Design your golden years with
precision
Calculate the total corpus you will need and build when you retire by combining your current savings and future investments.
| Age | Invested Amount | Est. Returns |
|---|
From today's savings to your retirement number
Retirement planning has one non-negotiable truth: you need a number before you can build a plan. This calculator gives you that number — then shows you exactly how to reach it.
until it's too late to act
How much do you actually need to retire?
The answer isn't a single number — it depends on your lifestyle, the age you retire, and how long you expect to live. But the 4% Rule gives you the most reliable formula in personal finance.
The 4% Rule — developed from decades of market data — states that you can safely withdraw 4% of your retirement corpus annually without ever running out of money over a 30-year retirement horizon. Put differently: your corpus should be 25× your annual retirement expenses.
This accounts for a diversified portfolio returning 7–10% annually while inflation erodes 3–4% of purchasing power each year. The remaining 3–4% is your "safe withdrawal rate" — enough to sustain withdrawals for 30+ years without depleting the principal in most market scenarios.
In India, the rule needs a small adjustment: inflation runs slightly higher (5–6% vs 3% in the US), and equity returns are broadly comparable. A 3.5% withdrawal rate (corpus = 28.6× annual expenses) is more conservative and suitable for early retirees with a 35-year horizon.
Four retirement paths — find yours
Whether you're chasing FIRE at 45 or catching up at 40, the numbers look very different. Here's what each path demands from your monthly savings.
The glide path — how to shift your portfolio as you age
The single biggest portfolio risk near retirement is a market crash 2–3 years before you stop working. A glide path — gradually shifting from equity to debt as you age — protects the corpus you've built.
When you're 25 and have 35 years before retirement, a market crash is a buying opportunity — you have time to recover. When you're 57 with 3 years to go, the same crash could permanently reduce your corpus by 30–40% with no time to rebuild. This is why asset allocation must change with age.
The glide path principle: start aggressive, finish conservative. In your 20s and early 30s, 75–80% in equity is appropriate. By age 55, shift to 40–50% equity. In the final 3 years before retirement, reduce equity below 30% and move the corpus into short-duration debt funds, FDs, and liquid funds that won't collapse in a bad market.
In practice, the simplest implementation is through NPS Auto Choice (LC-75) which does this automatically — or a manual annual rebalance of your mutual fund portfolio using a simple age-based rule: equity % = 100 minus your age.
Rebalancing also forces you to book profits from equity during bull markets and add to debt — selling high, maintaining discipline. Do this once a year, in April, when you review your financial year.
Six streams that fund your retirement
The most resilient retirement plans don't rely on a single source. Here are the six instruments every Indian investor should consider — each playing a distinct role in the retirement income stack.
4 retirement planning moves that compound over decades
How to structure your retirement portfolio — by age
A retirement portfolio isn't one product — it's a layered stack of instruments with different risk profiles, tax treatments, and liquidity. Here's how to build it at every life stage.
Frequently asked questions
The most important questions about retirement planning in India — answered plainly.
Almost certainly not — for most people. At the 4% withdrawal rate, ₹1 Crore sustains ₹4 Lakh/year (₹33,000/month) in today's rupees. If inflation runs at 6% and you're 30 years from retirement, ₹33,000/month today will have the purchasing power of only ₹6,000–7,000/month when you retire. The true target depends on your lifestyle, city, retirement age, and life expectancy. For a 30-year-old in a metro targeting ₹1 Lakh/month retirement expenses (in today's rupees), the inflation-adjusted corpus needed at 60 is approximately ₹8–10 Crore. Use the calculator with your actual numbers rather than benchmarking against any round figure.
A commonly cited rule is to save 15–20% of gross income specifically for retirement. For a 28-year-old earning ₹1 Lakh/month, this means ₹15,000–₹20,000/month. Note that EPF deductions (typically ₹5,000–₹8,000/month for a ₹1L CTC employee) count towards this — so the actual fresh SIP needed may be ₹7,000–₹15,000/month. The earlier you start, the lower the percentage required. A 22-year-old needs to save just 8–10% while a 40-year-old needs 25–35% to achieve a similar corpus. Use this calculator to find your specific number.
There is no single best instrument — a combination wins. For most salaried Indians: EPF provides automatic debt accumulation with an employer match; PPF adds EEE debt outside EPF; a Nifty 50 index fund SIP provides equity growth; and NPS adds a pension stream with unique tax benefits. This four-instrument combination covers equity, debt, tax efficiency, guaranteed returns, market-linked returns, and a lifetime pension. The exact allocation between them depends on your age, income, tax bracket, and retirement timeline — but for most people under 45, equity should be 60–75% of the total retirement portfolio.
Yes — unambiguously yes for anyone with more than 7 years to retirement. A market crash is when SIPs are most valuable: the same ₹10,000/month buys significantly more units at lower NAVs, compounding your returns when markets recover. Historically, every major market crash in India (2008, 2020, 2022) has fully recovered within 1–3 years. Investors who stopped SIPs during crashes and resumed later permanently reduced their corpus compared to those who continued. Pausing a SIP during a crash is the equivalent of selling low and buying high — the exact opposite of wealth creation.
FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) means accumulating enough wealth to live entirely off investment returns — typically at ages 35–50 rather than 60. In India, it's achievable but demanding. The main challenges are: higher inflation than Western countries (requiring a larger corpus), the 40% mandatory NPS annuity (locking funds until 60), healthcare insurance becoming expensive or unavailable with age, and the psychological adjustment to not earning. For Indian FIRE, the target corpus is typically 30–35× annual expenses (3–3.5% withdrawal rate), and the bridge decade (50–60 before NPS matures) needs a separate liquid corpus of 10–12 years of expenses.
The withdrawal strategy matters as much as the accumulation strategy. On retirement: move 2–3 years of expenses into a liquid fund or FD as a buffer; keep the NPS annuity as baseline monthly income; use SCSS (up to ₹30L, 8.2% p.a.) for quarterly income from the debt portion; withdraw from equity mutual funds only in portions — ideally with a Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP). Never withdraw from equity during a market downturn — use the liquid buffer instead and let equity recover. Review the corpus and withdrawal rate annually against actual returns and expenses.
The best time to plan for retirement was 10 years ago. The next best time is now.
Every month you delay costs you years of compounding that can never be recovered. Use the calculator above to find your target corpus — then start your SIP today, even if it's ₹500.