Retirement corpus calculator

What a retirement corpus actually pays for

A corpus is the sum that sits on the day a salary stops and covers a monthly expense for the rest of the plan. Two things fight each other through that span. The expense itself rises every year with inflation, because a household basket in 2060 will not price the way it does today. The corpus earns a return in retirement that is usually lower than the one you used while still working, because the money moves to less volatile products. The difference between the retirement-phase return and inflation, called the real rate, drives how big the corpus has to be at the start.

The page runs two phases. In the working years it grows your savings and adds a monthly SIP at one annual rate. In retirement it pays out an inflating annual expense at a different annual rate, until the plan age. One formula does not fit both, which is why the panel chart shows a build-up and a draw-down joined at the retirement age.

The formula this page uses

Expense at retirement equals today's expense multiplied by one plus inflation, raised to the number of working years. Multiplied by 12, that is the first year of retirement spending. The corpus at the start of retirement is the present value of a growing annuity due: a stream of annual expenses that grows at the inflation rate and is discounted at the post-retirement return. When those two rates are equal, the formula reduces to the annual expense multiplied by the number of retirement years, plus a one-year compounding factor, and the page detects that case.

Gap is the corpus minus the future value of any existing savings, grown at the pre-retirement rate for the working years. The flat SIP that closes the gap is the gap divided by the future value of one rupee a month, paid at the start of each month, compounded at the pre-retirement rate for the full accumulation term. The step-up SIP solves for a first-year amount that rises 10 per cent every year, using the same monthly compounding convention as the step-up SIP calculator, so the two pages agree when the step is set to zero.

Worked example you can check

Take a 30-year-old who runs a household on ₹50,000 a month today, plans to retire at 60 and fund life to age 85. Inflation is assumed at 6 per cent through the whole plan, pre-retirement return at 12 per cent, post-retirement at 8 per cent, with existing savings of ₹5,00,000.

The arithmetic above assumes the inputs. The corpus is sensitive to all seven of them, and the stress test below shows how one input alone moves the answer.

How each input moves the answer

Years of accumulation matter more than any single rate. Starting the same plan at 35 instead of 30 raises the required monthly SIP sharply, because five years of compounding are lost from the front of the plan. Life expectancy at 90 instead of 85 does not move the corpus as much, because each later year of retirement is discounted more heavily.

Inflation moves the corpus in both directions: it inflates the future expense and raises the entire stream in retirement. The pre-retirement return is the lever on your own saving, since the corpus is the figure on the other side of the SIP; a higher assumed return lowers the SIP for the same corpus. The post-retirement return sets how hard the corpus must work during draw-down; a lower rate means a bigger corpus for the same spending stream.

Inflation stress test

Holding the worked example's inputs steady, the required corpus at the retirement day changes as follows when you vary only the assumed inflation.

The latest MoSPI print of headline CPI was 5.54 per cent for September 2026 (combined, year on year). The RBI's statutory inflation target is 4 per cent with a tolerance band of 2 per cent to 6 per cent, renewed for the five years 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031. A plan built for three decades is not safe at any one rate; the stress test is on the page to sit beside the main result and keep that in mind.

EPF, PPF and NPS alongside the plan

Most Indian households do not build a retirement corpus in one place. An employee of a covered firm already contributes 12 per cent of basic and dearness allowance to the Employees' Provident Fund, with an employer match split between EPF and the Employees' Pension Scheme. Public Provident Fund is a 15-year government-rate account open to anyone, with an annual cap of ₹1,50,000. The National Pension System pays a lump sum share and buys an annuity with the rest, and a non-government subscriber may now withdraw up to 80 per cent at normal exit.

Put the current balance of each account into the existing savings input on this page, and tune the pre-retirement rate to reflect the mix. For example, EPF credited interest for 2025-26 at an assumed 8.25 per cent after CBT approval, so a reader whose retirement savings are dominated by EPF would enter a lower pre-retirement rate than one who is also running an equity SIP. The family of linked calculators, including the PPF calculator, the EPF calculator and the NPS calculator, size each piece on its own rules.

Tax on the drawdown

The page's output is an arithmetic figure, before tax. Where the corpus sits matters for what you receive. The lump sum from NPS at normal exit is tax-free up to 60 per cent, and the annuity bought with the remaining share is taxed at slab rate as pension income. PPF maturity is tax-free. EPF is tax-free once the service period rules are met. An equity mutual fund drawn down as a systematic withdrawal plan pays long-term capital gains at 12.5 per cent above the ₹1,25,000 annual exemption. For a debt mutual fund, every unit bought on or after 1 April 2023 draws the investor's slab rate on capital gains, with no holding-period break. Surcharge, cess and your own slab are outside this page; a qualified chartered accountant can place your situation.

What this calculator leaves out

• A break in the SIP. Every instalment is assumed paid on time, in full, for the whole accumulation term.
• A change in the assumed rate across phases of life. To model a rate that falls before retirement, use the investment calculator on a phase-by-phase basis.
• Tax on redemption of the corpus during retirement. The page shows an arithmetic corpus, before any tax on the units or on the annuity.
• Medical costs that run faster than general inflation. Health costs inflate faster than the CPI basket for many households, and that risk sits outside a single inflation input.
• An inheritance or a one-off receipt during the plan. Add the present value to the existing savings input only when the amount is firm.

Frequently asked questions

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