Retirement Drawdown Calculator
Estimate how many years a retirement balance will last given a starting withdrawal amount and investment return.
- Initial withdrawal rate
- 5.63%
This calculator provides estimates only. It is general information, not financial or taxation advice, and doesn't account for your full personal circumstances. Confirm figures with your lender or a licensed adviser before making a decision.
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How this calculator works
Once you stop contributing and start drawing down a retirement balance, the question flips from "how much will I have" to "how long will it last" — which depends on your starting balance, how much you withdraw each year, whether that withdrawal grows with inflation, and the return your remaining balance earns along the way.
Enter your starting balance, your first year's withdrawal amount, the return you expect on the balance, and how much you'll increase the withdrawal each year to keep pace with the cost of living (a common approach is to grow withdrawals with inflation, so your spending power stays level). The calculator simulates the balance year by year until it runs out, or caps at 100 years if it never does.
Worked example: an $800,000 balance, withdrawing $45,000 in year one, growing that withdrawal 2.5% a year for inflation, earning 5.5% p.a. on the balance, lasts 27 years before running out — an initial withdrawal rate of 5.6%.
If your return comfortably exceeds your withdrawal rate (adjusted for the withdrawal's own growth), the balance can effectively last indefinitely, since investment growth outpaces what's being drawn down. This is a simplified year-by-year model using a single fixed return each year — real markets don't return the same amount every year, and a run of poor early returns can deplete a balance faster than this average-return model suggests.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does the order of returns matter, when this uses an average?
- This calculator uses the same fixed return every year, but real portfolios experience returns in a sequence — a market downturn early in retirement, while you're withdrawing, can deplete a balance faster than the same average return spread evenly, a risk known as 'sequence of returns risk'. This model doesn't capture that.
- Should I include the age pension in my withdrawal amount?
- This calculator only models your own investment or super balance. If you'll also receive the age pension or other income, your balance won't need to fund your full living costs, so you could enter a lower withdrawal amount to reflect just the shortfall.
- What's a safe withdrawal rate to use?
- It depends on how long the balance needs to last and how much certainty you want — see our FIRE number calculator, which uses the common 4% rule as a rough starting point for a roughly 30-year retirement.