FIRE glossary
Sustainable Withdrawal
The actual annual amount your portfolio can support withdrawing — today, at retirement, or on a schedule that spends it down to zero by life expectancy — as opposed to the withdrawal rate or basis used to calculate it.
Three numbers, not one
Ember reports three sustainable-withdrawal figures side by side rather than a single answer, because "how much can I take out" depends on when you're asking. The today figure is your withdrawal rate applied to your current investable pot — what you could draw if you retired this instant. The at-retirement figure applies the same rate to the pot Ember projects you'll actually have at your planned retirement age, after growth and any remaining contributions. The third, spend-to-zero, figure uses an annuity formula to work out the fixed annual amount that would deliberately drain the projected pot to (near) nothing by your stated life expectancy — the same maths behind the drawdown-to-zero basis, expressed as a cash figure rather than a required pot. All three are real, post-inflation, base-currency amounts: what that money buys today, not a nominal figure inflation will quietly erode.
Debt is settled before the draw is set
If a debt is set to clear at or after retirement, Ember nets that obligation off the projected pot before calculating the at-retirement and spend-to-zero figures — the same logic used when solving the required pot, so money already earmarked for a payoff isn't also counted as available to fund an ongoing draw.
These figures are gross, not net
All three sustainable-withdrawal figures are gross, real-return amounts — Ember doesn't subtract income tax from them, so the same pot and rate produce the same number wherever you're tax-resident. That isn't tax being ignored: it shows up instead in the required pot behind your FIRE number, which Ember does gross up for income tax on the taxable share of the withdrawal before solving for pot size (see the safe-withdrawal-rate term). Treat a sustainable-withdrawal figure as spending power before tax, not the amount that would actually land in an account.
Across borders
The three sustainable-withdrawal figures are gross — computed from your portfolio and return assumption, not your tax residency — so the same pot and rate produce the same number wherever you live. The country dimension enters through the required pot instead: it's grossed up for income tax on the taxable share of the withdrawal (see the safe-withdrawal-rate term), so a lower-tax residence needs a smaller pot for the same spending target even though the draw figures shown here don't move. See how income tax is modelled for each country Ember covers on /countries.
Common questions
Is sustainable withdrawal the same thing as my safe withdrawal rate?
No. The safe withdrawal rate is the percentage; sustainable withdrawal is the cash amount that percentage (or a drawdown-to-zero schedule) produces once applied to an actual pot size — your current pot for the "today" figure, or Ember's projected pot for the "at retirement" and "spend-to-zero" figures.
Why is the spend-to-zero figure usually higher than the SWR-based figures?
Because it targets a finite horizon — the years from retirement to your stated life expectancy — rather than a pot sized to last indefinitely, so the same portfolio typically supports a larger annual amount. See the drawdown-to-zero term.
Does this account for debt I still owe at retirement?
Yes — when a debt clearance lands at or after retirement, Ember nets the earmarked payoff amount off the projected pot before working out the at-retirement and spend-to-zero figures, so the draw doesn't double-count money that's already spoken for.
Related terms
See sustainable withdrawal in your numbers
The free calculator gives a rough estimate; the full planner models your actual accounts, pensions, residency moves and taxes — with the maths behind every figure shown.