₹6 Cr
corpus for a ₹40K/month lifestyle, retiring in 30 yrs
25×
annual expenses — the classic corpus rule of thumb
2×
the SIP you'll need if you delay starting by ~7 years
Retirement is the one financial goal you cannot borrow for, cannot postpone, and absolutely cannot afford to get wrong. There are no education loans for retirement. When your salary stops, your savings become your only source of income — for two or three decades. The good news: with the right plan and an early start, building a comfortable retirement corpus is very achievable.
Step 1: Know Your Number
Everything starts with one figure: the corpus you need on the day you retire. It depends on four things — your current expenses, the inflation rate, your retirement age, and how long you expect to live. The logic runs in three stages:
- Grow today's expenses to retirement using inflation. ₹40,000/month today at 6% inflation becomes about ₹2.3 lakh/month in 30 years.
- Size the corpus so it can fund those inflation-rising withdrawals for your entire retirement, while the remaining money keeps earning a modest return.
- Convert it into a monthly SIP you can start today.
You don't have to do this by hand — the Retirement Calculator does all three steps instantly. Here's how the corpus changes with today's expenses, for a 30-year-old retiring at 60 (6% inflation, 7% post-retirement return, life expectancy 85):
| Expenses today | At retirement | Corpus needed | SIP (from 30) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₹25,000/mo | ₹1.44 L | ₹3.86 Cr | ₹10,930 |
| ₹40,000/mo | ₹2.30 L | ₹6.17 Cr | ₹17,485 |
| ₹60,000/mo | ₹3.45 L | ₹9.26 Cr | ₹26,230 |
| ₹1,00,000/mo | ₹5.74 L | ₹15.4 Cr | ₹43,710 |
30-year-old retiring at 60 · 6% inflation · 12% pre / 7% post returns · life expectancy 85
Step 2: Understand the 4% Rule (and Its India Caveat)
A popular shortcut for the corpus is the 4% rule: you can withdraw 4% of your corpus in the first year of retirement, increase it with inflation each year, and the money should last about 30 years. That's the same as saying you need roughly 25 times your annual expenses.
It's a great sanity-check, but a word of caution for India: the rule was built on US data with lower inflation. Given India's 5–6% inflation, many planners use a more conservative 3–3.5% withdrawal rate (i.e. a corpus of 28–33× annual expenses) to reduce the risk of running out of money. Treat the calculator's inflation-adjusted figure as your primary target and the 25× rule as a cross-check.
Step 3: The Real Enemy Is Inflation
Notice in the table above how a modest ₹40,000 lifestyle balloons to ₹2.3 lakh/month and a ₹6 crore corpus. That isn't luxury creep — it's purely inflation compounding over 30 years. This is the single biggest reason people underestimate retirement. If you'd like to see exactly how inflation erodes money over time, read how inflation quietly erodes your wealth and try the Inflation Calculator.
The practical takeaway: a retirement plan that isn't inflation-adjusted is worthless. Always plan in tomorrow's rupees, not today's.
Step 4: The Cost of Starting Late
Because of compounding, when you start matters far more than how much you start with. Here's the monthly SIP needed to build the same ₹6.17 crore corpus by age 60, depending on when you begin (12% returns):
Start at age 25
₹9,360
35 years to invest
Start at age 30
₹17,485
30 years to invest
Start at age 40
₹61,650
20 years to invest
Delaying from 25 to 40 multiplies the required SIP more than six-fold — from ₹9,360 to ₹61,650 a month — for the exact same goal. There is no more powerful argument for starting today.
Step 5: Where to Invest for Retirement
While building the corpus (accumulation)
- Equity SIPs & index funds are the growth engine. Over 15–30 years they have reliably beaten inflation. Use the SIP Calculator to map your contributions.
- EPF & PPF provide a stable, tax-free debt foundation. The PPF Calculator shows long-term growth.
- NPS is a low-cost retirement vehicle with an extra ₹50,000 deduction under Section 80CCD(1B). The NPS Calculator projects your pension corpus.
Approaching and during retirement (de-risking & drawdown)
- In the 5–7 years before retirement, gradually shift from equity toward debt to protect the corpus from a market crash at the wrong moment.
- After retirement, aim for a stable 6–7% return with low volatility — a mix of debt funds, SCSS, annuities and a small equity allocation to keep beating inflation.
Step 6: Increase Your SIP Every Year
Your income rises over your career, so your retirement saving should too. Increasing your SIP by around 10% each year (a step-up SIP) keeps your plan ahead of inflation and can dramatically reduce the corpus shortfall. It also makes the early years far less painful — you start smaller and scale up with your salary.
Your retirement plan in one line
Find your number, start a SIP today, step it up every year, and let compounding do the heavy lifting for 20–30 years. The earlier you begin, the smaller the monthly amount — and the larger your freedom.