Year by year
| Age | Phase | Monthly SIP or withdrawal | Balance |
|---|
How the planner works
Most retirement calculators ask you to guess a corpus. This one builds it from your expenses in three steps.
- What your expenses cost at retirement. Today's monthly spending grown by inflation for the years until you retire. At 6%, ₹50,000 a month at 30 becomes about ₹2.87 lakh a month at 60.
- The corpus that pays for them. The amount that, earning the after-retirement return, can pay that expense every month, rising with inflation each year, until the age you plan for. Withdrawals follow the same rule as the SWP calculator: each month earns a month's return, then the withdrawal comes out.
- The SIP that fills the gap. Your existing savings are grown at the before-retirement return; whatever is left is covered by a monthly SIP that starts now and steps up each year.
A worked example
Age 30, retiring at 60 and planning to 85, spending ₹50,000 a month today, with ₹5 lakh saved. With 6% inflation, 11% before retirement and 8% after, the corpus needed at 60 is about ₹6.46 crore. The ₹5 lakh grows to about ₹1.34 crore, and the rest needs a SIP of about ₹6,800 a month stepping up 10% a year, or about ₹18,100 a month if it stays flat.
That gap between the stepped-up and flat SIP is the same effect the SIP calculator shows: an amount that rises with your income does most of the work in the later years.
What moves the number most
Inflation and the planning age move the corpus more than anything else, because they act over decades. Try 7% inflation instead of 6%, or planning to 90 instead of 85, and watch the corpus change. On the saving side, starting age and step-up matter more than the return assumption.
What this planner leaves out
It does not include EPF, NPS or a pension unless you add them to "saved so far", and it treats all expenses as rising at one inflation rate. Healthcare costs often rise faster. Taxes on withdrawals are not deducted. Use it to see the size of the target, then check the pieces with the EPF, NPS and SWP calculators.
Common questions
How much do I need to retire in India?
It depends on your expenses, inflation and how long the money has to last. For ₹50,000 a month today, retiring at 60 in 30 years and planning to 85, about ₹6.5 crore at 6% inflation and 8% return after retirement.
Is a 4% withdrawal rate safe in India?
The 4% rule comes from US data with lower inflation. At 6% inflation and 8% return, the corpus this planner works out implies a first-year withdrawal of about 5.3%, which runs out exactly at the planning age.
Should I include my EPF balance?
Add your current EPF, NPS and other retirement savings to "saved so far". Future EPF contributions are not counted unless you include them in the SIP.