Purposeful FIRE🗂️Retirement Income Planner
Combine all your retirement income sources into one clear picture. Enter your portfolio, Social Security, pension, and side income to see your total monthly income and whether it covers your expenses.
Your Numbers
Portfolio
Other Income Sources
Your Results
What Is Retirement Income Planner?
Retirement income planning is the art of stacking multiple income streams until they reliably cover your spending. The four most common streams, portfolio withdrawals, Social Security, a pension, and part-time or side income, each have different timing, reliability, and tax treatment. This calculator shows all four together in one place so you can see your total monthly income and whether it covers what you plan to spend.
One of the most common early retirement planning errors is modeling only portfolio withdrawals and ignoring the income streams that will eventually arrive. Someone who plans to retire at 50 may spend 12 years living purely on portfolio withdrawals, then gain Social Security at 62, and again at 67. Modeling those transition points changes the required portfolio size significantly.
How This Calculator Works
The calculator combines four monthly income streams into a total and compares it against your monthly expense target. Portfolio withdrawals are calculated as your stated withdrawal rate applied to your portfolio balance, divided by 12. All other streams are entered directly as monthly amounts.
Personal Considerations
Psychologically, seeing the income breakdown as a bar chart rather than a single number makes diversified income feel more real. Retirees who draw from a single source, usually just portfolio withdrawals, report more anxiety about market downturns than those who have multiple income streams. Social Security alone, even at a modest amount, creates a sense of floor that reduces the emotional weight of portfolio volatility.
The coverage percentage (your income divided by your expenses) is useful but incomplete on its own. A 100% coverage ratio with no buffer leaves no room for unexpected expenses. Most planners suggest building a 110-120% coverage ratio, or maintaining a separate cash buffer, to absorb variance without immediately returning to work.
If what you're feeling goes beyond what a calculator can help with, licensed clinicians are available at SanaNetwork.com, a referral network founded by this site's founder, Dr. Yoendry Torres.
Frequently Asked Questions
The original 4% rule was calibrated for a 30-year retirement. For a 40-year retirement starting at age 50 or younger, many researchers suggest 3.3-3.5% as a safer starting rate. Alternatively, use 4% but plan to cut spending 5-10% in years when the portfolio declines significantly.
Yes, but model the delay. If you retire at 50 and plan to claim SS at 67, you have a 17-year window of portfolio-only withdrawals followed by reduced withdrawal needs once SS starts. Some FIRE calculators call this 'Social Security bridge' modeling.
Conservative planners exclude it entirely, arguing that the plan should work without it. Pragmatic planners include it with a haircut, perhaps 50-70% of projected income, to account for the possibility that consulting dries up or that health makes part-time work harder over time.
Up to 85% of Social Security may be taxable depending on your total income. 401(k) and Traditional IRA withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. Roth withdrawals and long-term capital gains from taxable accounts can be received tax-free or at very low rates in early retirement with careful planning. See the Tax Bracket Gap Planner for how to model this.