Can you retire at 60 with $1.5M?

With $1.5M at age 60, you can safely spend about $65,000/year after tax ($5,417/month) without running out over a ~35-year retirement — about a 4.3% withdrawal rate, a touch above the classic 4% rule, which a shorter horizon like this can support. Whether that's enough comes down to your lifestyle; here's the full picture.

How long $1.5M lasts at different spending levels

The 4% rule is a starting point, not a guarantee — especially retiring at 60, when the money may need to last 35+ years. Here's what $1.5M supports, spending from age 60 to 95 at a 6% nominal return and 3% inflation:

Why the answer isn't just $1.5M × 4%

A back-of-envelope "$1.5M × 4% = $60,000" overstates what you can safely spend at 60, for two reasons this projection captures:

• Taxes. A dollar in a traditional 401(k) or IRA is taxed as ordinary income on the way out; taxable-brokerage gains are taxed too. Only Roth and cash are tax-free. So the safe spendable figure ($65,000) sits below the headline 4% draw.
• A long horizon. Retiring at 60 can mean 35+ years in retirement. The 4% rule was calibrated to about 30 years — stretch it further and a lower rate (nearer 4.3% here) is what actually survives a bad early market.

The portfolio, year by year

Spending the sustainable $65,000/yr from $1.5M at age 60, here's how the portfolio holds up in today's dollars (inflation-adjusted, so it reflects real spending power):

Assumptions: single filer, TX (no state income tax), 60% taxable / 30% traditional / 10% Roth split, 6% nominal return, 3% inflation, no Social Security. Add Social Security, a pension, part-time income, or a spouse in the calculator and the safe number rises — often substantially.

Delaying Social Security to smooth the RMD years ahead

The decision that shapes a retirement starting at 60 is when to claim Social Security. Waiting toward 70 permanently raises the benefit and is the cheapest longevity insurance available — protection that matters most in the years when a long life would otherwise strain the portfolio. The gap between stopping work and claiming also leaves a stretch of low taxable income.

That gap is worth using on purpose. Traditional 401(k) and IRA balances keep growing, and required minimum distributions starting at 73 (75 for those born in 1960 or later) can arrive larger than needed, landing on top of a Social Security benefit and spiking a tax bill that was avoidable. Converting a measured amount to Roth during the pre-claiming years, filling the lower brackets, flattens that future spike.

The two levers reinforce each other: a later claim keeps interim income low, which makes room for conversions, which in turn shrink the RMDs that would otherwise collide with the larger benefit later. Planning the whole sequence at 60 beats reacting to an RMD notice at 73.

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