Retirement Glidepath Calculator

What Is a Retirement Glidepath?

A retirement glidepath is the path your stocks-to-bonds asset allocation follows over time as you age toward and through retirement. The traditional rule of thumb is "your bond percentage should equal your age" — a 30-year-old at 30% bonds, a 60-year-old at 60% bonds. Modern updates extend life expectancy and risk capacity considerations: 120 − age (aggressive, suits long-horizon investors), 110 − age (most common), and 100 − age (conservative, older guidance from when life expectancy was lower). Per SEC investor education, glidepaths are core to target-date fund (TDF) construction, with Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab using slightly different curves. The Vanguard TDF glidepath holds 90% stocks until age 40, then declines linearly to 50% stocks at retirement, holds 50% for 7 years, then declines to 30% stocks by age 72.

120-Age vs 110-Age vs 100-Age — Which Rule to Use

The three common rules produce meaningfully different bond allocations: a 50-year-old at 120−age = 70% stocks/30% bonds, at 110−age = 60% stocks/40% bonds, at 100−age = 50%/50%. Over 30 years of compounding, the 120−age path produces 30-50% more wealth than 100−age in average market scenarios, but with deeper drawdowns in bear markets. Use 120−age if: you have a pension or Social Security covering basic expenses, high risk tolerance, or 30+ years until retirement. Use 110−age if: you're average risk tolerance with no pension, decade or more until retirement. Use 100−age if: you're emotionally averse to drawdowns, retiring within 5 years, or you have low income certainty post-retirement. The three rules converge in retirement — at age 70, all three suggest 30-50% stocks, so the differences matter most in the 20-40 working years.

Implementation — Use New Contributions, Not Sales

The most tax-efficient way to glidepath is directing new contributions toward your underweight asset class, not selling appreciated holdings. If your target is 60% stocks and you're at 70%, direct 100% of new 401(k) and IRA contributions to bond funds until you reach the target — this avoids capital gains taxes on the sale and uses the natural compounding of fresh dollars. For taxable accounts, use rebalancing bands (e.g., rebalance only when allocation drifts more than 5 percentage points from target) to minimize tax events. Annual rebalancing inside tax-advantaged accounts (IRA, 401k) is tax-free and recommended; rebalancing in taxable accounts should consider tax-loss harvesting opportunities and prefer rebalancing through dividend reinvestment direction changes when possible. Per Kitces research, "lazy rebalancing" via new contributions captures most of the benefit at minimum tax cost.

Glidepath Variants — Bond Tent and Rising Equity

Beyond the standard declining glidepath, two advanced variants address sequence-of-returns risk: the bond tent (raise bonds aggressively 5 years before retirement, then lower them back down 5-10 years into retirement) and the rising equity glidepath (continue raising stocks throughout retirement). Wade Pfau's Journal of Financial Planning research found rising equity glidepaths have lower failure rates in worst-case scenarios than declining glidepaths, but require comfort with higher equity exposure at advanced ages. Most retirees do best with a hybrid: standard 110−age glidepath until age 60, transition to bond tent shape from 60-70, then mild rising equity from 70-85. Pair this with a 1-2 year cash bucket to avoid forced sales in bear markets. Last updated May 2026.