Required Return Calculator — What Does Your Portfolio Actually Need to Earn?

Calculate the exact annual return your retirement portfolio must achieve to fund your income for life. Enter four numbers. Get your Required Return instantly.

87% of pre-retirees cannot state the annual return their portfolio needs to fund their retirement. Most advisors build portfolios around risk tolerance questionnaires — not around what your money actually needs to do. One number changes everything: your Required Return. It connects your current assets to your retirement income goal.

Your Required Return falls within a range that a traditional diversified portfolio may be able to deliver — but sequence of returns risk still matters. A static portfolio may be sufficient — but sequence risk still matters. Reaching this target requires a disciplined, adaptive strategy.

How to Use the Calculator

Enter your total investable assets — retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, savings. Exclude your primary residence and any assets you do not plan to draw from.

• Current Investable Assets: 401(k), IRA, brokerage — not your home
• Target Annual Income in Retirement: In today's dollars, from your portfolio only
• Years Until Retirement: Enter 0 if you are already retired
• Years in Retirement: How long your portfolio needs to last

For educational purposes only. Not a projection or guarantee of investment results. Rulicent Investments, LLC is a registered investment adviser in Oklahoma.

Why This Number Matters — Most Advisors Never Ask This Question

The standard approach to retirement planning begins with a risk tolerance questionnaire. Based on your answers, you receive a portfolio — conservative, moderate, or aggressive — and are told to hold it through every market condition.

The problem is that this approach is built around your emotional comfort with volatility, not around what your portfolio actually needs to achieve. Your Required Return is the number that connects your current financial reality to your retirement goal.

Once you know your Required Return, the strategic question becomes clear: does your current approach have a realistic probability of delivering it — and what happens if markets deliver a poor sequence of returns in the years surrounding your retirement?

Rulicent's rules-driven approach is built around this number. SectorPulse™ and BondPulse™ adapt your portfolio's positioning in response to market conditions — not to chase returns, but to protect the path to your Required Return.

What You Receive

• Your exact Required Return — the number your portfolio must hit
• A plain-English assessment of where you stand
• A branded PDF prepared specifically for you

Know Your Number. Build a Strategy Around It.

A complimentary portfolio evaluation with Rulicent begins with your Required Return and works backward to determine whether your current strategy can deliver it.