Retirement Planner
Project the corpus you'll need at retirement and check if your savings are on track.
What this calculator does
Retirement planning in your 20s or 30s feels like planning for a stranger. But here's a mental model: the you at 60 is you, with 30 more years of experience, and probably not much appetite for hustling for money. That person is depending on the you of today to do the invisible work of setting things up.
This calculator answers the core question: how much do you need to have saved by the time you stop working, and how much should you be saving each month right now to get there? The number will look intimidating. It always does. That's not a reason to give up — it's the reason to start today rather than next year, because every year you delay, the required monthly amount rises sharply.
Use realistic Indian inputs. Assume 6% inflation (India's long-term average), 10-11% pre-retirement equity return, and 7% post-retirement debt-heavy return. Don't forget to include your existing EPF, PPF, NPS, and mutual fund corpus as your starting balance. And please don't plan to retire on ₹15,000 a month in today's money — inflation over 25 years will humble that number very fast.
Corpus ≈ Annual Expense × [(1−(1+real)^−years)/real], real = (1+r)/(1+inf) − 1Variables explained
- Current age & retirement age
The gap is your accumulation window. Longer = exponentially easier.
- Current monthly expenses
In today's money. The calculator inflates this to your retirement year.
- Inflation rate
Use 6% for India as a long-term average.
- Pre-retirement return
10-11% for equity-heavy portfolios.
- Post-retirement return
7% for debt-heavy income portfolios.
- Life expectancy
Assume 85 to be safe. Better to over-fund than run out at 78.
Worked example: 30-year-old, ₹40,000/month current expenses
Current age: 30 · Retirement age: 60 · Life expectancy: 85 · Current expenses: ₹40,000/month · Inflation: 6% · Pre-retirement: 11% · Post-retirement: 7%.
Expenses at age 60: ₹40,000 × (1.06)^30 ≈ ₹2.3 lakh/month.
Corpus needed at 60 (to last 25 years at 7% post-retirement): approximately ₹5.4 crore.
Monthly SIP needed from age 30 to reach ₹5.4 crore at 11%: ~₹19,000/month, rising with salary.
If starting age is 35 instead: required SIP jumps to ~₹35,000/month. 5 years of delay nearly doubles the effort.
Retirement math is really 'how do I not run out of money?' math
Retirement calculators can feel abstract because the numbers are big and the timelines are long. Here's a way to make them concrete: whatever your target corpus is, divide it by 300. That's the rough monthly income it can sustain for 25+ years using a 4% safe-withdrawal rule.
So if the calculator says you need ₹5 crore, that's about ₹1.65 lakh a month in today's money — before inflation adjustments. Ask yourself: is that the life I want?
Play with the 'years to retirement' input. Someone starting at 25 with ₹8,000/month often ends up richer than someone starting at 35 with ₹20,000/month, purely because of the extra 10 years of compounding.
Don't ignore EPF, NPS, PPF, and any employer superannuation. These are already working for you and belong in the same corpus number. A lot of people undercount their existing retirement savings and feel behind when they aren't.
Common mistakes
- ✗Not adjusting for inflation. ₹1 crore in 2055 buys what ₹25 lakh buys today.
- ✗Excluding EPF and PPF from retirement corpus. They count.
- ✗Assuming expenses will drop in retirement. Healthcare usually spikes.
- ✗Planning to retire on rental income only. Real estate cash flows are unreliable.
- ✗Delaying start by 5 years thinking 'I'll catch up later'. The math doesn't allow catching up cheaply.
Frequently asked questions
How much monthly income can my corpus produce?+
Rough rule: divide corpus by 300 for a monthly income that lasts ~25 years at 4% safe withdrawal (conservative but Indian-context appropriate).
Is NPS enough for retirement?+
NPS is one leg — usually 20-30% of retirement corpus for salaried Indians. Combine with EPF, mutual funds, and PPF for full coverage.
Should I buy an annuity after retirement?+
Only partially. Immediate annuities in India pay 6-7% and are taxable — often lower than a well-managed debt fund SWP. Consider annuities for 20-30% of corpus for stability, not all of it.
What if I want to retire at 45 (FIRE)?+
The corpus target roughly doubles vs standard retirement — you have fewer earning years and more retirement years to fund. Requires saving 40-50% of income consistently.
Reminder: this calculator is a learning tool, not personalised advice. For decisions involving your actual money, talk to a SEBI-registered adviser about your specific situation.