What is the Retirement?
Retirement planning answers a hard question with two simple numbers: how big a corpus must exist on the day income stops, and what monthly investment gets you there. The trap is inflation — ₹50,000 of expenses today becomes ₹2.87 lakh/month at age 60 for a 30-year-old at 6% inflation. Plans made in today’s rupees fail quietly.
This calculator inflates your expenses to retirement age, sizes a corpus that can pay those expenses (rising with inflation) until age 85 while earning a conservative 8% post-retirement, and then computes the SIP that compounds into that corpus by your chosen date.
Formula & worked example
Three steps:
2) Corpus = AnnualExp × (1 − (1+real)−m) / real , real = (1+8%)/(1+inf) − 1
3) SIP = Corpus × i / (((1+i)N − 1) × (1+i))
Worked example: age 30, retiring at 60, ₹50,000/month today, 6% inflation, 12% returns → expenses at 60 ≈ ₹2.87L/month; corpus needed ≈ ₹6.82 crore; required SIP ≈ ₹19,316/month. Delay the start to 40 and the SIP nearly triples — the cost of a decade is brutal.
How to use this retirement calculator
- Enter your age, target retirement age and honest monthly expenses today.
- Keep 6% inflation unless your lifestyle is education/health-heavy (use 7–8%).
- Set the pre-retirement return: 12% for equity-heavy SIPs, 10% for balanced, 8–9% for conservative mixes.
- Compare the required SIP with what you invest today (EPF counts!) — the gap is your action item.
Smart tips
- Your EPF already contributes: 12% + 12% of basic compounding at ~8% builds a meaningful base — subtract its projected value from the corpus before panicking.
- Step up the SIP 10% yearly with increments; a rising SIP can halve the starting requirement.
- NPS adds an extra ₹50,000 tax deduction under 80CCD(1B) in the old regime, and enforces the lock-in retirement money needs. The deduction is not available in the new regime.
- Do not count children’s education or the house in the retirement corpus — separate goals, separate buckets.
- Review every 3–5 years: salary, expenses and returns drift, and small course-corrections beat late heroics.
Frequently asked questions
How much money do I need to retire in India?
A robust shortcut is 30–35× your expected annual expenses at retirement (inflated, not today’s). For ₹50k/month today and retirement in 30 years, that lands near ₹6–7 crore. The calculator does the precise version with your own assumptions.
What is the 4% rule and does it work in India?
The 4% rule says withdraw 4% of the corpus in year one, growing with inflation — historically safe for 30-year US retirements. With Indian inflation, planners often use 3–3.5%, equivalent to a 30–33× corpus. Our model instead simulates paying inflated expenses until 85 at an 8% return, which is a similar level of conservatism.
Which return assumptions are realistic?
Pre-retirement: 11–12% for diversified equity SIPs over decades, 9–10% blended. Post-retirement: 7–8% from a debt-tilted mix. Inflation: 6%. Aggressive assumptions produce beautiful spreadsheets and broke retirees.
Is EPF/NPS enough for retirement?
Usually not alone. EPF (~8.25%) builds a solid base but rarely reaches a 30×-expenses corpus by itself, and NPS annuitisation limits flexibility. Treat EPF+NPS as the debt portion and add equity SIPs for growth.
What if I start at 40 or 45?
The math is honest: at 40 you need roughly 2.5–3× the monthly SIP a 30-year-old needs for the same corpus. Levers that still work: higher savings rate, retiring 3–5 years later, part-time income after 60, and cutting the target lifestyle.
Want the theory behind the numbers? Read our long-term investing guides on the Money Blog.