Retirement Bucket Strategy Calculator

This calculator helps you set up a bucket strategy for your retirement savings in New Zealand, dividing your pot into a cash bucket, an income bucket and a growth bucket so your money is matched to when you will spend it. The bucket approach is a popular and intuitive way to manage drawdown. The cash bucket holds the next year or two of spending in the bank, ready to draw on. The income bucket holds a few more years of spending in stable, lower-volatility assets like term deposits and bonds. The growth bucket holds the rest in shares and other growth assets, with the time to ride out the inevitable market falls before you need it. The point of the structure is protection against sequence-of-returns risk: because you spend from cash and refill it from the income and growth buckets over time, you are never forced to sell shares straight after a downturn to fund this year's living costs. You enter your total savings, your annual spending, and how many years of spending you want in the cash and income buckets, and the calculator sizes each bucket in dollars and as a share of your pot. Review and top up the cash bucket each year. This is general information, not personalised advice.

Cash and income buckets are sized from your spending and chosen years; growth is the rest. Top up cash from the other buckets over time. Estimate only.