I have attached a drawdown schedule that you can save to your computer.

It is a guide to how much you can draw down on your living annuity according to your age in percentage terms. The original part at the top is published by ASISA and I have extrapolated the figures to give a better guide. I strongly suggest this is a guide only as economic conditions change all the time. Speak to your financial advisor.

In my opinion the guide gets tricky at the age of 80 because, if you have reached 80 and are in good health, there is a good chance that you could live a lot longer. I have an older client of 82 who still plays badminton three times a week and a member of our tennis club has just now given up playing tennis at age 88! So, my view is to still be reasonably conservative if you can. This depends on so many factors so again, you will need to work this out with your advisor.

Should you be a couple, I would suggest using the more conservative drawdown rate. So, if you are both 65, as a man you could draw 7.3% and your wife 6.2%. This is because, on average, men die sooner. (Or as the joke says, maybe married men are just a lot more willing to die!) I find in practice that it is safer to use the female rates for a couple as the monies need to be available to pay for expenses after the man has died. Naturally you need to consult with your advisor and work out a rate suitable for you.

As I have mentioned earlier in this website, unless you are very wealthy, I would recommend working as long as possible in full-time employment at least until age 65. Thereafter, see if you can’t work on contract or maybe do something else. People are living a lot longer these days and that might include you!

http://mark-sandison.co.za/data/documents/Living-Annuity-Drawdown-schedule-more-detailed.xlsx