; a poor first decade lowers it sharply. A ceiling, not a safe rate.
What this tool does
You're looking at a pot you plan to live off, and every answer you've read so far used someone else's numbers. This tool runs yours: what a withdrawal rate pays you in year one, what's left of that after your country's tax treatment of selling, how a guaranteed pension changes what the pot must carry, and how long your pension pot will last, down to the year it runs out, if it does. Move any slider and watch the line move with it.
How the maths works
This is an illustrative model, not a forecast. It assumes one constant annual return every year, and real markets don't behave that way: the order of returns in your first decade of retirement matters more than their average, which is exactly what a constant-return model cannot show. No single safe withdrawal rate falls out of a model like this. Treat the output as a way to compare rates and assumptions.
The withdrawal rate sets your year-one income from the portfolio, and that income rises with your inflation assumption each year, the way the classic 4% rule works. Your guaranteed pension income, meaning your state pension plus any secured occupational pension, cuts what the portfolio has to provide once it starts. If you've seen a replacement-rate benchmark for your country, treat it with care: it's usually the OECD's total mandatory measure, which in countries with large workplace pensions sits well above the state pension alone. Enter only income you can actually count on.
The tax figure is an editable drag on your portfolio income, not a statutory rate: in most of Europe tax touches only the gain share of what you sell, while the Netherlands taxes the whole pot each year, something this model can only approximate. The note beside the field covers when your own drag runs lower or higher. One thing the balances never show on their face: every figure is in future money. With inflation above zero, the pot the tool projects for year 30 buys less than the same number would today. Change any assumption to match your own situation. Every default is a starting anchor you're meant to move.
When to use it
Before you settle on a withdrawal rate, and again whenever an assumption changes under you: a market drop, a pension letter, a move to a country that taxes selling differently. It also settles arguments about the 4% rule faster than any article can, because you can watch your own pot survive or run dry at 4, at 3.5 and at 3.
This tool is educational information, not personal financial or tax advice. Figures are illustrative. Consult a regulated adviser and your national tax authority before acting on it.