How long will my money last after the divorce?
Key numbers
- This tool models your money month by month to age 95, in today’s dollars, using 3% growth after inflation by default, and you can move that to 1% or 5% (our assumption, explained in how we make our numbers).
- If your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you can receive up to 50% of your ex-husband’s full-retirement-age benefit, which changes this answer more than almost anything else (source: SSA).
- Starting Social Security at 62 instead of 67 cuts the spousal portion to 32.5% of his benefit amount, for life (source: SSA actuarial tables).
- Money in a traditional 401(k) is taxed as income when it comes out, so the spending figure you enter here should be treated as money after tax (source: IRS Topic 558).
Settlement talks are full of totals. Nobody converts the total into the one thing you actually need to know: how many years it buys. This tool does that in three questions, and it will give you a straight answer even when the answer is uncomfortable.
Savings, retirement accounts and investments added together. Leave out the house you live in, because you cannot spend it while you live there.
What the calculator is doing
It walks forward one month at a time from your age to 95. Each month it adds a little growth to your savings, adds any income that has started, takes out your spending, and checks whether the balance has hit zero. If it never does, your money lasts past 95. If it does, that is your run-out age.
Then it does a second pass, working backwards: what monthly spending would have made it all the way to 95. That second number is the useful one. A run-out age tells you there is a problem. The sustainable spending figure tells you the size of the problem in dollars a month, which is a thing you can act on.
Everything is in today’s dollars. Inflation is handled inside the growth rate, not in the numbers on screen, so when the tool says $3,000 a month it means groceries and rent at today’s prices, in every year of the run.
Three examples, run through the calculator above
Every figure below is produced by the same code the tool runs, so the article can never drift away from the tool.
Maya, 58: household income about $60,000
Maya walks away with $180,000 in savings and retirement accounts, spends $2,800 a month, and expects $1,600 a month from Social Security at 67. Her money runs out around age 63, roughly 5.8 years from now, which lands before her Social Security even starts. To last to 95 she would need to spend about $1,706 a month.
One change moves her a long way. Add $900 a month of part-time work until Social Security starts at 67 and the run-out age moves to 67, with sustainable spending of $2,022. Those gap years before 67 are where Maya’s plan is won or lost, and no settlement number told her that.
Dana, 55: household income about $110,000
Dana ends up with $450,000 to live on, spends $4,200 a month, and expects $2,200 from Social Security at 67. Her money runs out around age 65, about 10.3 years. Spending that lasts to 95 is about $2,853 a month, which is $1,347 a month less than she spends now.
Notice what markets do and do not fix. At a cautious 1% real return her sustainable spending is $2,583. At an optimistic 5% it is $3,201. The whole spread between a bad decade and a good one is $618 a month. The gap between her current spending and what her money supports is larger than that, so investing cleverly is not the lever here. Spending and the settlement are.
Priya, 52: household income about $200,000
Priya leaves with $1,200,000, spends $5,500 a month and expects $3,000 from Social Security at 67. Her money lasts past 95 at that spending level, with room: sustainable spending is about $5,620 a month. Priya spent two years afraid of a number she had never actually run. Sometimes the answer is that you are fine, and being told so plainly is worth the ten minutes.
The five levers, in the order they usually matter
- The settlement itself. More money in the pot moves everything, and it is the only lever that closes once. Run this tool before you agree to anything, not after.
- Housing cost. Usually the largest line in the monthly spend, and often the one holding the whole answer down. This is why the house question and the runway question belong together.
- Work income in the gap years. Even modest earnings between the divorce and Social Security do outsized work, because every dollar earned is a dollar not withdrawn while the balance is at its most fragile.
- When Social Security starts. Claiming at 62 means a smaller check for life, and waiting means the savings carry the gap. Run it both ways rather than believing either camp.
- Growth on the savings. Last, deliberately. It is the lever people reach for first and the one you control least.
Social Security is usually the biggest single line
For most women in this situation, Social Security is the largest source of income for the rest of their lives, and it is the number people are vaguest about when they run a plan. If your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you can receive up to 50% of your ex-husband’s full-retirement-age benefit (SSA), and claiming that at 62 rather than 67 cuts the spousal portion to 32.5% of his benefit amount, permanently (SSA). Claiming on his record does not reduce his benefit, and he is not told.
If you guessed at the Social Security box above, go and get a real figure from the Ex-Spouse Social Security Estimator and run this again. A few hundred dollars a month, for thirty years, changes the answer more than any investment decision you will make.
What this model does not include
Tax on withdrawals is not taken out, so treat your spending figure as money after tax. Long-term care is not modeled, and it is the largest single risk to a plan like this. Home equity is left out, because you cannot spend the house while you live in it, though selling later is a real lever. Markets do not deliver a steady 3% a year, they deliver a jagged path, and the order of good and bad years matters more in the first decade of withdrawals than later. This is a planning estimate, not advice about what to do, and it is not a promise about any outcome.
Frequently asked questions
What does “in today’s dollars” mean?
Every figure is what it would buy right now. We build inflation into the growth rate instead of into the numbers, so a spending figure of $4,000 a month means groceries and rent at today’s prices for the whole run. You never have to guess what a dollar buys in 2045.
Why 3% growth, and why can I change it?
Three percent after inflation is a common planning assumption for a steady mixed portfolio. It is an assumption, not a promise, which is exactly why the tool lets you drop it to 1% or lift it to 5% and watch the answer move. If the answer changes a lot, your plan depends on markets more than you may want it to.
Should I take Social Security at 62 or wait?
Taking it early means a smaller check for life, and waiting means living on savings in the gap years. Which wins depends on how much you have and how long you live, so run it both ways in the tool. The size of the check itself comes from the Ex-Spouse Social Security Estimator.
Does this include tax on the money I withdraw?
No. Treat your spending figure as money after tax, and remember that pulling $4,000 a month out of a traditional 401(k) means withdrawing more than $4,000 to land at $4,000. A tax professional can size that gap for your situation.
Why does it stop at 95?
It is a deliberately long horizon. A woman who reaches 65 today has a good chance of living into her late 80s, and planning to an average means half of us run out. Ninety-five is the conservative end, and the goal is that the answer still works there.
The answer scared me. What now?
A short runway found before the settlement is signed is information you can still use, which is the whole reason to run this early. The levers are the settlement itself, spending, work income, when Social Security starts, and housing costs. Change one at a time in the tool and see which one moves the answer most.
Sources: SSA FAQ KA-01999, benefits for a divorced spouse · SSA, benefits for spouses · IRS Topic 558, additional tax on early distributions from retirement plans · IRS Topic 701, sale of your home. All fetched and checked September 2026. Nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice.
Next: the full over-50 money guide →