How long will an inheritance last? Inheritance calculator
Your inheritance could last
Until approximately age
Long runwayWithdrawing $2,500/mo ($30,000/yr)
All figures are estimates. Tap the duration or age to set a target — we'll solve for the withdrawal that fits.
Estimated depletion date
Oct 2048
Estimated depletion age
About 67
Total withdrawn (modeled)
$867,658
Remaining balance
$0
At the end of the projection
Sustainable withdrawal
$2,083/mo
Roughly first-year growth only
Spending power in 20 years
$1,526
Today's dollars, at your inflation rate
Balance over age
Scenario comparison
How long will an inheritance last?
An inheritance lasts as long as the money coming out is slower than the money the balance can generate. That single sentence hides seven variables, and each of them can move the answer by years.
The starting amount sets the ceiling on how much growth is possible, but it is rarely the deciding factor. Your spending usually is: the gap between what the balance earns and what you take out determines whether the account shrinks slowly, quickly, or not at all. Investment return decides how much work the balance does on your behalf, and inflation quietly increases the amount you need each year to live the same way.
Time amplifies all of it — a plan that looks fine over five years can look very different over thirty. Taxes and fees reduce both the balance and the effective return, sometimes by more than a full percentage point. And unexpected expenses — a roof, a car, a medical bill, a family emergency — pull money out of the balance early, which costs you all the growth that money would have produced later.
How this inheritance calculator works
The calculator runs a month-by-month simulation rather than a single formula, so you can see the shape of the balance over time instead of only its endpoint.
How returns are modeled
Each month the remaining balance grows by one twelfth of the annual return you entered. Growth is steady and identical every month, which is deliberately simple — it is not a market simulation, and it does not model volatility or the order in which returns arrive.
How withdrawals are modeled
After growth is applied, your monthly withdrawal is subtracted. Once every twelve months, the withdrawal increases by the annual withdrawal increase in Advanced Options (2.5% by default) so that your spending keeps pace with rising prices. Set that figure to zero if you prefer to model a flat withdrawal that never changes.
How inflation affects future spending
Inflation is used two ways. It drives the optional withdrawal increase, and it powers the "today's dollars" line on the chart, which restates each future balance in the purchasing power it would have right now. The gap between the two lines is the part of your balance that inflation quietly consumes.
How depletion is determined
The balance is depleted the first month it reaches zero. The final withdrawal is capped at whatever remains, so the projection never shows a negative balance or a withdrawal that could not actually have been taken. The duration is reported in whole years and months from today.
What the infinity result means
When growth covers every withdrawal for the full sixty-year modeling window, the balance never reaches zero and the result shows ∞. Read this as: "under exactly these assumptions, the withdrawals do not exhaust the balance." It is a property of the numbers you entered, not a promise about the future.
Example: how long could a $500,000 inheritance last?
Here is a hypothetical illustration, not a recommendation or a personalized projection. Suppose someone inherits $500,000, invests it for an assumed 5% annual return, assumes 2.5% inflation, and withdraws $2,500 a month ($30,000 a year), increasing that amount 2.5% each year.
In the first year, the balance earns roughly $25,000 while $30,000 comes out — a modest shortfall, so the balance drifts down slowly at first. But the withdrawal grows every year while the balance shrinks, so the gap widens and the decline accelerates. The money runs out a little past the twenty-year mark.
Change one input and the picture changes entirely. At $1,500 a month the withdrawals stay below growth, the balance rises, and the projection reads as lasting indefinitely. At $4,000 a month most of each withdrawal comes from principal and the balance is gone in roughly a dozen years. The starting amount never changed — only the spending did.
How spending affects an inheritance
Withdrawal rate — the percentage of the balance you take out each year — tells you more than the balance alone. A $250,000 inheritance drawn at $700 a month can outlast a $1,000,000 inheritance drawn at $8,000 a month, because the first plan spends less than its growth and the second spends multiples of it.
The relationship is not linear. Near the point where withdrawals equal growth, tiny changes matter enormously: shaving a few hundred dollars off monthly spending can add a decade, because every dollar left in the balance keeps compounding. Far above that point, the balance is being spent down directly and the duration behaves much more simply — spend twice as fast, run out roughly twice as soon.
This is why the scenario comparison above is worth using. Seeing "current spending", "25% less", and "25% more" side by side makes the tradeoff concrete in a way a single number never does.
