Retirement Calculator
How big a retirement fund you need for your monthly expenses to keep pace with inflation, and how much to invest each month to build it.
A 30-year-old spending ₹50,000 a month today, retiring at 60 and planning to age 85, needs about ₹7.71 crore at retirement if prices rise 6% a year and the fund earns 7% after retiring. Building that from scratch takes about ₹27,259 a month invested at 11% a year. These are assumptions you can change, not forecasts.
The words on this page, explained simply
New to this? Here is what each term means, in plain English.
- Retirement corpus
- The total savings you need on the day you retire to pay your expenses for the rest of your life.
- Inflation
- Prices rising over time. At 6% inflation, something that costs ₹100 today costs about ₹179 in ten years, so the same rupees buy less.
- Expected return
- How much you guess your money will grow each year, on average. It is a guess, not a promise: markets rise and fall. Try a low and a high number to see the range of outcomes.
- Planning age
- The age you want your money to last until. Pick an age you are unlikely to outlive, such as 85 or 90, because running out is worse than leaving some behind.
- In today's rupees
- A future amount shrunk back by inflation, to show what it would buy today. At 6% inflation, ₹1 crore in 20 years buys about what ₹31 lakh buys now.
- SIP (Systematic Investment Plan)
- Putting a fixed amount into a mutual fund every month, like a recurring deposit, instead of investing everything at once.
A retirement fund has to pay your expenses for decades after your salary stops, while prices keep rising. This calculator works out the fund you need on the day you retire, and the monthly investment that gets you there, from a handful of assumptions you control.
How it is worked out
1. Today's monthly expenses grow with inflation until you retire. 2. From retirement they keep growing with inflation each year, and the fund earns the post-retirement return; the corpus is what pays every year's expenses until your planning age, with nothing left. 3. Your current savings grow at the pre-retirement return and are subtracted. 4. The remaining gap is turned into a monthly investment at the pre-retirement return.
The assumptions matter more than the maths
Inflation of 6% doubles your expenses about every 12 years. A fund earning only what inflation takes leaves you needing expenses × years. Try a lower return and a longer life: being wrong on the cautious side costs far less than running out at 80.
Key takeaways
- Expenses grow with inflation before and after retirement.
- The corpus pays inflation-rising expenses to your planning age.
- Plan cautiously: lower return, longer life.
Frequently asked questions
How much money do I need to retire in India?
It depends on your expenses, inflation and how long the money must last. Example: ₹50,000 a month today, retiring at 60 from 30, to age 85, 6% inflation, 7% return after retiring: about ₹7.71 crore.
What inflation should I assume?
Many planners use 6% for India. Use more if your costs (health, education) rise faster.
Does the calculator include EPF and PPF?
Enter what you already have saved as current savings. Future EPF contributions reduce the monthly investment you need; see the EPF calculator for that corpus.