About Drawdown Arc

Built for people who
plan seriously

Most retirement calculators give you a single number and a color-coded gauge. We built something different: a transparent, full-fidelity projection engine that shows you exactly where your money goes, year by year, dollar by dollar.

Drawdown Arc started as an internal tool — built out of frustration with simplified online calculators that hide their assumptions and pretend retirement planning is a one-slider problem. We made it public because good financial tools should be accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford a private advisor.

Our Mission
"Detailed, transparent retirement modeling, free for everyone who needs it."

Many robust projection tools are locked behind advisory relationships or hidden inside sales funnels. We believe serious retirement modeling should be accessible without gatekeeping — with real tax math, realistic inflation modeling, and full transparency about what the numbers mean. Your financial model should belong to you — not to a marketing database.

Privacy First

Your financial data
stays yours

We built Drawdown Arc as a client-side application deliberately. Not because it was easier (it wasn't), but because we believe a retirement planning tool has no business seeing your financial numbers.

Everything runs in your browser. Your financial inputs never touch a server. When you close the tab, your data is gone — unless you've chosen to save or export it.

Pro features like the full retirement report and scenario comparison unlock locally, with the same privacy as the free tier. If you want persistence, you can opt in to saved scenarios — or simply download your reports and keep them yourself. The choice is always yours.

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Your data stays local

Your financial data never leaves your browser. All projection math runs locally in your JavaScript engine.

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Minimal cookies

We use localStorage only for sidebar collapse state and remembering whether you've provided your email for export. No tracking cookies, no fingerprinting, no session recording.

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Privacy-first analytics

We use Plausible Analytics — no cookies, no personal data, no cross-site tracking. All data is aggregated and anonymous. See our Privacy Policy for details.

What We Stand For

Six principles behind
every design decision

Transparency over simplicity

We show you every assumption the model makes. If something isn't modeled, we say so. There are no hidden inflation adjustments or undisclosed smoothing factors.

Accuracy over optimism

We default to conservative assumptions. A projection that tells you you're fine when you're not is worse than no projection at all.

Free means genuinely free

The core tool — projections, charts, federal tax modeling, export — is free forever. We monetize through Pro upgrades, never by degrading the free experience.

Privacy is non-negotiable

We chose client-side architecture specifically to ensure your financial data never leaves your device. This was a deliberate, costly decision. We stand by it.

Education over engagement

We want you to understand your projection deeply enough to question it. Our documentation explains every formula. We'd rather you use our tool less and understand it more.

Advice belongs to advisors

We're a modeling tool. We're explicit about what we don't do. For complex tax situations, estate planning, or major decisions, work with a fee-only fiduciary advisor.

