Die With Zero Calculator

What Is "Die With Zero"?

Die With Zero, the philosophy popularized by Bill Perkins' book of the same name, argues that the traditional approach to retirement savings — preserving principal and living off returns indefinitely — often leaves people with far more money at death than they ever needed, at the cost of experiences and spending they could have afforded earlier while still healthy enough to enjoy them. The alternative: deliberately plan to spend your savings down to zero by a target age, rather than treating your nest egg as something to protect forever.

This isn't about running out of money by accident — it's a deliberate plan, ideally paired with things like long-term care insurance or other safety nets for the risk of living longer than expected.

How to Use This Calculator

Enter your current savings, your current age, the age by which you want your savings to reach zero, and your expected annual investment return. The calculator shows the annual amount you could spend every year between now and your target age while your investments keep growing in the background — spending more than the traditional approach because you're not trying to preserve the balance forever.

How We Calculate It

This is the standard annuity formula, worked in reverse: annual spend = savings × rate ÷ (1 − (1 + rate)⁻ⁿ), where n is the number of years until your target age. It calculates the fixed annual withdrawal that exactly depletes your savings to zero over that time span, accounting for continued investment growth on the remaining balance each year. For comparison, we also show what a traditional 4% rule withdrawal would give you, since that approach is built to preserve principal indefinitely rather than spend it down.

A Few Notes

This calculator assumes a constant annual return and doesn't account for inflation, taxes, healthcare costs, or the real risk of living longer than your target age — all things a full Die With Zero plan needs to address, often alongside guaranteed income sources like an annuity or Social Security that don't run out. Treat this as a way to understand the core math, not personalized retirement or financial advice.