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PLAN YOUR RETIREMENT INCOME
TIPS Ladder Calculator
TIPS ladder calculator: estimate the upfront cost of inflation-protected retirement income. The saved example costs about $612,019 for $40,000 a year from 2027 through 2046, using reference yields observed 2026-09-21. Taxes and actual bond pricing are excluded.
What would your ladder cost?
Free · No account requiredYour estimated income plan
Saved example · yields observed 2026-09-21. Change the inputs to calculate your estimate.
Includes missing maturity years. Flagged rows are planning placeholders for years absent from the dated Treasury inventory. Understand the workarounds.
The assumed yield is below the coupon floor for some rungs. The par-price approximation can understate purchase cost in this case. Read the limitation.
Some years receive more coupon income than their target. This model does not reinvest that surplus or use it to offset other years.
THE PRACTICAL NEXT STEP
What comes with the TIPS guide?
Buying walkthroughs, tax examples, and a formulas-visible workbook for planning your ladder.
62-page PDF + Excel workbook · One-time purchase
Your income ladder
| Income year | Income target | Later-rung coupons | Principal / est. cost | Real yield |
|---|
Edit any year’s income target for uneven spending. All amounts are in today’s dollars. Uses annual coupons and a par-purchase approximation, not live bond quotes. Read the methodology.
Understand the investment.
Start with the basics
How TIPS work, what they protect, and what to know before buying.
Buying your bonds
Auctions, brokerages, and the secondary market explained.
Know the tax treatment
Understand inflation adjustments and the cash-flow implications.
Compare TIPS with regular Treasuries
Explore a simplified constant-rate, compound-growth illustration. It assumes reinvestment at the same rate and ignores taxes; it is not a forecast of actual bond cash flows.
| Inflation | TIPS real ending value | Regular Treasury real ending value |
|---|
Before you use the estimate
Does this tell me exactly which bonds to buy?
No. This tool estimates the size of a ladder. It does not select CUSIPs or pull executable prices. Use the estimate for planning, then confirm available bonds and prices with your brokerage.
Why are some years marked as gaps?
Some years are absent from the dated maturity inventory. Their estimated costs remain in the total so you can plan for them. The gap-year guide explains the alternatives.
What do I get with the paid guide?
The 62-page TIPS Primer and a formulas-visible Excel workbook. The guide covers buying, taxes, ladder planning, and edge cases. Read a sample before purchasing.
A worked example before you start
A hypothetical three-year plan spending $40,000 each year, with a flat 2% annual coupon/yield assumption and purchases at par, needs about $115,355 initially. Principal repayments and coupons together supply the modeled $120,000 of spending. Taxes, actual bond prices, index ratios and accrued interest are excluded.
Follow the three-year cash-flow table · Compare 10-, 20- and 30-year costs
: Added sourced reference pages, dated maturity and auction tables, CSV downloads and reproducible cost examples. Corrected the nominal Treasury feed field, broker minimums, Auto Roll eligibility and ETF fees.
Site notes
· New Reference Desk layout, clearer calculator assumptions, CSV export, and a sample of the paid primer. Yield observations have their own dates above.