Drawdown calculator

rjmachin

Ive just tried EvolveMyRetirement and after registering and completing all the details, I could only find figures like that chance of achieving retirement, not actual details of how much I may be able to draw down and at what age.   There were some other options, but it required a paid membership to access, which I was not willing to do.

I have personally used https://www.guiide.co.uk
It gives you a yearly breakdown of how much to draw down and also shows the state pension being taken in to account to give you your desired income amount.

NickEMR

rjmachin said:

Ive just tried EvolveMyRetirement and after registering and completing all the details, I could only find figures like that chance of achieving retirement, not actual details of how much I may be able to draw down and at what age.   There were some other options, but it required a paid membership to access, which I was not willing to do.

I have personally used https://www.guiide.co.uk
It gives you a yearly breakdown of how much to draw down and also shows the state pension being taken in to account to give you your desired income amount.

As far as I'm aware, Guiide is restrictive as to your age, and when you plan to retire: you can't already be retired, and you can't plan to retire after your state pension age. BTW EvolveMyRetirement does take state pension into account. It also calculates drawdown from spending rather than the other way around, and runs Monte Carlo simulations to stress-test your plan.

NickEMR

tacpot12 said:

Following NickEMR's suggesting, I have tried EvolveMyRetirement and found it very interesting and useful. It certainly supports my assessment that my Safe Withdrawal Rate is above 6%. My current discretionary spending is c£8K pa on top of essential spending of £12Kpa. The EvolveMyRetirement tool recommended increasing my discretionary spending to £15K per annum, but doing so fails in 4.5% of the simulations, so I will not be increasing my discretionary spending to this level, although I do see that the tool is correct and that I am not getting the most use out of my retirement fund with my discretionary spending at its current level.
  
You can try the tool for free, but some of the more advanced features and repeating optimisations (if you change any assumptions or strategies) is charged for.

Just a thought, tacpot12. When you say you think your safe withdrawal rate is above 6%, the question is: 6% of what? If you treat your entire net worth as your retirement fund (the holistic approach), then I suspect the figure is well below 6%, perhaps even below the 'classic' 4% rule level.

Nick9967

I struggle with most out there, the majority seem to direct you you to weather the pot will outlast your lifespan or not and base withdrawals on a standard £ or %,  Whereas I need something that varies by specific £ per year ,(changes each year) , and can be set for a specific number of years (i need my pot for 22 for example) would give me a result and include sequence of returns, someone on here gave me this recently https://www.flexibleretirementplanner.com/wp/planner-launch-page/#google_vignette
It does seem to work but is a little complicated for me , 
I end up with my own excel sheet but that doesn't give a good sequence of events.

 

NickEMR

Nick9967 said:

I struggle with most out there, the majority seem to direct you you to weather the pot will outlast your lifespan or not and base withdrawals on a standard £ or %,  Whereas I need something that varies by specific £ per year ,(changes each year) , and can be set for a specific number of years (i need my pot for 22 for example) would give me a result and include sequence of returns, someone on here gave me this recently https://www.flexibleretirementplanner.com/wp/planner-launch-page/#google_vignette
It does seem to work but is a little complicated for me , 
I end up with my own excel sheet but that doesn't give a good sequence of events.

 

Nick9967, if you plan for a fixed number of years, then you either have to ignore the risk of living longer, or else pick a number that's ultra-pessimistic. You need to take longevity risk into account as an uncertainty, alongside investment risk (i.e. sequence of returns) and inflation risk.

On your other point, wherever you are on the timeline (whether pre- or post-retirement), it's possible to make detailed plans for the year ahead. But making detailed plans for subsequent years is pointless until you know what realities hit you in the first year. What you do in year 2 depends on the state of play at the end of year 1, and what you do in year 3 depends on year 2, and so on. The only way to plan at all is to start with a set of strategic rules: if this happens then you'll do that, if this then that, etc. You try to tune your rules to give you a good chance of good outcomes, and a low probability of bad ones. The rules help to decide what to do in year 1. As each year unfolds, you may need to tune your rules further. In practice, there's no way of safely plotting a lifetime strategy that will never need to be modified under any circumstances. So the tool you choose should recognise this, and embrace uncertainty.

Nick9967

NickEMR said:

 

Nick9967, if you plan for a fixed number of years, then you either have to ignore the risk of living longer, or else pick a number that's ultra-pessimistic. You need to take longevity risk into account as an uncertainty, alongside investment risk (i.e. sequence of returns) and inflation risk.

On your other point, wherever you are on the timeline (whether pre- or post-retirement), it's possible to make detailed plans for the year ahead. But making detailed plans for subsequent years is pointless until you know what realities hit you in the first year. What you do in year 2 depends on the state of play at the end of year 1, and what you do in year 3 depends on year 2, and so on. The only way to plan at all is to start with a set of strategic rules: if this happens then you'll do that, if this then that, etc. You try to tune your rules to give you a good chance of good outcomes, and a low probability of bad ones. The rules help to decide what to do in year 1. As each year unfolds, you may need to tune your rules further. In practice, there's no way of safely plotting a lifetime strategy that will never need to be modified under any circumstances. So the tool you choose should recognise this, and embrace uncertainty.

Hi Nick,
I can ignore the risk of living longer as at the point of 21 years (or earlier) i will have a second pot coming into play, although that'll be cash at the start and not an invested pension pot. hence my need for it to only last a fixed term. (it's not an inheritance by the way)
I understand your point but would like to formalise at least a strategy (I'll have 4 years plus of cash as back up incase things aren't quite as expected during my drawdown.
I mess about with my growth on the pot between 4.5 and 6% over the 22 years using an inflation rate of 2% on my costs/outgoings which is all connected on my excel sheet.

 

philiphodges

Guiide is actually my site. You can use it if you are already in retirement even if you are over State Pension Age. You just can't be younger than State Pension Age and plan to retire after State Pension Age.  We will be adding a lot more functionality soon including a dashboard, tracker and other help and assistance on pensions and non pension matters such as benefits and tax. It will always be free to use for subscribers. Any questions on it, just email us at the contact address.

Nick9967

philiphodges said:

Guiide is actually my site. You can use it if you are already in retirement even if you are over State Pension Age. You just can't be younger than State Pension Age and plan to retire after State Pension Age.  We will be adding a lot more functionality soon including a dashboard, tracker and other help and assistance on pensions and non pension matters such as benefits and tax. It will always be free to use for subscribers. Any questions on it, just email us at the contact address.

tahts a nice site am going to have a play with that , thanks

bluenose1

philiphodges said:

Guiide is actually my site. You can use it if you are already in retirement even if you are over State Pension Age. You just can't be younger than State Pension Age and plan to retire after State Pension Age.  We will be adding a lot more functionality soon including a dashboard, tracker and other help and assistance on pensions and non pension matters such as benefits and tax. It will always be free to use for subscribers. Any questions on it, just email us at the contact address.

Just had a play with it, excellent site. Confirms my hours of work on my spreadsheets!!!!
Very clear and easy to use, even on my iPad. 

ggmf

philiphodges 

Found the Guiide site after the post by rjmachin above . Very easy to use, and configure, also compares against my spreadsheet with its phased DB and SP's, great work.