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RMD Calculator

2026 table · reviewed September 6, 2026

Computes the withdrawal the law requires from your retirement account this year and projects the next ten years. About

In plain words. Once you reach 73 (or 75, for people born in 1960 or later) the government requires you to take money out of pre-tax retirement accounts every year and pay tax on it. The amount is your balance at the end of last year divided by a factor from a life-expectancy table. This tool computes this year's required amount and shows how it grows over the next ten years at a return you choose.

Why it matters. Required withdrawals are often larger than people expect, and they arrive whether or not the money is needed. Seeing the size of them ten years out is what makes earlier planning, such as Roth conversions, worth considering.

An example. A $500,000 balance at age 73 requires a withdrawal of about $18,900 this year. At a five percent return the required amount is larger every year after that.

Where it stops. It covers your own account, not one you inherited, which has different rules and its own tool. The projection depends entirely on the return you assume. Everything it leaves out.

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Add up your traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs. A 401(k) has its own required withdrawal, figured on its own balance.

Your required withdrawals begin at age 73, in 2026.

Used only for the ten-year projection. The figure for this year needs no assumption.

Required withdrawal for 2026, at age 73
$18,868
This is the least you must take out of the account this year, what the IRS calls a required minimum distribution. It is 3.8% of your balance. The rule divides your $500,000 by 26.5, the IRS life expectancy figure for age 73. This is your first one. You may put it off until April 1, 2027, but then two withdrawals land in that year.
Required withdrawals, 2026 to 2035Ten bars, one per year, showing the required withdrawal for someone born in 1953 from a $500,000 balance growing 5% a year. Years before age 73 show zero.$0$10k$20k$30k$19k2026age 73$20k2027age 74$21k2028age 75$22k2029age 76$23k2030age 77$24k2031age 78$25k2032age 79$26k2033age 80$27k2034age 81$28k2035age 82

Each year's figure is the balance on the previous December 31 divided by the IRS table's figure for the age you reach that year. That figure shrinks with age, so the share you must withdraw rises every year even as the balance falls. It is 3.8% at 73, 5.0% at 80, and 8.2% at 90. Missing a withdrawal brings a 25% penalty tax, or 10% if you fix it within two years.

This uses the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, which applies to your own account when your spouse is not more than ten years younger than you. It leaves out inherited accounts, a spouse more than ten years younger, and Roth IRAs, which have no required withdrawals during your lifetime. Educational, not advice.

This is a simplified model, not your actual tax return or plan. It only knows what you type in, leaves out rules that may apply to you, and cannot weigh the other facts and trade-offs a real decision depends on. Before you act, talk with a professional who knows your whole situation.

Educational only, not investment, tax, or legal advice. Results are hypothetical estimates that vary with each use and over time and are not guaranteed accurate or complete. Using this tool creates no client relationship with Considerate Capital, and the site that linked here is not affiliated with it. By using it you agree to the tool terms.