SWP Calculator (Systematic Withdrawal Plan)
A Systematic Withdrawal Plan pays you a fixed amount every month from a mutual fund while the rest stays invested. This calculator shows whether your corpus survives the period, and what remains.
How it works, in one picture
How the SWP calculator works
Every month the corpus earns one month of return and then pays out the withdrawal. If you set an inflation rate, the withdrawal is raised once a year so your income keeps its purchasing power. The table shows the withdrawal in force each year, the total paid out and the corpus left. If the corpus reaches zero before the end, the result tells you how many years it lasted.
The rule of thumb
If the yearly withdrawal is under 4% of the corpus and the corpus earns more than inflation, the money typically lasts 30+ years. ₹1 crore paying ₹33,000 a month is 4%. At ₹50,000 a month (6%) with 6% inflation and an 8% return, the corpus is gone in about 21 years. Try both above.
SWP vs dividend option vs FD interest
- An SWP lets you decide the amount; a dividend (IDCW) payout is decided by the fund and is fully taxable.
- Only the gain inside each withdrawal is taxed, which usually makes an SWP more tax-efficient than FD interest.
- Withdrawing from equity in a crash locks in losses. A bucket approach, where 2–3 years of expenses sit in safe funds, avoids that. See the three-bucket retirement strategy.
Withdrawals that never sell equity in a crash
The app runs the three-bucket plan on your real retirement money and tells you each quarter what to move.
Your actual funds, EPF and FDs fill the jars. Every year of the plan becomes a step like this.
- Retirement is 4% off its path · 1 step due
- Flexi cap fund is 7% below its high · information, not advice
- SIP ₹40,000 due on the 5th · term policy renews in 12 days
- Net worth, every account, every fund, nominees, loans: where everything is
Sent every morning from your own Gmail to the family members you choose. If something happens to you, they know where everything is.
Plan retirement with your real portfolio
Capital Friends turns this calculation into a plan: it counts your existing funds, EPF and FDs, shows the SIP still needed, and runs the three-bucket withdrawal strategy on your own money. Free, data in your Google Drive.
Frequently asked questions
What is a safe SWP rate?
Around 3.5–4% of the corpus a year, rising with inflation, has historically lasted 30 years in most cases. Higher rates work only if returns stay high, which you cannot count on.
Is SWP taxable?
Each withdrawal is part capital and part gain; only the gain portion is taxed, at the capital-gains rate for that fund type. That is why SWPs are usually better than taking dividends or FD interest in a high tax bracket.
Which fund is good for SWP?
A low-volatility fund such as a conservative hybrid, balanced advantage or short-duration debt fund for the income part, with equity kept separate for growth. Capital Friends models this as three buckets.
What happens to an SWP in a market fall?
More units are sold to pay the same amount, which hurts long-term value. Keeping two years of withdrawals in a safe bucket and pausing equity withdrawals during a fall solves this.
More free tools
Corpus you need at retirement and the SIP to reach it.
Your FIRE number and the age you can stop working.
One-time investment → future value at a given return.
Annualised growth from a start value, end value and years.
Months of expenses you should keep aside, and where.
Monthly SIP → value after N years, with optional yearly step-up.
Calculators use the inputs you enter and standard formulas; results are estimates, not guarantees. Returns from mutual funds, stocks and other investments are not fixed and can be lower than assumed. Capital Friends is a tracking tool and is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser; nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security.