What is a systematic withdrawal plan?

An SWP is the reverse of a SIP: you withdraw a fixed amount each month while the rest stays invested. It is the usual way to turn a retirement corpus into a monthly income.

What is the sustainable withdrawal figure?

It is the largest monthly withdrawal the corpus can sustain forever without shrinking. Take exactly that amount and the balance returns to its starting point each month; take more and it will eventually run out.

Why does a small increase in withdrawal shorten the plan so much?

Because it compounds in reverse. Withdrawing more than the growth eats into capital, which reduces next month's growth, which eats more capital. Just past the sustainable threshold the corpus may last decades, but push further and the depletion date collapses quickly.

Should I increase my withdrawal for inflation?

In real life yes, since a fixed withdrawal loses purchasing power every year. This calculator holds it flat, so to approximate an inflation-adjusted plan enter your expected return minus expected inflation.

What is the biggest risk this calculation does not show?

Sequence-of-returns risk. A sharp fall in the first few years of withdrawals does lasting damage, because you sell units at low prices to fund income and have fewer left to recover. Keeping two or three years of withdrawals in cash helps.

How is this different from just living off the interest?

Living off interest means never touching capital, which is close to withdrawing exactly the sustainable amount. An SWP also lets you deliberately run the corpus down over a known period, which is more flexible but needs monitoring.

InvestmentsUpdated August 1, 2026

SWP Calculator

Work out how long a corpus will last if you withdraw a fixed amount every month, and find the largest withdrawal it can sustain without ever running dry.

How to use this calculator

Step 1
Enter your corpus
The total amount available to draw an income from, after setting aside any emergency fund.
Step 2
Set the monthly withdrawal
The amount you need each month. The sustainable figure in the results shows what the corpus can support indefinitely.
Step 3
Check how long it lasts
If the corpus depletes before your horizon, lower the withdrawal or extend the return assumption.

Quick facts

Cash flow: Fixed amount, every month
Withdrawal timing: Start of each month
Remaining balance: Stays invested and keeps growing
Maximum horizon: 50 years

Withdrawal plan

Set your corpus and the income you need, then see how long it lasts.

Currency

Starting corpus

Adjust corpus

$50k$5000k

Monthly withdrawal

Taken at the start of each month, before that month's growth.

Adjust withdrawal

$0$25,000

Sustainable forever: $3,311 a month

Expected annual return

Adjust return

0%20%

Withdrawal period

yrs

Adjust period

1 yr40 yr

Projections assume a steady return and do not model market volatility.

How long the corpus lasts

Beyond 25 years

The corpus survives the full period, with a balance still invested at the end.

Total withdrawn: $1,050,000
Growth earned along the way: $869,305
Balance after 25 years: $319,305

You are withdrawing $3,500 a month, which is 8.4% of the corpus a year.

Total withdrawn

$1,050,000

300 monthly payments of $3,500.

Sustainable withdrawal

$3,311/mo

Withdrawing this much instead would keep the corpus intact forever.

Corpus over time

The remaining balance against everything you have taken out so far.

The shaded area is what remains invested; the dashed line is cumulative income received. Growth is covering most of the withdrawals here.

Income taken versus balance left

Everything your corpus produced, split between income paid out and money still working.

Income withdrawn76.7%
Balance still invested23.3%

Your $500,000 corpus generated $869,305 of growth along the way, which is why these two figures together exceed what you started with.

Year-by-year schedule

What you withdraw each year, what the remaining balance earns, and what is left.

Year	Withdrawn	Growth	Balance
Year 1	$42,000	$39,635	$497,635
Year 2	$42,000	$39,438	$495,073
Year 3	$42,000	$39,226	$492,298
Year 4	$42,000	$38,995	$489,294
Year 5	$42,000	$38,746	$486,039
Year 6	$42,000	$38,476	$482,515
Year 7	$42,000	$38,183	$478,698
Year 8	$42,000	$37,866	$474,565
Year 9	$42,000	$37,523	$470,088
Year 10	$42,000	$37,152	$465,240
Year 11	$42,000	$36,749	$459,990
Year 12	$42,000	$36,314	$454,303
Year 13	$42,000	$35,842	$448,145
Year 14	$42,000	$35,331	$441,476
Year 15	$42,000	$34,777	$434,253
Year 16	$42,000	$34,178	$426,430
Year 17	$42,000	$33,528	$417,959
Year 18	$42,000	$32,825	$408,784
Year 19	$42,000	$32,064	$398,847
Year 20	$42,000	$31,239	$388,086
Year 21	$42,000	$30,346	$376,432
Year 22	$42,000	$29,378	$363,810
Year 23	$42,000	$28,331	$350,141
Year 24	$42,000	$27,196	$335,337
Year 25	$42,000	$25,968	$319,305
Total	$1,050,000	$869,305	$319,305

Compare the withdrawn and growth columns: while growth is the larger of the two, the corpus keeps rising. The year that flips is when the balance starts to fall. The CSV export contains the full month-by-month detail.

