Enter a starting balance, interest rate, and payout period to calculate the fixed payment that draws the balance down to zero exactly on schedule.
How to Use the Annuity Payout Calculator
Enter the starting balance first, then the rate, payout frequency, and length of the payout period — the fixed payment figure is solved backward from those four numbers.
Retirement accounts and structured settlements pose the opposite problem from a savings annuity: instead of building a balance, you're draining one on purpose, at a fixed rate, until it hits zero right on schedule.
PMT = PV × r ÷ [1 − (1 + r)⁻ⁿ]PV is the starting balance, r the rate per period, n the number of payout periods. Raise the payout period and each individual payment shrinks, since the balance has longer to stretch and more time to keep earning interest between withdrawals. Shorten it and payments grow, because there's less runway left for interest to do any of the work.
This differs from a simple "balance ÷ months" division in one important way: the remaining balance keeps earning interest throughout the payout period, so the sustainable payment is always somewhat higher than a flat division would suggest.