Money CatMoney Cat › Guides › How to use the Two-Pot Withdrawal calculator
How to use the Two-Pot Withdrawal calculator
The Two-Pot Withdrawal calculator shows what taking money from your savings pot costs you, in tax now and in retirement savings later. It is built to make the second cost visible, because that is the one people forget.
A two-pot withdrawal has two costs. The tax you pay now is the obvious one. The growth you give up by taking the money out early is the larger one, and it never shows on your fund's withdrawal screen. This calculator puts both in front of you.
What you'll need
- The amount you are thinking of taking out. The minimum allowed is R2,000.
- Your taxable income for the year, so the tax is worked out at your own rate.
- Roughly how many years until you retire.
- A growth rate for your retirement investments. Around 9% a year is a common long-run assumption for a balanced fund, but use your own view.
How to use it
Enter the withdrawal amount and your income first. The calculator adds the withdrawal to your income and taxes it at your marginal rate, which is exactly how SARS treats it. There is no tax-free slice, so do not plan around one.
Set your years to retirement and the growth rate. Those two drive the second number, the future value you are giving up. If you are tempted to make this a yearly habit, use the repeat setting to see what several withdrawals cost together.
Reading your result
Three numbers carry the decision. The tax, which your fund deducts before you see a cent. The net cash you actually keep. And the future value forgone, meaning what the money would have grown to in your fund by the time you retire. The chart traces the gap between cash-taken and growth-lost widening over the years, so the trade is visible rather than abstract.
A worked example
Withdraw R30,000 on a R600,000 income and the tax is R10,800, leaving R19,200 in hand. Leave that same R30,000 invested for 25 more years at 9% and it grows to about R258,692. The calculator shows both at once. That is the real choice in front of you: roughly nineteen thousand rand today against about a quarter of a million at retirement.
What it does not do
It uses the 2026/27 tax tables for someone under 65 and cannot see your full tax year, so a withdrawal large enough to push you into a higher bracket is an estimate. It also assumes a steady growth rate, which real markets never quite deliver.
The verdict the tool is built to support: a savings-pot withdrawal earns its keep in a genuine emergency, and rarely anywhere else. For the tax detail and the myth behind it, read Two-pot withdrawal: the tax you'll actually pay. Then open the Two-Pot Withdrawal calculator to price your own.
Money Cat is an information tool, not financial or tax advice. Confirm with your fund or a registered tax practitioner before you withdraw.