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Retirement Drawdown Calculator (Canada, 2026)

Find the withdrawal order and the CPP and Old Age Security start ages that leave the least lifetime tax on the table — as a full year-by-year plan to life expectancy.

Decumulation plan

US tax-aware withdrawal — Social Security timing, RMDs, 401(k)/IRA/Roth/taxable order.

You
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62–70

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Account balances

What you paid for the brokerage account

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What you paid for the brokerage account

Plan assumptions

For estimated state income tax

After-tax, all household

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Nominal annual

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Taxable → Traditional → Roth → Cash

Order Taxable → Traditional → Roth → CashSocial Security (You) age 67
Lifetime tax
$0
Estate (after tax)
$0
Plan success
Depletes 2026
Years projected
33
$0$0$0$02026203220382044205020562058
Net worthAnnual taxDepleted

Simplified US federal tax model (2026 brackets) with real per-state income tax for the selected state, annual time step, nominal dollars. Not financial advice. No AMT, NIIT, or IRMAA modeled.

Simplified federal and provincial tax model, annual time step, nominal dollars, Quebec pension rules not modelled. Planning estimate, not financial advice.

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Hunch tracks your account balances and withdrawals automatically, so this plan stays accurate as your retirement unfolds.

Plan your drawdown in Hunch →

Planning a Canadian retirement? See the Canadian decumulation planner →

RRIF minimum withdrawal table

The floor under every Canadian drawdown plan: once an RRSP becomes a RRIF, this share of the January 1 balance has to come out each year and is taxed as ordinary income, whether the plan wants it or not.

RRIF minimum withdrawal percentage by age, from 71 to 95, and what it takes out of a $100,000 balance.
AgeMinimum withdrawalOn $100,000
Age 715.28%$5,280
Age 725.4%$5,400
Age 735.53%$5,530
Age 745.67%$5,670
Age 755.82%$5,820
Age 765.98%$5,980
Age 776.17%$6,170
Age 786.36%$6,360
Age 796.58%$6,580
Age 806.82%$6,820
Age 817.08%$7,080
Age 827.38%$7,380
Age 837.71%$7,710
Age 848.08%$8,080
Age 858.51%$8,510
Age 868.99%$8,990
Age 879.55%$9,550
Age 8810.21%$10,210
Age 8910.99%$10,990
Age 9011.92%$11,920
Age 9113.06%$13,060
Age 9214.49%$14,490
Age 9316.34%$16,340
Age 9418.79%$18,790
Age 9520%$20,000

Percentage of the balance at the start of the year. The factor is flat from 95 onward. Figures come from the same table the projection above forces withdrawals with.

Guides

Guides that explain this calculator

When should you take CPP and OAS?CPP shrinks by 0.6% for every month you start it before 65 and grows by 0.7% for every month after, to 70. OAS grows by 0.6% a month after 65. Deferring is insurance against a long life, not a bet on beating an average.Read the guide →What is the 4% rule, and can you actually rely on it?Withdraw 4% of a portfolio's starting value in year one, then adjust that dollar amount for inflation each year after, and history's worst 30-year stretch still left money on the table. It's a starting multiple to stress-test, not an instruction to follow blind.Read the guide →Pension income splitting in retirementA joint election on both returns can move up to half of one spouse's eligible pension income to the other, on paper only. It is worth the gap between their two marginal rates plus any benefit clawback it defuses — and the maximum split is rarely the best one.Read the guide →RRIFs and decumulation — turning savings into incomeAn RRSP must become a RRIF, an annuity, or cash by the end of the year you turn 71. From then on a rising percentage of the January balance comes out each year, taxed as income — so most of the planning happens before the deadline, not after.Read the guide →The RRSP meltdown — drawing down early on purposeA meltdown means withdrawing from an RRSP earlier than required, in years your income is unusually low, so the money is taxed at a low rate instead of stacking on CPP, OAS and forced RRIF minimums later. It works by rate arbitrage, not by magic.Read the guide →How do you calculate your FIRE number?Multiply what you actually spend in a year by 25, or higher for a longer retirement. The number tracks spending, not income — two households earning the same amount can need portfolios a million dollars apart, because they spend differently.Read the guide →
More free calculators
Retirement projection→RRSP refund→TFSA room→Income tax & take-home pay→
Good to know
  • Withdrawal order and benefit timing are worth tens of thousands in lifetime tax without changing a single investment.
  • Drawing the RRSP down before the non-registered account often wins, because it shrinks the RRIF minimums and the deemed disposition waiting at the end.
  • Delaying CPP to 70 pays 42% more per month for life, and it is usually the single largest lever in a Canadian plan.
  • Old Age Security is clawed back above a net-income threshold, so the tax cost of a big RRIF year is higher than its marginal rate suggests.