Frequently asked questions

General 4
The Calculator 5
Privacy & Data 2
Pro & Billing 3
Drawdown Arc is an independent product built by a small team of engineers and financial planners who were frustrated by the quality of free retirement tools available online. We're not affiliated with any brokerage, bank, or financial advisory firm.
No. Drawdown Arc is a projection and modeling tool, not a registered investment advisor (RIA). Nothing on this site constitutes financial, tax, or legal advice. Projections are estimates based on your inputs and simplified assumptions. Please consult a fee-only fiduciary advisor before making major retirement decisions.
The projections are mathematically accurate given the assumptions and inputs you provide. The real-world accuracy depends on how realistic your inputs are — particularly your growth rate assumptions, inflation estimate, and spending target. We use linear annual returns, which don't model market volatility or sequence-of-returns risk. For scenarios with market-dependent assets, treat the output as a planning range, not a guaranteed outcome.
There's no catch. The free calculator is fully featured — no ads, no account required, no data collected. Development is funded through Pro plan revenue — no ads, no data sales, ever. The business model is simple: offer a genuinely great free tool, earn trust, and convert a portion of users to paid plans. We don't sell your data, we don't degrade the free calculator over time, and we'll never pressure you to upgrade.
Your portfolio is being depleted before your Max Age. This means your projected withdrawals exceed your growth rate over time. Try: increasing your growth rates, reducing your needed income, delaying retirement age, increasing contributions, delaying Social Security (to reduce withdrawals when SS eventually kicks in), or some combination. The depletion age is shown as a red annotation on the stacked chart.
Draw Priority determines which accounts are drawn down first in retirement. Priority 1 = first to be tapped. Priority 5 = last. The default Standard Order is: 1) Taxable Brokerage, 2) Other/Speculative, 3) Tax-Deferred (401k/IRA/TSP), 4) Tax-Free (Roth), 5) Cash Equivalents. This order draws taxable accounts first, preserving Roth growth for later years. Pro users can apply Tax-Optimized (bracket filling) or Roth Conversion strategies from the Roth Analysis tab to further reduce lifetime taxes.
Yes. The calculator enforces Required Minimum Distributions from tax-deferred accounts (401k, IRA, TSP) using the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. Under SECURE 2.0, RMDs begin at age 73 (born 1951–1959) or 75 (born 1960 or later) — the calculator automatically selects the correct age based on your birth year. Each year's RMD equals the post-growth account balance divided by the applicable divisor for that age. RMDs are taken before any voluntary withdrawals. If the RMD exceeds your spending gap, the surplus is deposited into your Savings account. The RMD start annotation is shown on the stacked chart.
Be consistent. If you use nominal growth rates (e.g., 7% for equities), also use an inflation rate to grow your spending (the default 3% is reasonable). If you use real (inflation-adjusted) rates (e.g., 4%), set your inflation rate to 0 to avoid double-counting. The default setup uses 6% equity growth with 3% inflation. If you prefer real (inflation-adjusted) rates, set equity growth to ~3-4% and inflation to 0%.
The tax engine does a full gross-up: if you need $80,000 in spending but your marginal rate means you owe taxes on withdrawals, the calculator increases your withdrawal to cover both spending AND taxes. For a single filer withdrawing $80,000 at common middle-bracket rates, this might require $90,000–$95,000 in gross withdrawals — a meaningful difference that compounds over decades.

No. The calculator stores nothing by default. All projections run in your browser's JavaScript engine. When you close the tab, the data is gone. The only things stored locally are your sidebar layout preference and your email if you provided one for export — both in localStorage. No financial inputs are ever saved or transmitted.


Pro offers the option to save up to 50 scenarios for convenience, but it will never be required — you can always export your reports and keep them on your own computer.

We use anonymous page-view analytics to understand which pages and features are used most. This does not include any personally identifiable information, financial data, or input values. We do not use session recording, heatmap tools, or behavioral tracking.
Pro adds: saved scenarios (up to 50), side-by-side scenario comparison, a 9-page PDF retirement plan report, Roth Conversion analysis with Tax-Optimized and Roth Conversion strategies, Monte Carlo simulation, stress testing against bad market sequences, state income tax modeling across all 50 states, spending phases, and priority email support. The core projection engine, all charts, and Excel export are free forever. Pro is for people who want to save their work, run deeper analysis, optimize their tax strategy, and share professional reports with a spouse or advisor.
Subscribe to Pro and cancel anytime from your billing portal. If you cancel, you retain Pro access through the remainder of your paid period — monthly subscribers through the current month, annual subscribers through the full year paid for. Your saved scenarios remain in read-only mode for 30 days after that so you can export them before they become inaccessible.
It depends on how you use the tool. If you run the calculator once, get your numbers, and export to Excel — free is perfect. If you're actively planning — modeling different retirement ages, stress-testing bad market sequences, optimizing your tax strategy with Roth conversions, or sharing a polished PDF report with a spouse or advisor — Pro pays for itself quickly. At $8/month or $80/year, and with a 30-day money-back guarantee, there's no risk in trying it.

Get in touch

Have a question about the calculator, a feature request, or found a bug? We read every message and will respond as soon as possible.

✉️ hello@drawdownarc.com
Legal Disclaimer

Drawdown Arc is a financial projection and modeling tool. It is not a registered investment advisor, broker-dealer, or financial planning service. Nothing on this website constitutes financial, tax, investment, or legal advice.

All projections, estimates, and outputs are based on user-provided inputs and simplified mathematical models. Actual results will differ based on market performance, tax law changes, inflation, healthcare costs, and other factors not modeled here.

Consult a qualified, fee-only fiduciary financial advisor before making major retirement, investment, or tax decisions. Past performance of any asset class does not guarantee future results.

© 2026 Drawdown Arc. All rights reserved.

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