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
"Institutional-grade retirement modeling, free for everyone who needs it."

The tools used by wealth management firms shouldn't be gated behind $5,000/year advisory fees. We believe every American deserves access to a real projection engine — with real tax math, real inflation modeling, and real transparency about what the numbers mean.

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. Nothing is ever sent to a server. When you close the tab, your data is gone — unless you choose to export it.

Pro features like the full retirement report and scenario comparison unlock locally, with the same zero-server 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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Zero data transmission

Not a single number you enter is sent to our servers. All projection math runs locally in your JavaScript engine.

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Minimal cookies

We use localStorage only for sidebar collapse state. No tracking cookies, no fingerprinting, no session recording.

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No analytics tracking

We don't currently run any analytics. If we add it in the future, it will be anonymous and privacy-respecting. See our Privacy Policy for details.

What We Stand For

Six principles behind
every design decision

01
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.

02
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.

03
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.

04
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.

05
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.

06
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
The Calculator
Privacy & Data
Pro & Billing
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. We fund development through Pro and Advisor plan revenue. 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 8 = last. A common tax-efficient strategy: draw taxable accounts first (Checking, Savings, Stocks), then tax-deferred (401k, TSP), and leave Roth IRA for last — since Roth grows tax-free and has no RMDs. Set Roth to priority 7 or 8, 401k/TSP to 2–3, and Checking/Savings to 6–8 to match this strategy.
The calculator shows a "RMD Begins (73)" annotation on the stacked chart, but does not enforce RMD amounts. In reality, the IRS requires you to withdraw minimum amounts from traditional 401(k) and IRA accounts starting at age 73. If you're modeling scenarios where you'd naturally withdraw less than your RMD, your actual taxes and account balances in those years will differ from the projection.
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 4% equity growth with 3% inflation — this is a conservative real-return approach.
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 (coming soon) will offer the option to save 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, side-by-side scenario comparison, a polished 9-page retirement plan report, and priority support. The core projection engine, all charts, and Excel export are identical across Free and Pro. Pro is for people who want to save their work, compare multiple retirement timelines, and share professional reports with their advisor.
Start a Pro trial with no credit card required. You get full Pro access for 14 days. On day 14, you'll be prompted to enter payment details to continue. If you don't, your account reverts to free — your saved scenarios remain in read-only mode for 30 days so you can export them.
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 "what if I retire at 55 vs 62," or want to share a polished PDF with a spouse or advisor, Pro pays for itself quickly. At $6/month, it's less than a coffee. Try the 14-day trial and see if you use the scenario features.
If you're charged and haven't used Pro features in the billing period, contact us at [email protected] within 7 days for a full refund. No questions asked.

Get in touch

Have a question about the calculator, a feature request, or found a bug? We read every message and respond within 1 business day.

✉️ [email protected] 💼 [email protected] (Advisor plans) 📖 Read the full documentation
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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