How the decumulation planner works

Decumulation is the half of retirement planning nobody rehearses: turning an RRSP, a TFSA and a non-registered account into steady after-tax spending without handing more than necessary to the Canada Revenue Agency. The order you draw in, and the ages you start CPP and Old Age Security, are worth tens of thousands of dollars over a retirement.

Enter your balances, your spending target and your province, for one person or a couple, and the planner projects every year to life expectancy under a default order. Then it searches: different withdrawal orders, CPP start ages from 60 to 70, Old Age Security from 65 to 70, and pension income splitting between partners — scored against whichever goal you pick, the lowest lifetime tax, the largest estate, or the best chance the money lasts.

What comes back is a strategy, a lifetime tax figure, an after-tax estate and the year-by-year table behind them. The mandatory-minimum schedule further down is the constraint the whole exercise works around.

The math

The projection is annual and in nominal dollars. Balances grow at the return you set, the spending target rises with inflation, and each year mandatory income lands first — CPP, Old Age Security, any defined-benefit pension, and the RRIF minimum from 71. Whatever is still needed is withdrawn gross, solved so the after-tax remainder matches the shortfall, then drawn down the withdrawal order until it is met.

Tax is federal plus provincial brackets with the basic personal amount, the age amount and the pension income credit, plus the Old Age Security recovery tax on net income above the threshold. Registered assets roll over tax-free to a surviving partner; at the end of the last life the remaining RRSP or RRIF is taxed as a deemed disposition, which is why a plan that never touches the RRSP often loses.

The optimizer is a coordinate descent over the strategy variables, not an exhaustive search, so it returns a strong candidate rather than a proven optimum. Bracket thresholds are indexed forward from a frozen base year rather than the current published tables, Quebec pension rules are not modelled, and one deterministic return a year ignores sequence risk entirely.

Worked example

Take $600,000 in an RRSP, $150,000 in a TFSA and $150,000 non-registered with a $100,000 cost base, in Ontario, spending $75,000 a year and planning to 92 at a 5% return. Under the default order — cash, non-registered, RRSP/RRIF, TFSA — with CPP and Old Age Security both at 65, the plan pays about $195,800 of lifetime tax and runs out in its fifteenth year.

Ask it to minimize lifetime tax and it tries seventeen strategies and settles on a different one: draw the RRSP before the non-registered account, take Old Age Security at 67 and CPP at 70. Lifetime tax falls to about $163,100 — roughly $32,700 saved — and the money lasts a year longer. Nothing about the portfolio changed. Only the order and the claiming ages did.

Key terms

Decumulation
The drawdown phase of retirement — converting savings into after-tax spending. The mirror image of accumulation, and the part with far more tax decisions in it.
RRIF minimum
From the year you turn 71 an RRSP must become a RRIF and a set percentage of the January 1 balance has to be withdrawn annually, whether you need it or not. The schedule is tabulated below.
Pension income splitting
A couple can report up to half of eligible pension income — including RRIF withdrawals from 65 — on the lower earner’s return, moving income out of the higher bracket without moving any cash.
Deemed disposition
On the last death, whatever is left in an RRSP or RRIF is treated as ordinary income on the final return. It is the reason a large untouched RRIF is a tax bill in waiting rather than an untouched asset.

What is decumulation?

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Decumulation is the drawdown phase of retirement — turning your RRSP or RRIF, TFSA and non-registered savings, plus CPP, Old Age Security and any pension, into steady after-tax spending. Doing it in a tax-smart order is what this planner is for.

Which account should I draw from first?

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There is no universal answer — it depends on your balances, your pensions and your benefit timing. It is often efficient to draw non-registered and some RRSP early, before the Old Age Security clawback and mandatory RRIF minimums bite, and to leave the TFSA for last. The planner searches the orders and recommends one.

When should I start CPP and Old Age Security?

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Starting CPP at 60 pays 36% less per month than at 65; delaying to 70 pays 42% more. Old Age Security can be deferred to 70 for 36% more. Delaying usually wins if you expect to live past your mid-seventies and can fund the gap from savings — and the optimizer tests every claiming age rather than assuming.

Is there a version for the United States?

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Yes. This page shows the Canadian planner by default; the link under the calculator switches to the American one, which models that country’s accounts, benefits and mandatory withdrawal rules instead.

How much tax can a better withdrawal order actually save?

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On the worked example above — $900,000 across three account types, $75,000 a year of spending — about $32,700 over the plan, roughly 17% of the lifetime tax bill, plus an extra year before the money runs out. The size of the saving scales with how much sits in the RRSP and how uneven your income is year to year.

Does it handle couples?

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Yes. Switch to Couple and the planner models both people, rolls registered assets over tax-free on the first death, and searches pension income splitting alongside each partner’s CPP and Old Age Security start ages — which together are usually worth more than either partner’s withdrawal order alone.