Retire with Social Security + Pension

Overview

How to use this calculator

1. Enter your planned retirement age and your expected monthly pension amount (if any). If you have multiple pensions, combine them into one monthly figure.
2. Enter your expected monthly Social Security benefit at that same retirement age, based on your Social Security statement or an SSA estimator.
3. Enter your retirement savings balance—the total you expect to have in retirement accounts and taxable investment accounts that you plan to draw from.
4. Choose an annual withdrawal rate (for example, 3–4%) that reflects how aggressively or conservatively you plan to draw from savings in the first year.
5. Review the calculated annual pension, annual Social Security, annual withdrawal from savings, and total annual income, then adjust inputs to test different retirement ages, benefit levels, or withdrawal rates.

Inputs explained

Retirement age

The age at which you plan to stop full-time work. Use a consistent age for pension and Social Security inputs, even if benefits actually start earlier or later.

Pension (monthly)

Monthly pension benefit you expect to receive at retirement. If you have multiple pensions, you can combine them into one monthly figure.

Social Security (monthly)

Estimated monthly Social Security benefit at your chosen retirement age. Use SSA statements or calculators to get a reasonable estimate.

Retirement savings balance

Total amount you expect to have saved in retirement accounts and other investment accounts that you plan to draw from in retirement.

Annual withdrawal rate (%)

Rule-of-thumb percentage of your savings you plan to withdraw in the first year of retirement (e.g., 4% in a classic “4% rule” style plan).

Outputs explained

Annual pension

Your monthly pension multiplied by 12, representing yearly pension income.

Annual Social Security

Your monthly Social Security benefit multiplied by 12, representing yearly Social Security income.

Annual withdrawal from savings

The first-year withdrawal from your savings based on your entered withdrawal rate and savings balance (balance × withdrawal rate).

Total annual income

Sum of annual pension, annual Social Security, and withdrawal from savings—your estimated pre-tax annual retirement income.

When to use it

• Quickly estimating retirement income when you have a mix of pension, Social Security, and savings instead of relying on a single source.
• Testing different retirement ages to see how changes in pension and Social Security amounts affect total income.
• Comparing the impact of higher or lower withdrawal rates on your total retirement income.
• Using as a starting point for budgeting in retirement before building a more detailed, tax-aware plan.
• Helping partners or clients visualize how guaranteed income (pension/SS) and portfolio withdrawals combine to fund retirement.
• Checking how sensitive your retirement income is to delaying Social Security or a pension start date and compensating with larger withdrawals from savings.
• Building a quick side‑by‑side view of two retirement scenarios—for example, retiring at 62 with smaller benefits versus at 67 with larger benefits and more time to save.
• Sizing up whether a specific retirement age (such as 62, 65, or 67) produces enough pre‑tax income when you look at pension, Social Security, and savings withdrawals together in one number.
• Comparing today’s living expenses to the projected retirement income figure so you can see if you are in the right ballpark or if there is a clear gap to close before leaving work.
• Coordinating plans between partners who may have different pensions and Social Security claiming ages by testing combined income under different retirement‑age and withdrawal‑rate assumptions.
• Using the output as a starting point for conversations with a financial planner, who can then help refine the picture by adding taxes, inflation, and more detailed account‑by‑account modeling.

Tips & cautions

• Use conservative withdrawal rates (for example, 3–4%) if you want to reduce the risk of depleting savings too quickly.
• If your pension or Social Security start at different ages than your retirement age, run separate scenarios or adjust the inputs to model different phases.
• Remember that these are pre-tax amounts—after-tax take-home income will be lower depending on your tax situation.
• Revisit this calculation periodically as your savings, pension estimates, and Social Security projections change.
• Combine this with a retirement budget to see whether your total annual income estimate comfortably covers expected expenses.
• When you are close to retirement, plug in more precise numbers from pension projections and Social Security statements so the income estimate reflects your latest information rather than old rules of thumb.
• Stress‑test your plan by lowering the withdrawal rate or temporarily removing one income source (such as a pension that hasn’t vested yet) to see how resilient your retirement income is under less favorable assumptions.
• Does not model taxes, cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), or changes in benefits over time; all amounts are nominal and pre-tax.
• Assumes pension, Social Security, and withdrawals all begin at the same retirement age; staggered start ages require separate scenarios.
• Does not consider inflation, portfolio volatility, or how withdrawal amounts might be adjusted in later years.
• Treats withdrawal rate as a simple first-year rule; it does not model dynamic withdrawal strategies or required minimum distributions.
• Uses user-entered pension and Social Security estimates rather than calculating them from full benefit formulas or work histories; accuracy depends on the quality of the inputs you provide.

Deep dive

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