A step-up SIP that starts at ₹10,000 a month and rises 10% every year reaches about ₹86.8 lakh in 15 years. A SIP that stays at ₹10,000 reaches ₹50.5 lakh. Both figures assume 12% a year, which no fund promises, and the HDFC Mutual Fund learning page uses the same inputs and gets the same results.
The step-up version also puts in ₹38.1 lakh against ₹18 lakh. So the extra ₹36.4 lakh of corpus costs ₹20.1 lakh of extra deposits, spread over 15 years.
What each step-up size gives
Starting at ₹10,000 with a 12% assumed return over 15 years, monthly instalments made at the start of each month:
| Yearly step-up | Total invested | Corpus at 12% |
|---|---|---|
| None | ₹18.0 lakh | ₹50.5 lakh |
| 5% | ₹25.9 lakh | ₹65.3 lakh |
| 10% | ₹38.1 lakh | ₹86.8 lakh |
| 15% | ₹57.1 lakh | ₹118.4 lakh |
The corpus grows faster than the deposits, yet most of the gain comes simply from putting in more rupees. The later instalments are large: at 10% the monthly amount is ₹23,579 in year 10 and ₹37,975 in year 15.
The 10% rule is really a salary rule
Take a salary where ₹60,000 reaches your account each month and ₹10,000 goes to a SIP. That is 16.7% of take-home. Aon's 2025 to 26 survey projected an average pay rise of about 9% for Indian employees in 2026. If your pay rises 9.1% a year on that example, the shares look like this:
- Year 5: a flat SIP is 11.8% of take-home, a 10% step-up is 17.2%.
- Year 10: flat is 7.6%, step-up is 17.9%.
- Year 15: flat is 4.9%, step-up is 18.7%.
So at normal pay rises, a 10% step-up keeps your savings rate roughly where it started, near 17% of take-home. The flat SIP, meanwhile, shrinks with every raise until it is a rounding error.
It also tells you how to pick the percentage. If your increments run closer to 5%, a 10% step-up reaches 25.3% of take-home in year 10 and 32% in year 15, which few households keep up. Match the step-up to the raise you usually get, and skip it in a year you get nothing.
When a flat, bigger SIP is better
A step-up pushes deposits to later years, and later money has less time to grow. A flat SIP of ₹21,182 from day one puts in the same ₹38.1 lakh and reaches ₹106.9 lakh, which is 18.7% more than the step-up.
To match the step-up's ₹86.8 lakh, a flat SIP needs only ₹17,210 a month from the start. If you can afford that today, start there. The step-up earns its place for people who cannot afford ₹17,210 now but expect their pay to grow into it.
Setting up a step-up SIP and what can go wrong
You choose the yearly increase when you register the SIP, either as a percentage or a fixed rupee amount. HDFC's page says you can add a cap, stop the increase while the SIP continues at the last amount, or cancel. It also notes that a run of missed instalments can pause or cancel the SIP, depending on the fund house.
The 12% is generous. At 8% the same 10% step-up gives ₹64.2 lakh against ₹34.8 lakh for a flat SIP. For context, the Nifty 50 price index rose at about 9.0% a year between September 2007 and November 2026 in the data on Yahoo Finance, before dividends and with several deep falls along the way. Use the 8% and 10% lines as your planning numbers and treat 12% as the good case.
Your next step
Open the step-up SIP calculator and enter your current SIP with a step-up equal to your last raise. Look at the instalment it shows for year 10. If that amount would take more than a fifth of your likely take-home, lower the step-up to 5%. The SIP returns table shows what a flat SIP gives at different amounts and tenures if you want a comparison.
Sources
- HDFC Mutual Fund: step-up SIP and calculator page
- Business Today on the Aon salary increase survey, 7 October 2025
- Yahoo Finance: NIFTY 50 historical prices
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