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How a withdrawal plan is calculated

Each month the withdrawal comes out first, then the balance that remains earns a month of return. Repeating that gives both the depletion date and the balance at any point.

Bₖ = (Bₖ₋₁ − W) × (1 + i) and W* = B₀ × i ÷ (1 + i)

Bₖ

Balance after month k

What remains invested once the withdrawal and growth are applied.

B₀

Starting corpus

The amount you begin with.

Monthly withdrawal

The fixed amount taken out at the start of each month.

Monthly return rate

The expected annual return divided by 12 and by 100. An 8% annual return gives i ≈ 0.006667.

Sustainable withdrawal

The steady state of the first equation, where the balance ends each month exactly where it started.

Withdraw exactly W* and the corpus stays level forever, because the growth on what remains replaces what you took. Withdraw more and the balance falls a little faster each month, so depletion accelerates. Withdraw less and the corpus keeps growing even while paying you an income.

Assumptions

Withdrawals are taken at the start of each month, and the remainder stays invested.
The withdrawal amount is fixed, so it is not raised each year for inflation.
The return is earned at a steady monthly rate with no sequence-of-returns risk.
The final withdrawal is capped at whatever is left, so the balance never goes negative.
No exit load, expense ratio or capital gains tax is deducted from withdrawals.

Frequently asked questions

Answers about the swp calculator.

An SWP is the mirror image of a SIP: instead of paying money in every month, you take a fixed amount out while the rest stays invested. It is the usual way to turn a retirement corpus into a monthly income, and it is often more tax-efficient than a product that pays interest, because each withdrawal is part capital and part gain rather than fully taxable income.

Related calculators

Continue exploring adjacent tools in this topic.

Guides that explain this

Background reading on the ideas behind these numbers.

Investing

SIP or lumpsum: what the maths actually says

For most people the question answers itself, because a SIP is simply what investing a salary looks like. The genuine dilemma arrives when a large sum lands at once — and there the arithmetic and the behavioural answer point in different directions.

Jul 31, 20267 min read

This tool is provided for educational purposes only. Results are estimates based on the values you enter and do not constitute financial advice.

Year

Withdrawn

Growth

Balance

Year 1

$42,000

$39,635

$497,635

Year 2

$42,000

$39,438

$495,073

Year 3

$42,000

$39,226

$492,298

Year 4

$42,000

$38,995

$489,294

Year 5

$42,000

$38,746

$486,039

Year 6

$42,000

$38,476

$482,515

Year 7

$42,000

$38,183

$478,698

Year 8

$42,000

$37,866

$474,565

Year 9

$42,000

$37,523

$470,088

Year 10

$42,000

$37,152

$465,240

Year 11

$42,000

$36,749

$459,990

Year 12

$42,000

$36,314

$454,303

Year 13

$42,000

$35,842

$448,145

Year 14

$42,000

$35,331

$441,476

Year 15

$42,000

$34,777

$434,253

Year 16

$42,000

$34,178

$426,430

Year 17

$42,000

$33,528

$417,959

Year 18

$42,000

$32,825

$408,784

Year 19

$42,000

$32,064

$398,847

Year 20

$42,000

$31,239

$388,086

Year 21

$42,000

$30,346

$376,432

Year 22

$42,000

$29,378

$363,810

Year 23

$42,000

$28,331

$350,141

Year 24

$42,000

$27,196

$335,337

Year 25

$42,000

$25,968

$319,305

Total

$1,050,000

$869,305

$319,305

Assumptions

Withdrawals are taken at the start of each month, and the remainder stays invested.

The withdrawal amount is fixed, so it is not raised each year for inflation.

The return is earned at a steady monthly rate with no sequence-of-returns risk.

The final withdrawal is capped at whatever is left, so the balance never goes negative.

No exit load, expense ratio or capital gains tax is deducted from withdrawals.