Estimate the retirement corpus you'll need, based on your current expenses, inflation, and expected investment returns, plus the monthly SIP required to reach that goal.
How to Use the Retirement Calculator
Enter your "Current Age", planned "Retirement Age", and expected "Life Expectancy".
Enter your "Current Monthly Expenses" and the "Expected Inflation (%)" rate.
Enter any "Current Savings/Investments (₹)" already earmarked for retirement.
Enter your "Expected Return Before Retirement (%)" and "Expected Return After Retirement (%)".
Click "Calculate" to see your required retirement corpus and the monthly SIP needed to reach it.
How the Calculator Arrives at Your Number
Future expenses: Your current monthly spending is grown at the inflation rate until retirement: Future expense = Current expense × (1 + Inflation) raised to the years left to retirement.
Corpus needed: The calculator finds the lump sum that can pay that monthly amount, rising with inflation every year, from your retirement age until your life expectancy. It does this using the real return, which is (1 + post-retirement return) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. Withdrawals are assumed at the start of each month.
Existing savings: Money you have already set aside is grown at the pre-retirement return and subtracted from the corpus needed.
Monthly SIP: The remaining gap is converted into the monthly investment that, at the pre-retirement return, would grow to that amount by your retirement date.
The real return is the key number. A 7% return with 6% inflation leaves less than 1% of real growth each year. That is why the corpus often comes out at 20 to 25 times your first year's expenses, rather than the much smaller figure people expect.
Worked Example
Rahul is 35, spends ₹50,000 a month, and wants to retire at 60 and plan up to age 85. He has ₹5 lakh saved for retirement. He assumes 6% inflation, 11% returns until retirement, and 7% after. In 25 years, his ₹50,000 of monthly spending will cost about ₹2,14,594 a month. To fund 25 years of inflation-linked withdrawals, he needs a corpus of about ₹5.74 crore. His ₹5 lakh grows to about ₹67.9 lakh by 60, leaving a gap that needs a monthly SIP of about ₹31,801.
How each assumption changes Rahul's numbers (all other inputs unchanged):
Change
Corpus Needed
Monthly SIP
Base case
₹5.74 crore
₹31,801
Plan to age 90 instead of 85
₹6.73 crore
₹38,050
Inflation 7% instead of 6%
₹8.14 crore
₹46,913
Post-retirement return 6% instead of 7%
₹6.44 crore
₹36,204
Retire at 55 instead of 60
₹5.03 crore
₹52,966
Inflation has the biggest effect, because it raises both your expenses at retirement and the rate at which they keep growing afterwards. Retiring earlier lowers the corpus, since expenses have had fewer years to inflate, but it sharply raises the SIP because you have five fewer years to save and compound.
Getting Realistic Inputs
Expenses: Start from what your household actually spends today. Leave out EMIs that will end before you retire and children's costs that will stop, but add a margin for higher medical bills and health insurance premiums later in life.
Life expectancy: Plan for longer than the average. Outliving your savings is the bigger risk, so 85 to 90 is a common planning age, especially for a couple, where one partner is likely to live longer.
Returns: An 11% pre-retirement return assumes a large equity allocation held through market downturns. If most of your savings are in FDs, PPF or EPF, use a lower figure. After retirement, a return only one or two points above inflation is a cautious assumption.
Current savings: Include only money truly set aside for retirement, such as your EPF, PPF, NPS and retirement-focused mutual funds. Money meant for a house or children's education should be planned separately.
Revisit the plan every year or two and whenever your income or expenses change significantly. Raising your SIP by a small percentage each year as your salary grows makes the target much easier to reach than a flat SIP. This calculator is a planning aid, not financial advice. For a detailed plan, consider talking to a SEBI-registered investment adviser.
Frequently Asked Questions
First, your current monthly expenses are inflated to their value at your retirement age. Then, the calculator finds the corpus needed to sustain that (inflation-adjusted) monthly withdrawal for your years in retirement, using the "real rate of return" (post-retirement return adjusted for continuing inflation) as the discount rate.
Your current savings are first projected forward to retirement age using your pre-retirement return rate. If that projected value falls short of your required corpus, the shortfall is converted into a monthly SIP amount needed between now and retirement, assuming the same pre-retirement return rate.
Before retirement, your portfolio can usually take more risk for higher growth (e.g. more equity). After retirement, most people shift to safer, lower-return investments to protect their capital while still generating a stable withdrawal income - so the calculator lets you set both rates independently.
The RBI's target for consumer price inflation is 4%, within a band of 2% to 6%, but the costs that matter most to retirees, such as healthcare, often rise faster than the overall index. Many planners use 6% for a long-term plan. Try 7% too, and see whether your plan still works if inflation turns out higher than expected.
Yes, enter their current balances under current savings, since they are meant for retirement. Keep in mind that the calculator grows all savings at a single pre-retirement return. If most of your money is in EPF or PPF, which earn around 7% to 8.25%, choose a lower pre-retirement return than the 11% default, or the projection will look better than it should.