Ten free calculators for the questions retirement actually asks: when you can claim, what claiming early costs, how long a pot lasts, what the tax rules force you to withdraw, and whether a lump sum beats a monthly pension. Everything runs in this page — no sign-up, nothing uploaded.
Please read: every result here is an educational estimate, not financial advice. Benefit rules, tax law and annuity rates change; figures are dated where they appear, and official sources (ssa.gov, gov.uk, irs.gov) always win over any calculator — including this one.
Your full retirement age (FRA) is when US Social Security pays your full, unreduced benefit. It depends only on your birth date — enter it to see your FRA, the date you reach it, and a live countdown.
The table behind this (Social Security Administration): born 1943–1954 → 66; 1955 → 66 and 2 months; rising two months per year to 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. If you were born on January 1, SSA uses the previous year's row; if your birthday is the 1st of a month, SSA may treat you as born the month before — check your exact entitlement month at ssa.gov. Rules as published by the SSA, checked October 2026.
Claim at 62 and the cheque is smaller for life; wait until 70 and it is bigger for life. Enter the monthly benefit Social Security quotes you at full retirement age (your PIA, from your statement at ssa.gov) and compare every claiming age side by side.
| Claiming age | % of full benefit | Monthly | Per year |
|---|
How the percentages work (SSA rules, checked October 2026): claiming early reduces your benefit by 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before FRA, and 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond that. Delaying past FRA adds 2/3 of 1% per month (8% per year) until age 70 — no increase after 70. The break-even ages shown ignore taxes, inflation/COLA and earnings tests; they compare lifetime totals only.
The UK State Pension age is rising from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and is legislated to reach 68 in the 2040s. Enter your date of birth to see your State Pension age and the date you reach it, under the timetable in current law.
The timetable (GOV.UK, checked October 2026): born before 6 April 1960 → 66. Born 6 April 1960 to 5 March 1961 → rises month by month from 66 years 1 month to 67. Born 6 March 1961 to 5 April 1977 → 67. Born on or after 6 April 1977 → 68, phased in 2044–2046 under current law and subject to government review. Inside a phase-in window, your exact date depends on your day of birth — GOV.UK's own checker gives the precise day.
US tax-deferred accounts (traditional IRA, 401(k) and similar) force withdrawals once you reach your RMD age. This estimates your required amount from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, then projects the next ten years if you take only the minimum.
| Age reached | IRS factor | Start balance | Required withdrawal | End balance |
|---|
Rules used (IRS Publication 590-B and the SECURE 2.0 Act, checked October 2026): RMDs start at 73 if you were born 1951–1959, and at 75 if born in 1960 or later (72, or 70½ for the oldest cohorts). RMD = prior Dec 31 balance ÷ the Uniform Lifetime Table factor for the age you reach that year — 26.5 at 73, 24.6 at 75, 20.2 at 80. The projection assumes you withdraw exactly the required amount and the rest grows at your assumed rate. Roth IRAs have no lifetime RMDs for the owner; a spouse who is sole beneficiary and 10+ years younger uses a different table — neither case is modelled here.
How long does a pot actually last? Enter the pot, your age, and what you plan to take out each month. The simulator runs month by month — growth first, withdrawal second — and shows the year the money runs out, if it does.
| Year | Age | Withdrawn that year | Pot at year end |
|---|
What this leaves out: tax, fees, and market crashes. A steady growth rate is a planning simplification — real returns arrive in a jagged order, and a bad first five years does far more damage than the same average spread evenly. Treat "the pot lasts to age 97" as the middle of a range, not a promise.
Offered a one-off lump sum instead of a monthly pension for life? This works out what the monthly pension is worth in today's money — its present value — so the two offers can be compared on one scale.
How to read this: the discount rate is the return you believe the lump sum could earn invested. A higher discount rate shrinks the pension's present value; a lower one grows it. The comparison is purely financial — it cannot price the value of income that cannot run out, survivor benefits, or the tax treatment of each option, all of which can matter more than the arithmetic.
Start from the income you want, not the savings you have. This projects your pot to retirement, works out the pot that income actually requires, and shows the gap — plus the extra monthly saving that would close it.
