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Flagship · SWP

Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP)

Our unique withdrawal calculator helps you cover inflation, add future expenses and plan retirement events, for a more accurate forecast of how long your corpus really lasts, year by year.

See how this calculation works

RETIREPEACE METHOD Powered by the RetirePeace Methodology: transparent, year-by-year modelling with inflation, retirement events, one-time withdrawals and evolving income.
Your plan
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Assumptions
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Retirement
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Your results
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Add future events that change your retirement cash flow, such as a permanent withdrawal increase or a one-time expense.
No retirement events yet
Examples
▲Increase withdrawal by 10%
●Buy a car
●Medical expense
●Education
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Year-by-year working

Every row is a direct calculation. This is exactly how the numbers above are reached. Withdrawal happens at the start of the year; the return then compounds on the remaining balance.

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▲Increase ▼Decrease ●One-time withdrawal
Year Opening corpus Monthly W/D Today's W/D Annual W/D W/D % Return Closing corpus Closing (today's)
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⚡ Changes This Year
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How this plan is calculated

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Add retirement event

Event type
Trigger
yr
Adjust withdrawal by (use − to decrease)
%
e.g. +10 raises the monthly withdrawal, −4 reduces it.
Enter a non-zero percentage.
Amount
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Notes (optional)

Understanding the SWP Calculator

A Systematic Withdrawal Plan takes a regular income out of an invested corpus while the remaining balance stays invested. This calculator models that drawdown year by year and shows whether the corpus survives your planned horizon or runs out before it.

It is the counterpart to the accumulation calculators: rather than asking how a pot is built, it asks how long a pot lasts once you start spending it, and what happens when withdrawals rise over time.

What each input means

Retirement corpus
The balance available at the start of the plan.
Monthly withdrawal
The income taken in the first year. It is multiplied by twelve to give the first annual withdrawal.
Withdrawal growth
How much the monthly withdrawal rises each year. Setting it near your inflation rate keeps the income roughly constant in purchasing power.
Expected annual return
The growth rate applied to the balance that remains after each year’s withdrawal.
Inflation
Used to convert future balances back into today’s money, so you can see the plan in real terms as well as nominal ones.
Plan duration
Either a number of years or an explicit calendar range.
Retirement events
Optional one-time withdrawals in a chosen year, or a permanent percentage change to the income from a chosen year onward, for a car, a medical cost or a change in lifestyle.

How to read your result

Corpus outcome
Either the balance remaining at the end of the plan, or the year in which the withdrawals exceed the balance.
Withdrawal rate (year 1)
The first year’s withdrawal as a percentage of the opening corpus. It is a useful sanity check on how demanding the plan is.
Year-by-year table
Opening balance, withdrawal, return earned and closing balance for each year, with an option to view balances in today’s money.

The maths behind it

Each year the annual withdrawal is taken from the opening balance first, and the return is then applied to what remains, not to the full opening balance. The closing balance becomes the next year’s opening balance. The monthly withdrawal grows by your chosen rate each year, and any retirement events you add are applied in the year you specify. Real values are obtained by discounting the nominal balances by inflation. This withdraw-first order is deliberately the conservative one, and it differs from the Retirement Calculator, which grows the full opening balance before withdrawing. Expect the SWP figure to be the lower of the two on identical inputs. The year-by-year table also starts at year 0, the first withdrawal year, so a 30-year plan shows rows for years 0 to 30, one withdrawal more than a strict count, again in the conservative direction. Both conventions are documented in How RetirePeace calculates.

Assumptions and limitations

  • Every projection applies a single fixed return to each year. Real markets rise and fall, so a portfolio that averages the same return can still finish somewhere quite different, especially once withdrawals begin and a poor run arrives early.
  • Tax, platform fees, fund charges and transaction costs are not modelled. A real-world net outcome will be lower than a gross projection.
  • Returns and inflation are assumptions you choose, not forecasts. The output is only ever as reliable as the numbers you put in.
  • Figures are shown in the currency you select. No exchange-rate movement is modelled.
  • This is general educational information to help you understand your own numbers, not personalised financial advice.

Related calculators

Learn the concepts behind this calculator

The full Retirement Learning Centre covers withdrawals, inflation, FIRE and drawdown strategy, and how RetirePeace calculates documents every modelling convention used on this page.

More questions about assumptions, withdrawals and how these projections work are answered in the retirement planning FAQ.

The calculations provided by RetirePeace are intended for educational and planning purposes only. Investment returns, inflation, and future market conditions are uncertain. Actual outcomes may differ. This is not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.