Retirement Corpus Depletion Calculator

The 4% rule is a US-origin guideline suggesting that withdrawing 4% of your retirement corpus in the first year, then increasing that amount with inflation each year, has historically had a high probability of lasting 30 years. It is a reasonable starting reference point in India too, but Indian retirees should be cautious applying it directly, since it was originally back-tested against US market returns and inflation patterns, which differ from India's higher average inflation and different equity/debt return characteristics.

Your monthly withdrawal is increased each year by your entered inflation rate, because a fixed rupee withdrawal loses purchasing power over time. If you withdraw ₹50,000 a month today and inflation runs at 6%, you would need to withdraw roughly ₹53,000 a month next year just to maintain the same real spending power. Modeling a flat, non-escalating withdrawal would understate how quickly a corpus actually depletes in real-world retirement planning.

Post-retirement portfolios are typically more conservative than accumulation-phase portfolios, shifting toward debt and hybrid allocations to reduce volatility right when you can least afford a market downturn. A commonly used range is 6-8% for a moderate debt-heavy allocation, or up to 9-10% if you retain a meaningful equity allocation and can tolerate some volatility. Using an overly optimistic return rate is one of the most common mistakes in retirement withdrawal planning.

If the corpus depletes while you are still alive, you would need to rely on other income sources such as a pension, rental income, family support, or reverse mortgage on property, or reduce your withdrawal amount significantly at that point. This is precisely the risk this calculator is designed to surface early, while there is still time to adjust your retirement corpus target, your planned withdrawal rate, or your retirement age, rather than discovering the shortfall after you've already retired.

This calculator models a fixed monthly withdrawal that grows with inflation, which is the more common approach since retirees usually need predictable monthly cash flow for expenses. An alternative strategy withdraws a fixed percentage of the current corpus balance each year, which naturally reduces withdrawals if the portfolio underperforms and increases them if it outperforms, extending the corpus's life at the cost of less predictable monthly income. Both are valid strategies; the fixed-amount approach shown here is easier to budget against.

A regular retirement calculator typically works in the accumulation phase, helping you figure out how much corpus you need to build before retirement through SIPs or other savings. This calculator works in the decumulation phase, after you have already retired (or are close to it), answering a different question: given a specific corpus and a specific monthly withdrawal, how long will the money actually last. Both tools are useful at different stages of retirement planning.

No, this calculator shows the pre-tax depletion timeline based on your corpus, withdrawal, and return assumptions. Actual tax treatment depends heavily on where your corpus is held — NPS annuity income is taxed as regular income, mutual fund withdrawals may trigger capital gains tax depending on the fund type and holding period, and EPF/PPF withdrawals after the qualifying period are typically tax-free. Factor in your specific tax situation separately when finalizing your actual withdrawal plan.

If leaving an inheritance matters to you, target a withdrawal rate meaningfully below what would fully deplete the corpus in your expected lifetime, or reduce your withdrawal further so a substantial balance remains at the end of your simulation horizon. You can test this directly here: adjust the monthly withdrawal down until the calculator shows the corpus surviving well beyond your expected age with a healthy 'does not deplete' result.

No, enter only the amount you need to withdraw from this specific corpus each month. If you have other reliable income sources like a pension, annuity, or rental income covering part of your expenses, subtract that from your total monthly expense need before entering the remaining shortfall here as your monthly withdrawal, since this calculator only models depletion of the corpus itself, not your other income streams.

Very sensitive, especially over long horizons, since both return and inflation compound every single month in this simulation. A 1 percentage point difference in either assumption can change how long a corpus lasts by several years, particularly for withdrawal rates already close to the sustainable threshold. It is worth testing a conservative case (lower return, higher inflation) alongside your expected case here, rather than relying on a single optimistic scenario for a decision this consequential.