The age your savings run out — and how your mortgage and your home move it
Not counting mortgage principal and interest — step 2 adds it. Keep property taxes, insurance, and HOA in.
Pension, annuity, net rent.
All in today’s dollars: spending and income rise with inflation, so the return is after inflation. A balanced retirement portfolio is often assumed at about 4%.
How Long It Lasts
Your money lasts to
Past 100
with steady returns
In a bad first decade
Age 94
same average return
Year-one withdrawal
$68,000
until Social Security at 67
Starting withdrawal rate
8.5%
above the 4% rule
Your savings cover everything for 2 years until Social Security starts at 67. Those early years matter most.
Savings by age, 65–100
Your age along the bottom. Today’s dollars.
Estimates only. Returns are illustrative, not a forecast. A HECM requires age 62, HUD counseling, and the loan balance grows over time. Today’s rates →
Altgage Inc. NMLS #2447252 | 100 Cambridge St, Floor 14, Boston, MA 02114|Most retirement calculators answer one question: at this spending, when does the money run out? This one answers it, then asks what most leave out — what your mortgage and your home change about the answer.
Each year, spending minus Social Security and other income comes out of savings, then the rest grows. Everything is in today’s dollars. The bad-first-decade line uses the same average return in a worse order: losses first, recovery later. That order alone can cost years.
Keeping the mortgage means savings fund the payment until it ends. Paying it off from savings removes the payment but takes a lump sum out up front. A HECM reverse mortgage at 62 pays it off from home equity instead — savings stay invested, and the cost moves to the house. The reverse mortgage calculator shows what your home could support.
Whatever the HECM line has left is a second pot to spend from in down years, so you don’t sell stocks at the bottom. Research by Barry and Stephen Sacks and by Wade Pfau found this extends how long a portfolio lasts. The sequence of returns risk calculator runs it year by year.
A HECM is a loan. The payoff, the upfront costs, and anything you draw are borrowed, and the balance grows until it’s repaid from the house. That’s less equity for your heirs — step 2 shows how much at 75, 85, 90, and 95.
Taxes. Withdrawals from traditional IRAs and 401(k)s are taxable. Enter spending that includes the tax you expect to pay.
A spouse. One set of savings and one Social Security benefit. Add a spouse’s benefit to “other income” for a rough household picture.
Spending that changes. Spending stays level in today’s dollars. Many retirees spend less in their 80s, and more on care later.
Moving. A HECM is repaid when you sell or move out for more than a year. The strategy assumes you stay put.
It depends on four numbers: what you have saved, what you spend each year beyond Social Security and other income, the return you earn after inflation, and the order those returns arrive in. As a rough guide, withdrawing 4% of your savings in the first year and raising it with inflation has historically lasted about 30 years. The calculator above runs your own numbers year by year and shows the age the money runs out, with steady returns and with a bad first decade.
At $40,000 a year and a 4% return after inflation, $1 million lasts past age 100 for someone retiring at 65. At $50,000 a year and a 3% return, it runs out at about 94. Social Security and other income reduce what you withdraw, so they stretch it further; a bad first few years in the market shortens it.
Morningstar’s 2026 research puts the safe starting rate at 3.9% for a balanced portfolio over 30 years, or up to 5.7% for retirees willing to cut spending in bad years. The classic 4% rule comes from Bill Bengen’s 1994 study, which found 4% survived every 30-year period in his historical data, including retirees who started in 1929 and 1966. Bengen now argues for about 4.7%. The calculator shows your starting rate so you can see where you stand.
Sequence of returns risk is the danger that bad market years early in retirement do lasting damage, even if the long-run average return is fine. Selling investments while they are down to pay the bills locks in the losses, and the shares you sold never recover. The calculator’s bad-first-decade line has the same average return as the steady line; only the order is different.
Paying it off removes the monthly payment, but it takes a lump sum out of savings that would otherwise keep growing — and if that money comes from a traditional IRA or 401(k), the withdrawal is taxable. Step 2 of the calculator compares keeping the mortgage, paying it off from savings, and letting a HECM reverse mortgage pay it off, and shows how long your money lasts under each.
A HECM reverse mortgage, available from age 62, can pay off an existing mortgage from home equity so your savings no longer fund the payment. Whatever is left becomes a line of credit you can spend from in down markets instead of selling investments at a loss. Both lower what you withdraw from savings; the cost is a loan balance that grows and is repaid from the house, which leaves less equity for your heirs.
Yes. A HECM has no required monthly mortgage payment, but you still pay property taxes, homeowners insurance, and upkeep, and the loan becomes due if you stop. It is also repaid when the last borrower sells or moves out for more than 12 consecutive months.
For a balanced retirement portfolio, 3–5% after inflation is a common planning range; this calculator defaults to 4%. Stocks alone have returned about 6–7% after inflation over the long run, but retirees usually hold bonds and cash too. Because every number here is in today’s dollars, the return you enter should be after inflation.