Investing Retirement Planning How to Create a Retirement Income Plan By Dana Anspach Dana Anspach Dana Anspach is a Certified Financial Planner and an expert on investing and retirement planning. She is the founder and CEO of Sensible Money, a fee-only financial planning and investment firm. learn about our editorial policies Updated on December 25, 2021 Reviewed by Michael J Boyle Reviewed by Michael J Boyle Michael Boyle is an experienced financial professional with more than 10 years working with financial planning, derivatives, equities, fixed income, project management, and analytics. learn about our financial review board Photo: Ariel Skelley / Getty Images A retirement income plan is a year by year timeline that shows you where your retirement income will come from. It can be done on a sheet of graph paper, or quite easily in an Excel spreadsheet (or another spreadsheet program). Here are four easy steps you can use to make one. Key Takeaways A retirement income plan can be created much like a budget, but to predict your spending needs over a long period of time.Your retirement can come from a wide range of sources and will differ by person, so it's important to account for the full picture.Many financial factors are subject to change over time, such as tax liability, inflation, and investment returns, and outside the bounds of the model.If you know how much income you'll have over time, you can better prepare for both planned spending as well as unforeseen expenses. Make a Template Start your retirement income plan with one row for each calendar year, with your respective age (and if married spouse’s age) listed next to each calendar year. Extend this projection through life expectancy. You can see a sample retirement income plan on the table at the bottom of this article. Make column headings for each item you will add to it. Use the list below to determine what items to add. List Fixed Sources of Retirement Income Add columns for each source of fixed income such as: Your Social Security Show the amount starting in the year/age you plan to begin benefits and continue this life expectancy. In the sample at the bottom of the page you see at their age 66 there is half a year of Social Security, as this person plans to start on their 66th birthday which is in the middle of the year. Your Spouse’s Social Security Show the amount starting in the year/age your spouse will begin benefits and continue it through their life expectancy. If there is an age or health difference between the two of you keep in mind that upon the first death, the surviving spouse keeps the larger of their own Social Security or their spouse's. This means if one spouse has a shorter life expectancy, your retirement income timeline would only include the larger Social Security amount after the expected longevity of the other spouse had been reached. Your Pension(s) Show the amount starting in the year/age you plan to take it. A separate column is used for each source of pension income. Note In some cases, the funds from retirement accounts, pensions, and Social Security benefits change based on when you choose to start the distributions. Check with your plan advisor, or the SSA website for rules that apply to you. Your Spouse’s Pension(s) Show the amount starting in the year/age you plan to take it. A separate column is used for each source of pension income. If married, make sure you account for the pension survivor option that was chosen. Annuity Income Input this only if you have an annuity that will pay you a guaranteed minimum amount starting at a specific age or date, with the payment continuing for life, joint life, or for a set period of time. Earnings If you plan on working part-time, input earnings for the years you plan to work. Don't forget, if you take Social Security before full retirement age and have earnings in excess of the earnings limit, your Social Security will be reduced, so you may need to reduce what is in the Social Security column based on your expected earnings. Other Input any other fixed or regular sources of income such as rental income or alimony. One Time Sources of Income Input expected lump sums, such as life insurance proceeds, an inheritance or net proceeds from the sale of a piece of property. Do not input investment income sources such as dividends, interest, or capital gains. Instead, you will use your retirement income plan to calculate how much you will need to withdraw from your financial accounts. When it comes to withdrawals, check out the 1,000-Bucks-a-Month Rule to reverse-engineer how much you need to save for retirement. Add Expenses, Including Taxes Next, estimate your total annual living expenses. List items such as a mortgage that may be paid off in a few years in a separate column. In the example at the bottom of the page, you see the mortgage will be paid off halfway through 2025, so that year the total annual mortgage payment is half what it was the year before, and then that expense goes away. Note Tax rates will vary depending on your total income and deductions. It is best to do tax planning each year to accurately project this. In the example I am using, this person only has IRA savings. Any withdrawal they must take will have to come from their IRA and will be taxable income. They worked with their tax planner, and used their retirement income timeline, to estimate that they would need a gross $35,000 IRA withdrawal at their age 66, which is their first planned year of retirement. Of that withdrawal, about $3,100 will go to taxes. The following year they will have more Social Security income and estimated they would only need about a $15,000 IRA withdrawal. Their tax planner estimated their tax liability would be about $3,300 that year. They used that number for the remainder of their projection. Calculate the Gap Next, your retirement income plan should calculate the gap, which is a deficit to be withdrawn from savings, or a surplus available to be deposited to savings. In our example add up income sources (Social Security plus pension), then subtract expenses (living expenses, mortgage, and estimated taxes) to get to the -$34,693 shown in the first row under the column labeled "Gap". If this "Gap" is a negative number, this is what you would need to withdraw from savings and investments to have your desired retirement lifestyle.If the "Gap" is a surplus then you have enough fixed sources of income to meet your desired retirement lifestyle and could add to savings or possibly spend a little more. This simplistic retirement income plan does not account for inflation or investment returns, but it gives you a starting place; a year-by-year outline of where your retirement income may come from. Age Year Social Security Pension Living Expenses Mortgage Taxes Gap 66 2016 $14,535 $9,216 $42,000 $13,344 $3,100 -$34,693 67 2017 29,651 9,216 42,000 13,344 3,300 -19,777 68 2018 29,651 9,216 42,000 13,344 3,300 -19,777 69 2019 29,651 9,216 42,000 13,344 3,300 -19,777 70 2020 29,651 9,216 42,000 13,344 3,300 -19,777 71 2021 29,651 9,216 42,000 13,344 3,300 -19,777 72 2022 29,651 9,216 42,000 13,344 3,300 -19,777 73 2023 29,651 9,216 42,000 13,344 3,300 -19,777 74 2024 29,651 9,216 42,000 13,344 3,300 -19,777 75 2025 29,651 9,216 42,000 6,672 3,300 -13,105 76 2026 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 77 2027 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 78 2028 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 79 2029 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 80 2030 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 81 2031 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 82 2032 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 83 2033 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 84 2034 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 85 2035 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 86 2036 29,651 9,216 42,000 0 3,300 -6,433 Sample Retirement Income Timeline Once you have this pattern of projected withdrawals you can use it to create an investment plan that is customized to when you will actually need to use your money. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit Sources The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Social Security Administration. ""If You Are the Survivor." Social Security Administration. "Benefits Planner: Retirement Benefits." Internal Revenue Service. "Traditional and Roth IRAs." Related Articles What To Do If Your Parents Didn’t Save for Retirement How Much Money Do I Need for Retirement? What Are Delayed Retirement Credits? How To Prepare Financially for Retirement How to Calculate How Much You Need to Retire Age-Related Retirement Rules for Those 55 and Older How to Organize Your Finances for Retirement 7 Smart Ways to Secure Guaranteed Retirement Income Online Retirement Calculators How Much Do You Need To Save to Retire by 40? 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