The Retirement Calculator answers the question everyone eventually asks: how much do I need to retire, and how much should I invest each month to get there? Enter your age, when you want to retire, how long the money should last, and your current monthly expenses, and it estimates the retirement corpus you need plus the monthly SIP required to build it.
Crucially, it accounts for inflation — your expenses keep rising before and during retirement — and lets you set different returns for your investing years and your retirement years. Everything is calculated privately in your browser.
How to use the retirement calculator
- Enter your current age and the age you want to retire.
- Set your life expectancy — the age the money should last till.
- Enter your current monthly expenses (in today’s money).
- Add any current savings, and adjust the inflation and return assumptions.
- Read the corpus you need and the monthly SIP required to reach it.
How the retirement corpus is calculated
First, your current monthly expense is grown to your retirement date using the inflation rate — ₹50,000 a month today becomes far more in 30 years. Then the calculator works out the lump sum needed at retirement to fund those expenses, which keep rising with inflation, for your whole retirement while the corpus itself keeps earning the post-retirement return.
This uses the inflation-adjusted (real) return during retirement. Finally, any current savings are grown to retirement at your investing-years return and subtracted, and the shortfall is converted into the monthly SIP you need from now until you retire.
Why inflation makes the number so large
Inflation is the reason retirement corpuses look huge. At 6% inflation, costs roughly double every 12 years, so a comfortable expense today becomes several times larger by retirement — and keeps climbing for decades afterwards. The table shows the corpus needed for different current expenses, retiring at 60 and planning to 85, at 6% inflation with 12% returns while investing and 7% after.
Corpus needed to retire at 60 (till 85) for a 30-year-old, by today’s monthly expense.
| Monthly expense today | Expense at 60 | Corpus needed |
|---|---|---|
| ₹25,000 | ₹1.44 L | ₹3.82 Cr |
| ₹50,000 | ₹2.87 L | ₹7.64 Cr |
| ₹75,000 | ₹4.31 L | ₹11.46 Cr |
| ₹1,00,000 | ₹5.74 L | ₹15.29 Cr |
Tips for retirement planning
- Start early — because of compounding, the monthly SIP needed rises steeply the longer you wait.
- Use a conservative post-retirement return; your corpus should shift toward safer assets as you age.
- Revisit the plan every few years as your income, expenses, and goals change.
- Treat the result as a guide, not advice — it depends heavily on the inflation and return you assume.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money do I need to retire?
It depends on your expenses, how long retirement lasts, and inflation. For example, a 30-year-old spending ₹50,000 a month today, retiring at 60 and planning to 85 (6% inflation, 7% post-retirement return), needs roughly ₹7.6 crore. Enter your own numbers above for a personal estimate.
Does this account for inflation?
Yes. It grows your current expenses to your retirement date at the inflation rate, and assumes expenses keep rising with inflation throughout retirement, which is what makes the required corpus so large.
What return should I assume?
Many Indian planners use about 10–12% for the equity-heavy investing years and a more conservative 6–8% after retirement, when the corpus moves to safer assets. Adjust both rates to match your own strategy.
What is the monthly SIP needed?
It is the fixed amount to invest every month from now until retirement, at your investing-years return, to build the shortfall between the corpus you need and what your current savings will grow to. Starting earlier makes this number much smaller.
How long should I plan my retirement to last?
Plan for a long life — many people use 85 to 90 as the life expectancy. Underestimating it risks running out of money, so it is safer to plan for longer than you expect.