One-third to the savings pot, two-thirds to the retirement pot.
Projected total at retirement
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Savings pot
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Retirement pot
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What changed on 1 September 2024
Before the two-pot reform, every rand you put into a pension, provident, or retirement annuity fund was locked away until you left the fund or retired. The two-pot system split future contributions in two. From 1 September 2024, one-third of each new contribution lands in a savings pot you can dip into once per tax year, and two-thirds lands in a retirement pot that stays preserved until retirement. This calculator takes your monthly contribution and shows where each rand goes, then projects both pots forward to the retirement date you choose. It is aimed at a fund member trying to picture the long-run effect of that split rather than just the rule on paper.
The point of the design is balance. The savings pot gives you a legal emergency valve so you are not forced to resign just to access cash, while the larger retirement pot protects the bulk of your savings from being spent early. Money saved before the start date sits in a separate vested component under the old rules and is not touched by this split.
From a monthly contribution to two pots
The split itself is simple arithmetic this tool applies exactly: one-third to savings, two-thirds to retirement. The growth side uses a standard future-value calculation, treating your contribution as a monthly stream that compounds at the annual growth rate you enter, converted to a monthly rate. So a contribution of R5,000 a month becomes about R1,667 to the savings pot and R3,333 to the retirement pot, and each of those streams grows independently over the years to retirement.
R5,000 a month for 25 years at 9 percent
Suppose you contribute R5,000 a month, have 25 years until retirement, and assume 9 percent annual growth. The R3,333 monthly retirement-pot stream grows to roughly R3.74 million, while the R1,667 monthly savings-pot stream grows to roughly R1.87 million, for a combined projection of about R5.6 million. The savings pot looks large here only because the projection assumes you never withdraw from it. Every time you take a savings-pot withdrawal, you reset that side and lose the growth it would have earned, which is the single biggest lever on the final number.
| Pot | Monthly | Value at year 25 |
|---|---|---|
| Savings pot (one-third) | R1,667 | R1,868,537 |
| Retirement pot (two-thirds) | R3,333 | R3,737,073 |
| Combined projection | R5,000 | R5,605,610 |
Reading the projection with healthy scepticism
A future-value chart is only as honest as its assumptions. The growth rate you type is a nominal return before inflation, so R5.6 million in 25 years buys a lot less than R5.6 million today. The tool also assumes a flat return every year, whereas real markets lurch. And it shows the savings pot growing untouched, which is the best case, not the likely one. Treat the combined figure as the ceiling if you leave the savings pot alone, and mentally discount it for every withdrawal you expect to make and for inflation over the period.
Who this projection is really for
It suits anyone with years of contributing still ahead who wants to see the cost of treating the savings pot as a piggy bank. The practical tip is to model two lines in your head: one where the savings pot compounds untouched, and one where you drain it every year. The gap between them, often a seven-figure difference over a career, is the true price of early access. The common mistake is assuming the one-third is free money you can spend without consequence. It is your retirement, just made reachable, and a withdrawal is also taxed at your marginal rate, which the dedicated withdrawal-tax tool can quantify.
Can I send more than one-third to the savings pot?
No. The one-third to two-thirds split is set by law for new contributions and you cannot redirect a bigger share into the accessible savings pot. If you want more accessible savings, the answer is a separate discretionary investment outside the fund, not a change to the split. The split this calculator applies is the legislated ratio.
Does my whole retirement annuity follow the new split?
Only the contributions made from the start date onward follow the one-third and two-thirds rule. Whatever you had saved before that sits in a vested component governed by the old rules, separate from the two new pots. So an older fund will have three parts for a while: vested savings, the new savings pot, and the new retirement pot.