Smart Retirement Calculator

Plan your retirement corpus, estimate future expenses, and track your financial readiness with a modern retirement planning dashboard.

Retirement CorpusInflation AnalysisWealth ProjectionRetirement ReadinessFuture Planning

How retirement corpus is calculated

1

Project future expenses

Inflate today's monthly expenses to the year of retirement. ₹50K/month at 6% inflation over 30 years becomes ~₹2.87L/month.

2

Compute the corpus needed

Using real return (post-retirement return minus inflation), find the lump sum that funds inflation-growing withdrawals till life expectancy.

3

Project your corpus

Future-value your current savings + monthly SIP at the pre-retirement return to estimate what you'll actually have at retirement.

4

Get the gap and required SIP

If projected < needed, the tool shows the shortfall and the additional monthly SIP that would close it exactly.

Retirement planning tips

Start in your 20s if possible

₹5K/month from age 25 beats ₹15K/month from age 35 over a 35-year horizon. Compounding rewards time more than amount.

Equity for accumulation

60-80% equity allocation during accumulation. Index funds and large-cap mutual funds for the boring, market-beating compounding.

Glide path post-50

Gradually shift to debt/balanced funds as retirement nears. 10 years before, target 50/50. At retirement, 30-40% equity is enough for growth.

Don't forget healthcare

Medical inflation runs higher than general inflation (8-10%). Add a separate health corpus + good health insurance — don't dip into retirement money.

Consider FIRE

Save 50-70% of income for 10-15 years and you can retire by 40-45. Requires lifestyle discipline but compounds dramatically.

Review yearly

Income hikes, expense shifts, market years can all bend the trajectory. Re-run this calculator every year on your birthday.

What is retirement planning?

Retirement planning is the process of estimating how much money you'll need to maintain your lifestyle after you stop working, and structuring savings and investments to accumulate that amount. The math has three moving parts — your expected expenses, the impact of inflation eroding purchasing power, and the returns your investments earn before and after retirement.

The corpus rule

25× annual expenses is the rough target. This roughly sustains a 4% safe withdrawal rate for 30+ years.

Inflation matters most

6% inflation over 30 years means ₹1 today is worth ₹0.17 then. Plan in future-value rupees, not today's.

Two return rates

Pre-retirement returns (equity-heavy, 10-13%) and post-retirement returns (debt-heavy, 7-9%) are very different. Use both.

Time > amount

Starting 10 years earlier with half the SIP usually ends up with a bigger corpus than starting late with double the SIP.

Inflation and retirement explained

The cruelty of inflation is that it compounds silently while you accumulate. If you plan based on today's expenses without inflating them forward, you'll wildly under-save. Here's what ₹50K/month today looks like after various periods at 6% inflation:

Years from nowEquivalent expenseAnnual expense
10 years₹89,500/month₹10.74 L/year
20 years₹1,60,000/month₹19.23 L/year
30 years₹2,87,000/month₹34.44 L/year
40 years₹5,14,000/month₹61.66 L/year

Best retirement investment strategies

  • SIP in index funds: Low cost, market-beating over 15+ years, no fund manager selection risk. Default for most retirement portfolios.
  • EPF + PPF: Tax-free, guaranteed returns (7-8%). EPF auto-deducted; PPF voluntary up to ₹1.5L/year.
  • NPS: Tax benefits under 80CCD(1B) on top of 80C. Mandatory annuitisation of 40% at maturity is the catch.
  • ELSS: Equity exposure with 80C deduction. 3-year lock-in is the shortest among tax-savers.
  • Step-up SIP: Increase your SIP 5-10% every year as income grows. Doubles the corpus impact over long horizons.

FIRE movement explained

FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) targets retirement by 35-45 by saving 50-70% of income for 10-15 years. The math relies on the 25× rule: once your corpus is 25 times your annual expenses, you can safely withdraw 4% per year indefinitely. Variations include LeanFIRE (modest lifestyle, smaller corpus), FatFIRE (premium lifestyle, higher target), and Coast FIRE (build the corpus by 40, let it compound, work optional after).

Related tools

SIP Calculator

Project mutual fund SIP wealth over any horizon at custom returns.

PPF Calculator

15-year PPF maturity at current rates — tax-free retirement debt component.

Net Worth Calculator

Track current assets vs liabilities with a financial health score.

Income Tax Calculator

Compare old vs new regime and plan deductions like 80CCD for retirement.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about retirement planning, corpus math, inflation, and how to interpret the readiness score.

A rough rule of thumb: 25 × annual expenses in today's rupees, inflated to your retirement year. So if you spend ₹50,000/month today (₹6L/year) and retire in 30 years at 6% inflation, you'll need roughly ₹6L × (1.06)^30 ≈ ₹34.5L/year — multiply by 25 = roughly ₹8.6 Cr corpus. The calculator above does this exact math more precisely, accounting for post-retirement returns and inflation continuing during retirement.

6-7% is the long-term India inflation average over the last two decades. For lifestyle inflation (eating out, healthcare, travel becoming pricier in real terms), some planners use 7-8%. The default in this calculator is 6%, which lines up with RBI's medium-term target.

Three steps. (1) Compute monthly expense at retirement = today's expense × (1 + inflation)^years to retirement. (2) Compute real return during retirement = (1 + post-retirement return) / (1 + inflation) − 1. (3) Corpus needed = annual retirement expense × present value of annuity factor at the real rate over your retirement years. This is the lump sum that, growing at your post-retirement return, exactly funds inflation-adjusted withdrawals until life expectancy.

Traditional retirement age in India is 60, but the choice is yours. Retiring at 50 requires roughly 50% more corpus than retiring at 60 (more years of expenses, fewer compounding years). The FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early) targets 40-45, which generally requires saving 50-70% of income. Working an extra 3-5 years near retirement age can dramatically shrink the corpus needed.

Adjust the 'Monthly SIP' slider — the 'Required SIP' card on the right tells you exactly what's needed to fully fund your goal. As a rough guide, saving 20% of your monthly expenses from age 25 onwards in equity SIPs typically funds a comfortable retirement at 60. Starting late (35+) usually needs 30-40% of expenses.

Higher inflation hurts retirement planning in two ways: (1) your target expense at retirement is bigger, and (2) your post-retirement portfolio loses purchasing power faster. Slide the inflation slider up by 1-2% and watch the corpus needed jump — this is why long-horizon equity exposure (which historically beats inflation) matters more than safer debt-heavy portfolios for the accumulation phase.

For a primarily equity SIP portfolio held for 20+ years, 11-13% has been the historical average for Nifty 50 index funds. Be conservative — use 10-12% in projections. Post-retirement portfolios usually shift to 60-70% debt for capital preservation, returning 7-9% annually. Going above 14% in either phase is unrealistic for plan-level math.

No. All calculations happen entirely in your browser — your age, savings, expenses, and projected corpus never leave your device. No server, no analytics on financial inputs, no signup required.