Retirement Savings Calculator
Estimate the corpus you need for retirement, adjusted for inflation.
Estimates the lump sum you will need at retirement to sustain today's lifestyle, adjusted for inflation, with a conservative post-retirement investment return. Taxes, medical inflation spikes and one-off expenses are not modeled.
How much do you need to retire?
Retirement planning has three big unknowns — inflation, longevity, and investment returns. This calculator lets you set assumptions for each and produces an estimate of the lump sum you need at retirement to sustain your current lifestyle for the rest of your life.
What the calculator computes
- Future monthly expense. Takes your current monthly expense and inflates it forward to your retirement year at the given inflation rate.
- Required corpus. The lump sum that, invested at your post-retirement return rate, would sustain the inflated monthly expense for the post-retirement years you specify. Uses the present-value-of-annuity formula.
Formula
Future monthly expense: M_f = M_now × (1 + i)^y
Required corpus (simple SWP, no inflation indexing after retirement):
C = M_f × [1 − (1 + r)^(−n)] / r
where r is the monthly post-retirement return, n is the number of months in retirement, i is the inflation rate, and y is the years until retirement.
A concrete example
Age 30, retire at 60, 25 years in retirement, ₹50,000/month expense today, 6% inflation, 7% post-retirement return:
- Monthly expense at 60 (inflated 30 years): ~₹2.87 lakh
- Corpus needed at retirement: ~₹4.05 crore
That might look shocking, but it’s what 30 years of compounding inflation does to costs. The upside: 30 years of compounding investment is also long enough to build that corpus with modest monthly SIPs (use the SIP Calculator to see).
Assumptions and limits
- Expenses grow at the stated inflation rate only until retirement, then stay flat in nominal terms during retirement. A stricter model would inflate during retirement too — which would require a larger corpus.
- Returns are steady. Real markets have sequence-of-returns risk.
- Medical costs are part of monthly expense — they typically inflate faster than headline CPI, so err generous on the expense input.
- Leaves no legacy. To leave money to heirs, add to the required corpus.
How to use the result
The “Corpus needed at retirement” figure is your accumulation target. Plug it into the SIP Calculator as the maturity target, solve for the required monthly contribution at your expected return rate, and you have a concrete savings plan.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does the calculator ask for my current monthly expense instead of what I'll need at retirement?
- It is much easier to reason about your current cost of living than to predict it decades ahead. The calculator inflates today's figure forward at your chosen inflation rate to estimate the monthly expense at retirement.
- What inflation rate should I assume?
- India's long-run consumer inflation has averaged 5–6%. For conservative planning, use 6–7% — medical inflation and lifestyle inflation typically run higher than headline CPI.
- What post-retirement return is realistic?
- Post-retirement portfolios should be more conservative than accumulation-phase portfolios — typically 30–50% debt. At that asset mix, expecting 6–8% annualized real returns is realistic; 10%+ is optimistic for a retiree.
- Does this include pension or social security?
- No — it shows the corpus you need to fund your target monthly expense entirely from investments. If you expect a pension (EPS, NPS annuity) or rental income, subtract that from your monthly expense input before using the calculator.
Related tools
SIP Calculator
Calculate returns on your Systematic Investment Plan with maturity value and wealth gained.
SWP Calculator
Plan a Systematic Withdrawal Plan — see corpus depletion, monthly income and balance.
Compound Interest Calculator
Compute compound interest growth with monthly, quarterly or yearly compounding.