Five questions and you have the number. See the retirement corpus you need and the monthly SIP that gets you there, with inflation and a realistic post-retirement return.
Why is the number so much larger than I expected?
Two reasons, and both are real. Inflation roughly quadruples your cost of living over 25 years at 6%, so the monthly spend you plan for is not the one you have today. And retirement now lasts 25 years or more, not 15. Most calculators quietly assume a shorter retirement and a higher return, which is how they produce a smaller and friendlier number.
Why does the corpus earn only 7% after I retire?
Because you will not be holding equity at 75. A retired portfolio moves into debt funds, fixed deposits, and schemes like SCSS, which pay far less than an equity fund. Assuming your pre-retirement return continues for the rest of your life is the single most common error in Indian retirement calculators, and it can understate the corpus you need by a third.
Does this include my EPF and PPF?
No. This page assumes you are starting from zero, so the SIP it shows is the full amount. If you already have an EPF balance, a PPF account, or mutual funds set aside for retirement, the detailed retirement calculator counts them and the SIP it asks for is much smaller.
What inflation rate should I use?
India’s consumer price inflation has averaged roughly 5% to 6% over the last decade. Use 6% for a general plan. If a large part of your spending is medical or education, plan higher, because both run well ahead of the headline number.
What if I plan to live past 85?
Then you need more. Indian life expectancy is rising, and a healthy 60 year old today has a real chance of reaching 90. This page fixes the plan at 85 to stay simple. The detailed retirement calculator lets you set your own, and shows you the exact age your money would run out.
Is a SIP the right way to build this?
For a horizon of ten years or more, a monthly SIP into equity mutual funds is how most salaried Indians build a retirement corpus, alongside EPF and NPS. The closer you get to retiring, the more of it should move into debt. What matters most is starting: the same corpus started ten years later needs roughly three times the instalment.