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Retirement Calculator

Find corpus needed, monthly savings required and your FIRE number. Inflation-adjusted.

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Compound Interest Calculator

Example 1 — Lump sum, no contributions

A = 1,00,000 × (1.10)^10 ≈ ₹2,59,374 — more than 2.5× growth

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📘 What is the Retirement Calculator?

Retirement planning answers two deceptively simple questions: how much money will you need, and how much should you save each month to get there? This calculator projects your retirement corpus requirement based on your current expenses, expected inflation, years to retirement, and post-retirement life expectancy — then works backward to tell you the monthly savings required, all in inflation-adjusted terms.

⚙️ How Retirement is calculated

Why future expenses are higher than today's

If your monthly expenses today are ₹50,000 and inflation runs at 6% per year, those same expenses will cost roughly ₹1,60,000/month in 20 years — more than 3× today's figure. This calculator inflates your current expenses forward to your retirement date before calculating the corpus you will need, rather than using today's rupee value (a common mistake in simple retirement calculators).

The 4% rule and corpus sizing

A widely cited guideline (the "4% rule") suggests that withdrawing 4% of your retirement corpus in the first year, then adjusting for inflation each subsequent year, has historically lasted 30+ years across most market conditions. Working backward, this implies a target corpus of roughly 25× your annual expenses at retirement (since 1 ÷ 4% = 25).

How "years in retirement" changes the required corpus

A corpus sized for a 25-year retirement is meaningfully smaller than one sized for a 35-year retirement, even with identical expenses and returns — because the corpus must keep generating inflation-adjusted withdrawals for longer. This calculator lets you adjust life expectancy to see this sensitivity directly.

Reverse-engineering the monthly SIP needed

Once the target corpus is known, the calculator uses the standard future-value-of-annuity formula in reverse to determine the constant monthly investment (at your assumed rate of return) that would reach that corpus by your retirement date.

Corpus required (4% rule approximation)

Corpus ≈ Annual expenses at retirement × 25

Annual expenses at retirement = current annual expenses × (1 + inflation)^years to retirement

🧮 Worked examples

Example 1 — Early starter

Age 25, retiring at 60 (35 years to save), current monthly expenses ₹40,000, inflation 6%, expected return 11%.

→ Required corpus ≈ ₹6–7 crore · Monthly SIP needed ≈ ₹8,000–10,000

Example 2 — Late starter

Same expenses and assumptions, but starting at age 40 (only 20 years to save).

→ Required corpus is similar in real terms, but the monthly SIP needed roughly triples to ₹30,000–35,000 due to fewer compounding years

Example 3 — Early retirement (FIRE-style)

Age 30, targeting retirement at 45 (15 years), monthly expenses ₹60,000, inflation 6%, expected return 10%.

→ Required corpus ≈ ₹5–6 crore · Monthly SIP needed is substantially higher, illustrating the trade-off between an earlier retirement date and a larger required monthly commitment

💡 Original insights & how to use this calculator

Comparing the cost of starting at 25 vs 35

This is the single highest-impact comparison in retirement planning. Run the calculator twice with a 10-year difference in starting age — the monthly savings required typically increases by 2–3× for the later starter, for an identical retirement outcome, purely due to lost compounding years.

Stress-testing your inflation assumption

India has historically seen inflation in the 5–7% range, but healthcare and education costs — major retirement expense categories — have often risen faster. Try the calculator at both 6% and 8% inflation to see how sensitive your required corpus is to this single assumption.

Bridging the gap with a step-up SIP

If the monthly savings figure feels out of reach today, pair this calculator with the SIP Calculator's step-up feature: a smaller starting SIP that increases 8–10% annually (in line with typical salary growth) can reach the same corpus as a flat, larger SIP.

Why "FIRE" numbers and retirement corpus are the same maths

Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) calculations use exactly the same 25× annual-expenses logic as traditional retirement planning — the only difference is the retirement age input. Try entering a much earlier retirement age here to see your personal "FIRE number".