How much do you need to retire?

Start from what you spend today. The calculator inflates it to the year you retire, works out the corpus that pays it — rising with inflation — until the age you plan for, subtracts what your existing savings will grow to, and gives the monthly SIP that builds the rest.

Your numbers

Change anything; the result updates as you type.

Result

The return before retirement is the lever with the longest arm.

Every point of return is compounded over the whole working life. MindForge publishes the backtest behind each of its three strategies, and the two paid ones trade in their own broker-verified Zerodha accounts — so an assumption can be checked against something.

See the strategies

The four steps

Expenses at retirement = today’s monthly expenses × (1 + inflation)^{years to retirement}.
Corpus needed = what it takes to pay that amount every month, raised with inflation every year, until the age you plan for, while the rest earns the return after retirement. It is the step-up SWP with inflation arithmetic with the step-up set equal to inflation, solved backwards.
Your savings are grown at the return before retirement and subtracted.
The monthly SIP is solved for what remains, invested at the start of each month until you retire.

The numbers people underestimate

At the defaults, ₹50,000 a month today is ₹2,87,175 a month at 60 with 6% inflation. Paying that, rising every year, for 25 years needs ₹6,45,57,424 on the day you retire. With ₹5 lakh already invested, the rest takes a SIP of ₹14,045 a month from 30 — or ₹5,612 a month to start, if it rises 10% a year.

Starting later costs more than the lost years suggest. Aim for the same ₹6,45,57,424 at 60 but begin at 40, with the same ₹5 lakh invested, and the SIP is ₹59,785 a month — more than four times as much, because there are twenty years of compounding to reach the target instead of thirty.

Assumptions this makes

One inflation rate for your expenses, before and after you retire, and one constant return for each phase.
SIP instalments at the start of each month, compounded monthly; your existing savings compound once a year; withdrawals at the end of each month, after that month’s growth.
No pension, rent or other income in retirement unless you reduce the expenses you enter by it. No fees or taxes. Treat the output as a plan to revisit every few years, not a forecast and not investment advice.

Questions

What return should I assume after retirement?

Lower than before it. A retirement corpus usually moves towards debt and hybrid funds to reduce the chance of a large fall just as withdrawals begin, so the return after retirement is typically set a few points below the one before it.

Does this include EPF, PPF or NPS?

Only if you add them. Enter what they are worth today in Already invested for retirement, and the calculator grows them at the return before retirement, a simplification, since each scheme earns its own rate.

Why does the corpus need to be so large?

Because the expenses keep rising after you retire. Twenty-five years of withdrawals that grow with inflation add up to far more than twenty-five times the first year's spending, and the corpus has to fund them while it is being drawn down.

What is the step-up SIP option?

The same shortfall funded by a SIP that rises 10% every year instead of staying flat. It starts much lower, which suits a salary that grows, but its later instalments are larger than the flat SIP.

Other calculators

Fee Calculator What a percentage-of-AUM fee costs against a flat subscription. Step-Up SWP with Inflation A rising withdrawal, with every figure also in today’s money. Goal SIP Calculator The monthly SIP a target needs, with the goal inflated to its future cost. Step-Up SIP Calculator A SIP that rises with your income — and what it is worth after inflation. PPF Calculator Public Provident Fund maturity over 15 years or an extended term. Inflation Calculator What something will cost in future, and what a future sum is worth today. SIP Calculator What a monthly SIP grows to at a return you choose. All 16 calculators Grouped by the question each one answers.