How much can you safely withdraw from your investments?

If you're living off your investments, the big question is: how much can you withdraw each year without running out of money? That's your safe withdrawal rate.

The 4% rule (and an Indian tweak)

A popular guideline says you can withdraw about 4% of your starting corpus in year one, then raise it with inflation each year, and the corpus should last ~30 years. So a ₹1 crore corpus supports roughly ₹4 lakh a year (~₹33,000/month) to start.

India has higher inflation and higher long-run returns than the US where the rule was born, so many planners suggest a slightly conservative 3.5–4% for a long retirement.

The biggest risk: poor timing

If markets crash early in your withdrawal phase, you sell more units cheap and the corpus can deplete fast (sequence-of-returns risk). Defences:

• Keep 2–3 years of expenses in debt/liquid funds as a buffer.
• Withdraw via an SWP from a balanced mix, not all equity.
• Trim withdrawals in bad years if you can.

→ Test how long a corpus lasts at different rates in the SWP calculator.