SWP calculator: how long will my money last?
How long will my money last if I draw from it every month?
On the expected path. The withdrawal is ₹2,36,206 a month by year 30.
Balance over time, with the range of outcomes
Shaded band: the middle 80% of 100 simulated market sequences.
How this is calculated
Rules checked against their sources on 29 September 2026. Tax year FY2026-27.
The question behind an SWP
A systematic withdrawal plan sells a fixed rupee amount of fund units every month and pays it to your bank. The real question is not how to set one up but whether the corpus behind it will last. Three things decide that: the withdrawal rate, inflation, and the order in which returns arrive.
The withdrawal rate
Withdrawing 6% of a corpus a year that earns 9% sounds safe. It is not, once the withdrawal has to rise with prices. At 5.5% inflation the same purchasing power costs 71% more in ten years and almost three times as much in twenty, so a withdrawal that starts at 6% of the corpus is 10% of it by year 15 even if the corpus has grown. The "sustainable" figure on this page is the starting amount, rising with inflation, that lasts exactly your horizon on the expected return; it is usually 4% to 5% of the corpus for a 30-year horizon.
Sequence of returns
Two portfolios with the same average return can have opposite outcomes if one meets a bad market in the first years of withdrawal and the other meets it late. Withdrawals during a fall lock in the loss, because the units sold cheaply are gone when the recovery comes. The band on this page runs 100 market sequences with the same average and realistic swings, and reports how many still have money at the horizon and how early the unlucky tenth runs out. A plan with 90% success and a flexible spending rule is stronger than one with 100% on a single flat line.
The bucket alternative
Rather than drawing from one fund, most planners hold two or three years of withdrawals in cash or short-term debt, the next five to seven in bonds, and the rest in equity, refilling the near buckets in good years. It does not raise the average return; it removes the forced selling that turns a bad year into a permanent loss. The Eazyretire planner draws down in that order.
Tax
Each withdrawal is part return of capital and part gain, and only the gain is taxed: at 12.5% above ₹1.25 lakh a year for equity funds held over a year, at your slab for debt funds bought after April 2023. In the early years most of an SWP instalment is your own money, so the tax is small; it grows as the units' gains grow. This page does not deduct it.
Questions people ask
- What is a safe withdrawal rate in India?
- For a 30-year horizon on a balanced portfolio, about 4% of the starting corpus in the first year, rising with inflation, has survived most simulated and historical sequences. Higher inflation and lower bond yields than the US studies assumed argue for the low end. The calculator's 'sustainable' figure applies your own return and inflation.
- Should the withdrawal rise with inflation?
- If it has to buy the same things, yes. A flat withdrawal looks safer on paper because it buys less each year; by year 20 at 5.5% inflation it buys a third of what it did. Enter 0% inflation to see the flat case.
- Why does the band matter if the average is fine?
- Because you will get one sequence, not the average. A 30% fall in year two with withdrawals continuing removes far more units than the same fall in year twenty. The one-in-ten bad outcome is the number to plan around.
- SWP or a dividend plan?
- An SWP, almost always. Dividends (income distribution) are taxed fully at your slab and paid at the fund's discretion; an SWP is taxed only on the gain portion, at capital-gains rates for equity, and pays exactly what you set.
- How is the tax on each withdrawal worked out?
- Units are sold first-in first-out. For each unit sold the gain is the sale price less its purchase price, long-term if held over a year (equity) and taxed at 12.5% above the ₹1.25 lakh annual exemption, short-term at 20%. Debt-fund units bought after 1 April 2023 are taxed at slab regardless of holding period.
Want the whole picture?
A free Eazyretire plan puts this number next to your income, savings and spending and tells you whether your money lasts to the age you plan for, and what to change if it will not.