What could you spend in twelve months?

Turn your retirement income and savings into a budget for twelve months, while allowing for the years that follow.

MoneySmart's guide to types of retirement income brings together super, government payments and other income, and points people who are retired or close to retirement to a twelve-month estimate. We use that budgeting idea across our country calculators. Retirement Atlas uses its own simplified model; it is not the MoneySmart calculator or an official benefit assessment.

Which twelve months?

If you are already retired, enter your current age as both your current age and your stop-work or retirement age. The result covers the next twelve modelled months using your current savings. For the UK tool, use your current starting age and the pot still available. The Australian retirement model starts at age 60 or later. A future savings phase ends by age 75; already-retired visitors can enter a current age up to 100. These are model limits, not an assessment of permission to contribute or access super.

If retirement is ahead, the estimate covers the first twelve months from your chosen retirement age. The Australian and European calculators first project savings to that age. In the UK tool, enter the pot you expect to have at the chosen starting age: it does not project a saving phase.

Ages are whole years. Month 1 means the first month of the model, not a particular calendar month. Pensions start at the age you enter, and a temporary pension stops at its end age. The table averages annual payments across twelve months; it does not reproduce fortnightly payments, special thirteenth or fourteenth payments, PAYE deductions or actual payment dates.

One year in view, with a longer horizon

The calculation searches for a level annual spending budget that can be funded each month up to your chosen end age. It combines active income with withdrawals from available assets. The budget keeps the same purchasing power under the inflation assumption; only its first twelve months are shown in this card.

Savings earn the entered return and incur the modelled fees before each month-end withdrawal. A pension that starts later cannot fund an earlier month. Income above the level budget is shown separately and is not reinvested. The calculation may use all savings by the end of the horizon; it sets aside no inheritance or emergency reserve.

The budget is separate from the spending or withdrawal target you enter. The original chart and annual projection still show what happens under that target. Changing a target therefore changes those projections, while the twelve-month budget changes when you change the income, assets, ages, returns, fees or inflation that fund it.

A worked example

Suppose a European calculator starts retirement now with €120,000 in accessible savings and €2,100 per month in after-tax pensions, all continuing for twenty years. With zero return and zero inflation, the savings can contribute €500 per month: €120,000 ÷ 240 months.

The modelled budget is €2,600 per month, or €31,200 over twelve months. Of that, €25,200 comes from pension income and €6,000 from savings, leaving €114,000 after the first year. Extending the horizon to thirty years reduces the savings component to about €333 per month. These are arithmetic illustrations, not suggested budgets.

Tax and currency basis

• United Kingdom: the budget is after estimated standard income tax. The model finds the gross withdrawal needed to support a level net budget, including entered State Pension and other taxable income. It increases the net budget and other income with annual inflation but holds the existing 2026/27 tax thresholds fixed. Upfront tax-free cash is outside the invested pot and this budget. It does not model phased tax-free withdrawals, savings or dividend tax. For a future starting age, amounts are in that starting year's purchasing power.
• Australia: the budget remains before personal income tax. It uses super and your manually entered Age Pension. Investment earnings tax is reflected only in the return you enter; personal tax on retirement receipts, mandatory minimum drawdowns and a transition to a tax-exempt pension account are not calculated. Allow for any personal tax before treating the result as money you can spend. Salary and contributions fund only the saving phase.
• European calculators: enter pensions after tax and accessible savings. The model does not calculate national tax or pension entitlements. Returns should already allow for investment taxes and fees. Do not add the same pension both as accessible capital and as an income stream.

The Australian and European budgets always use today's purchasing power, even for a future retirement age. The UK first-year budget uses the entered starting age's money basis. Changing the chart's currency display does not change this budget. Displayed amounts are rounded; CSV exports retain cents, so rounded columns may differ slightly when added.

What could change the result?

Actual returns, fees, inflation, tax and benefit eligibility can change. A steady return cannot show the effect of market losses early in retirement. Future healthcare, care costs, household changes, one-off expenses and living beyond the selected end age also matter. This amount is a scenario budget, not a guaranteed income or a safe withdrawal recommendation.

Review the inputs at least annually, try lower returns and a longer horizon, and keep a separate reserve if your plan needs one. Check government income using the official links on each country page. Read the full methodology or choose your country calculator.

Feature methodology updated 30 September 2026. The linked MoneySmart guide was reviewed on the same date; country tax and benefit source-review dates are recorded separately.