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ToolBoxGenie

SWP Calculator

Calculators · Added 14 August 2026

A systematic withdrawal plan takes a fixed amount out at regular intervals while whatever remains keeps growing. The question that matters is whether the corpus survives the period, and this calculator answers it directly — including naming the year it runs dry if the withdrawal is too high.

Taken monthly.

%
yrs

How to use the swp calculator

  1. 1Enter the lump sum you are starting with.
  2. 2Enter the amount you want to withdraw, and how often.
  3. 3Set the return you expect on the remaining balance and the period you need the plan to last.
  4. 4Press Calculate. If the corpus is exhausted the result says so and names the year.
  5. 5Open the year-by-year table to see the balance falling — or holding, if the growth is covering the withdrawals.

Examples

A sustainable withdrawal

Input
₹10,00,000 corpus, ₹10,000 a month, 8% return, 10 years
Result
About ₹3,77,983 left after withdrawing ₹12,00,000 in total

More was withdrawn than the corpus started with, and money remains. The growth on the shrinking balance paid for the difference.

A withdrawal that is too high

Input
The same corpus and return, but ₹20,000 a month
Result
Exhausted in year 6 — the plan does not reach ten years

Doubling the withdrawal does not halve the duration. It collapses it, because the balance that generates growth disappears faster.

Living off the growth alone

Input
₹1,00,00,000 corpus, ₹60,000 a month, 8% return, 25 years
Result
The corpus survives the full period with a substantial balance remaining

Withdrawing a little under the annual growth rate leaves the capital broadly intact. This is the shape most retirement plans aim for.

About the swp calculator

The arithmetic of drawing down

Every period, two things happen in opposite directions: a withdrawal reduces the balance, and growth increases what is left. Whether the corpus survives depends entirely on which is larger, and that relationship changes as the balance moves.

When growth exceeds withdrawals the balance rises despite the money coming out, and the plan is effectively perpetual. When they are close the balance drifts slowly, and the plan lasts a long time but not forever. When withdrawals exceed growth the balance falls, and here the process accelerates — a smaller balance generates less growth, which means a larger share of the next withdrawal comes out of capital, which shrinks the balance further.

That acceleration is why the second example above collapses so sharply. Doubling the withdrawal does not halve the duration; it cuts it to well under half, because the compounding that was subsidising the withdrawals is itself destroyed. Anyone modelling a drawdown should test a withdrawal rate slightly higher than planned, precisely to see how steep that cliff is.

What this model cannot show you

The single largest omission is that returns are not constant. A real portfolio delivers a scatter of annual results, and for a plan that withdraws money the order of those results matters enormously — a phenomenon called sequence-of-returns risk. Two portfolios with identical average returns over twenty-five years can leave one retiree comfortable and another out of money, purely on the basis of when the bad years fell.

The second omission is inflation. A flat ₹60,000 withdrawal is worth progressively less each year, so a plan that looks sustainable in nominal terms may be delivering a steadily shrinking real income. Building in an annual increase to the withdrawal changes the picture substantially, and usually not in a comforting direction.

The honest conclusion is that a constant-rate SWP projection is a floor-level sanity check rather than a retirement plan. It is very good at showing that a given withdrawal is clearly unsustainable, which is genuinely useful. It is much weaker as evidence that a given withdrawal is safe, and should not be relied on for that alone.

Frequently asked questions

How much can I safely withdraw?
The arithmetic answer is that withdrawing less than the growth leaves capital intact, so a corpus returning 8% can sustain roughly 8% a year indefinitely on paper. The practical answer is lower, because returns are not constant and inflation raises what you need over time. Withdrawal rates in the region of 4% of the starting corpus are the common conservative benchmark, though that figure comes from studies of other markets and other decades.
What is sequence-of-returns risk?
The order in which good and bad years arrive changes the outcome for anyone withdrawing money, even when the average return is identical. A poor run early — while the corpus is largest and units are being sold cheaply to fund withdrawals — does far more damage than the same poor run late. A constant-rate model cannot show this, so treat a comfortable-looking projection with caution.
Does this account for inflation?
No. The withdrawal amount stays flat for the whole period, which means its real value falls every year. To model a withdrawal that keeps pace with prices, either raise the amount and shorten your expectations, or use the retirement calculator on this site, which handles inflation explicitly on both sides.
How is an SWP taxed?
Each withdrawal is a redemption of units, so each one is a potential capital gains event on the growth portion, with the rate depending on the fund type and holding period. It is not treated as income. This calculator shows gross figures — the amount reaching your bank account will be lower, and the difference is worth checking with someone who knows your position.
Is an SWP better than a dividend or interest option?
It is a different structure with different tax treatment, and 'better' depends on your slab and holding period. What an SWP gives you that most income options do not is control: you choose the amount and the frequency rather than accepting whatever is declared. That predictability is often the real reason people prefer it.

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