Compare retirement income from SSS and savings against your target and see the shortfall.
Monthly income gap
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Income from savings
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Total projected income
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Extra corpus needed
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Three streams that fill the gap
Retirement income rarely comes from one source. For most Filipinos it is a stack: a monthly SSS pension at the base, perhaps some rent or a small business or a working spouse on top, and savings doing the rest of the lifting. This calculator adds those three layers together and measures the total against the lifestyle you are targeting. If the stack falls short, the shortfall is your income gap, and the tool tells you both the monthly hole and the lump sum that would plug it.
The savings layer needs a translation step, because a pile of money is not the same as a monthly income. The tool converts your savings into a sustainable monthly draw using a 4 percent annual safe withdrawal rate, which is one-twelfth of that each month. So PHP 2,000,000 of savings is treated as supplying 4 percent a year, or about PHP 6,667 a month, on the view that drawing at this pace gives the capital a fair chance to last. That 4 percent is a planning convention this calculator applies, not a Philippine statute, so adjust it if your own outlook is more or less cautious.
Reading your shortfall
Walk through the defaults. You want PHP 50,000 a month in retirement. You expect an SSS pension of PHP 12,000, no other income yet, and you hold PHP 2,000,000 in retirement savings. The savings throw off about PHP 6,667 a month at a 4 percent draw, so your combined income is PHP 18,667. Set against the PHP 50,000 target, that leaves a monthly gap of PHP 31,333.
| Income source | Monthly |
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The chart lays the three income layers against the target line, so the empty space above the stack is the gap you still need to fund.
From a monthly gap to a lump sum
A monthly gap is hard to act on; a target balance is not. The tool annualises the PHP 31,333 shortfall to PHP 376,000 a year, then divides by the same 4 percent withdrawal rate to find the extra corpus that would generate it: PHP 9,400,000. That is the additional savings you would need on top of what you already have for your savings income alone to close the gap, leaving the SSS pension untouched. Seeing PHP 9,400,000 is sobering, but it is the honest size of the task at these inputs, and it is far more useful than a vague worry.
A common blind spot
The mistake to avoid is double-counting or over-counting income that is not really spendable. Your family home, for instance, is wealth but not monthly income unless you rent out a room or take a reverse arrangement, so do not fold its value into the savings field. Likewise, be conservative with the SSS estimate. People often plug in an optimistic pension figure, which shrinks the gap on paper and lulls them into under-saving. Pull your projected pension from your actual SSS contribution record rather than guessing.
One more nuance worth holding in mind: this is a snapshot at today's values, so it does not show inflation eroding a fixed pension over a long retirement. A PHP 12,000 SSS pension buys less each year unless it is adjusted, which can widen the real gap over time. Use the figure as a planning anchor and revisit it, and confirm your pension projection with SSS and the tax treatment of any income with the BIR, since both can change.
Does the income gap shrink as I keep saving?
Yes. Every peso you add to retirement savings raises the monthly income those savings can safely provide, which narrows the gap. Push your savings high enough and the income from them plus your SSS pension can meet or exceed the target, at which point the tool reports no gap. Re-run it whenever your balance changes meaningfully to see how much closer you are.
Should I count my house as retirement savings?
Generally no, not in the savings field here, because a home you live in produces no monthly cash. It is real wealth and a hedge against rent, but it cannot be drawn on at 4 percent a year the way an investment portfolio can. Only count assets that genuinely throw off income or that you would liquidate, such as a second property you would sell or rent.
What if my SSS pension estimate turns out wrong?
It changes the gap directly, peso for peso, so accuracy matters. SSS pensions depend on your average monthly salary credit and credited years of service, and a rough guess can be well off. Get a proper projection from SSS based on your real record before you rely on the number, and lean conservative, since underestimating the gap is the more expensive error.