Assumptions, stated plainly: the income you want is inflated to retirement at your inflation rate; other income is treated as a fixed amount starting at retirement; the required pot is the amount that pays the shortfall for your chosen years while still growing at your growth rate, ending at zero. Employer contributions and tax relief on new savings are not included — both would shrink the extra saving needed.
An annuity trades a pension pot for a guaranteed income for life. Rates move with interest rates and your age — this gives an estimated range from typical market rates, so you can judge a real quote when you get one.
These are estimates, not quotes. The built-in rates (a level single-life annuity paying roughly 6.3% of the pot per year at 60, 7.1% at 65, 8.0% at 70 and 9.0% at 75) reflect typical UK market levels as of October 2026 and change with interest rates. Joint-life and increasing annuities start lower — the estimator reduces the rate by about 8% for joint life, and to about 70% (3% increases) or 57% (5% increases) of the level rate. Health and lifestyle can raise a real quote substantially; always compare actual quotes.
Retiring a few years early costs three times over: contributions stop, growth is lost on the money that would have been added, and the pot must stretch over more years. This puts a number on all three.
| Scenario | Pot at retirement | Income per month to age 95 |
|---|
How the income figures are built: each pot is converted to a level monthly income that exactly empties it at age 95, still growing at your assumed rate — so the comparison is like for like. Claiming state benefits early on top of this (reduced US Social Security, for example) is a separate effect: price it with the Claiming Age Comparator above.
Most UK pension savers can take 25% of their pot tax-free. This shows your tax-free cash, what remains invested, and the income the remainder could pay over the years you choose.
The cap (HMRC rules, checked October 2026): tax-free cash is 25% of the pot, but for most people it is capped by the Lump Sum Allowance of £268,275 — so pots above about £1,073,100 do not get the full 25% unless you hold older protections. The remaining 75% is taxable income when you draw it. Taking the cash does not oblige you to spend it, but once out of the pension it loses the pension's tax shelter and inheritance treatment.
PensionKit is a small workshop of ten pension calculators that run entirely in your browser. Type, click — the maths happens on your device, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Every calculator here shows its working: the official table, factor or formula behind each number is written next to the tool that uses it, with the date it was checked. Government rules are the ground truth — this site is a reading aid for them, not a replacement. For a decision that moves real money, a regulated adviser who can see your whole situation is worth their fee.
Questions or a calculator you wish existed? Write to hello [at] tapetoolhq.com.
US full retirement ages and early/delayed claiming factors: Social Security Administration (ssa.gov — retirement age chart and benefit reduction tables). Required minimum distributions: IRS Publication 590-B, Uniform Lifetime Table, with start ages as amended by the SECURE 2.0 Act. UK State Pension age: the legislated timetable on GOV.UK, including the 66→67 phase-in (2026–2028) and the planned rise to 68 (2044–2046, under review). UK tax-free cash: HMRC rules on the Lump Sum Allowance (£268,275).
No. They are educational estimates built from published rules and the assumptions you type in. They do not know your tax band, your health, your partner's position, or your other assets — all of which can change the right answer. Nothing here is a recommendation to claim, transfer, withdraw or buy anything.
Because our sister site InvestKit already has one, along with a 401(k) calculator and a compound interest calculator on ProKit. PensionKit deliberately covers the ground those tools do not: claiming ages, pension ages, forced withdrawals, drawdown, and lump-sum decisions.
No. Each calculator is plain JavaScript running in this tab. There are no accounts and no server-side processing — closing the tab deletes your inputs.
Because Social Security benefits are inflation-indexed (COLA), the inflation adjustment largely cancels out between the early and late options. Taxes, the earnings test and spousal benefits do not cancel out, and they are not modelled — the break-even is a starting point for thought, not a verdict.
Only as a sense-check. Annuity rates are set by each insurer, change frequently, and health-related ("enhanced") rates can be far higher than the standard rates estimated here. Get live quotes — in the UK, from several providers — before committing; an annuity purchase is normally irreversible.
Then the official source wins. Pension ages and tax allowances are politically live topics — the UK rise to 68 is already under review — so re-check ssa.gov, gov.uk or irs.gov before acting on any figure here.