Inflation and inheritance
$2,500 a month buys a certain basket of groceries, utilities, and rent today. If prices rise 2.5% a year, that same basket costs about $3,200 in ten years and about $4,100 in twenty. Spending a flat $2,500 for two decades is therefore a steadily shrinking standard of living, even though the number on the page never moves.
That is why this calculator can grow your withdrawal each year. It is the honest version of the question: not "how long can I withdraw $2,500?" but "how long can I keep living the way $2,500 lets me live today?" The second answer is always shorter, and it is the one worth planning around.
Inflation also erodes the balance itself. Turn on "show today's dollars" on the chart to see the same projection restated in current purchasing power — the dashed line is what the money would actually be worth to you.
Investing an inheritance
Invested money can grow, which is why the return assumption extends the projection so much. It can also fall. Every return figure you enter here is an assumption about an uncertain future, and no rate is promised by anyone.
Two ideas are worth understanding in general terms. The first is that higher expected returns have historically come with larger swings in value, so the return you assume should reflect how much fluctuation you could actually live with. The second is the order in which returns arrive: a poor stretch in the early years, while the balance is large and withdrawals are already flowing, does more damage than the same stretch later on. A steady-return model like this one cannot show that risk.
This page does not recommend any security, fund, strategy, or product, and it is not a substitute for advice from a qualified professional who knows your circumstances.
Spending vs. preserving an inheritance
People do very different things with inherited money, and the arithmetic does not have an opinion about which is right. Some spend it deliberately over their lifetime, treating it as the gift it was meant to be. Some preserve part of the principal and live on the growth. Some intend to pass the entire amount on and never touch it at all.
Others have a specific purpose: a home deposit, paying off a mortgage, education for a child, a career change, or supplementing retirement income alongside other savings. Each of those goals implies a different withdrawal pattern, and each produces a different answer from this calculator.
If preservation is your goal, the sustainable withdrawal figure in the results is your reference point: staying at or below it keeps modeled withdrawals inside growth, so the nominal balance holds. Keep in mind that preserving the nominal balance is not the same as preserving its purchasing power — for that, you would need to withdraw less than growth minus inflation.
Taxes and inheritance
Taxes can affect an inheritance in several distinct ways, and which ones apply depends entirely on your jurisdiction, the type of assets involved, and your own circumstances. Broadly, tax may arise on the estate itself before the money is distributed, on the inheritance received in some regions, or on the income and gains the money generates once you hold it. Inherited retirement accounts often carry their own distribution rules and tax treatment.
This calculator models gross amounts only. It does not apply any tax to withdrawals or to investment growth, so if your withdrawals will be taxed, the amount you can actually spend is lower than the figure you entered. One practical approach is to enter the pre-tax withdrawal you would need in order to net your target spending.
Tax rules change and vary widely. If your inheritance is substantial or includes retirement accounts, property, or business interests, it is worth speaking with an appropriately qualified tax or financial professional in your jurisdiction.
Important limitations
This tool is a simplified model. It answers the question you asked with the assumptions you supplied, and it does not attempt to reproduce the complexity of real financial life. In particular, it does not account for:
Investment volatility, or the order in which returns arrive
Taxes on withdrawals, income, gains, or the inheritance itself
Fund expenses, platform costs, and advisory fees
Changes in your spending as circumstances or priorities shift
Unexpected one-off expenses such as repairs, cars, or emergencies
Healthcare and long-term care costs, which often rise with age
Inflation that runs faster or slower than the rate you assumed
Changes in your income, employment, or other assets
Changes in investment strategy or asset allocation over time
Estate planning, trusts, probate timing, and beneficiary rules
Currency movements if assets are held outside your home currency
Every figure on this page is an estimate produced from the assumptions you entered. Change an assumption and the estimate changes with it — which is precisely why it is worth running several versions rather than trusting one.
Frequently asked questions
With a 5% annual return, 2.5% inflation-linked spending increases, and $2,500 a month of withdrawals, a $500,000 inheritance lasts roughly 22 years in this model. Spending $4,000 a month cuts that to about 12 years, and $1,500 a month lets the balance grow rather than shrink. The withdrawal amount matters far more than any other input.
Financial disclaimer
This inheritance calculator is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal, or estate-planning advice. All results are estimates based on the assumptions you enter. Investment returns are not guaranteed, and actual outcomes may differ substantially from any projection shown here. Read our full disclaimer.