About Drawdown Planner

Last updated: July 2, 2026

Drawdown Planner answers one question — "how long will my retirement savings last?" — properly, for fifteen different countries. It is an independent project, not owned by or affiliated with any pension provider, bank or government body.

Why country-specific calculators?

Most retirement calculators are generic: they apply a flat growth rate to a pot and ignore the two things that actually decide the outcome — your country's tax system and your state pension. The same €300,000 behaves very differently under German cohort-based pension taxation, the French quotient familial, South African living annuity rules or Australia's tax-free superannuation. Each calculator on this site is built from the ground up for one country: its income tax bands and allowances, its state pension amounts and ages, and its drawdown regulations.

How the calculators are built

Official sources. Tax bands, allowances, state pension rates and drawdown rules are taken from each country's official bodies — for example HMRC and DWP (UK), the IRS and SSA (US), the CRA (Canada), the ATO and Services Australia, the Deutsche Rentenversicherung and BMF (Germany), SARS (South Africa) and their counterparts elsewhere.
Year-by-year modelling. Every calculator runs your plan one year at a time: your income target rises with inflation, tax is calculated on each year's withdrawal under that country's rules, your state pension joins from its start age, and the remaining pot grows net of fees.
Validated engines. Each country's tax engine is tested against worked examples before launch, and the assumptions and simplifications are disclosed openly in the "Assumptions & methodology" section on every calculator page.
Reviewed every tax year. Figures are updated when each country publishes new tax-year parameters. Every page shows the tax year its figures reflect.

What this site is — and is not

These calculators are free guidance tools that produce illustrations, built to help you understand how drawdown works and to stress-test your own assumptions. They are not financial advice, and no calculator can capture every personal circumstance. Before making decisions about your pension or retirement savings, speak to a regulated financial adviser in your country. Each calculator page links to the relevant free national guidance service where one exists.

Your privacy

Every calculator runs entirely in your browser. The numbers you enter — your pot, your income, your age — are never uploaded, stored or shared. Close the tab and they are gone. The site is funded by clearly-labelled advertising and partner links instead; see the privacy policy for details.

Contact

Spotted an error in a figure, or have a suggestion? Please get in touch at contact@mydrawdownplanner.com — corrections are genuinely welcome and are usually applied within a few days.