Retirement Corpus Calculator
How much money do you need to retire, and what should you invest every month to get there? This calculator inflates today's expenses to your retirement year, sizes a corpus that lasts till your planned age, and works out the SIP for the gap.
How it works, in one picture
How the corpus is calculated
- Today's monthly expenses are inflated to the retirement year: ₹60,000 at 6% for 20 years becomes about ₹1.9 lakh a month.
- The corpus is sized so that inflation-rising withdrawals last from retirement to the age you choose, while the remaining money earns the post-retirement return. This is more realistic than a flat "25× expenses" rule.
- What you have already saved is grown at the pre-retirement return. The gap is converted into a monthly SIP for the years left.
What people get wrong
- Ignoring inflation. At 6%, prices double every 12 years. A 35-year-old retiring at 55 needs more than 3× today's expenses per month.
- Counting the house. You will live in it; it does not pay for groceries. Count EPF, PPF, NPS, mutual funds, FDs and stocks.
- One return for 50 years. Use a higher return while accumulating and a lower one after retiring, when most money should be in safer funds.
After the number: how to actually withdraw
A corpus is only half the plan. The other half is how you draw it without selling equity in a crash. Capital Friends uses three buckets: income (2 years of expenses, safe), stability (next 5 years, hybrid/debt) and growth (the rest, equity). It refills the income bucket from growth in good years and from stability in bad years. Read how it works on the retirement bucket strategy page, or try the SWP calculator.
From a number to a plan on your real money
Your EPF, funds and FDs fill the three buckets; the glide path and the alerts do the rest.
Your actual funds, EPF and FDs fill the jars. Every year of the plan becomes a step like this.
- Retirement is 4% off its path · 1 step due
- Flexi cap fund is 7% below its high · information, not advice
- SIP ₹40,000 due on the 5th · term policy renews in 12 days
- Net worth, every account, every fund, nominees, loans: where everything is
Sent every morning from your own Gmail to the family members you choose. If something happens to you, they know where everything is.
Plan retirement with your real portfolio
Capital Friends turns this calculation into a plan: it counts your existing funds, EPF and FDs, shows the SIP still needed, and runs the three-bucket withdrawal strategy on your own money. Free, data in your Google Drive.
Frequently asked questions
How much corpus do I need to retire in India?
A common rule is 25–30 times your yearly expenses at retirement (after inflation). For ₹1 lakh a month at retirement that is ₹3–3.6 crore. The calculator above gives a more exact number for your ages and returns.
What withdrawal rate is safe in India?
Around 3.5–4% of the corpus in the first year, rising with inflation. Higher inflation in India argues for the lower end, or for keeping part of the corpus in equity after retiring.
Should I count EPF and NPS?
Yes, they are retirement money. Capital Friends counts EPF, PPF and NPS for the retirement goal only and never includes them in a sell step, since they pay out on their own rules.
What if I cannot invest the SIP the calculator shows?
Start with what you can and step it up every year, push the retirement age a little, or lower planned expenses. Re-run the calculation yearly; small corrections early are far cheaper than big ones late.
More free tools
How long a corpus lasts with monthly withdrawals.
Your FIRE number and the age you can stop working.
Monthly SIP → value after N years, with optional yearly step-up.
Three buckets, refilled in good years, so you never sell in a crash.
Months of expenses you should keep aside, and where.
Calculators use the inputs you enter and standard formulas; results are estimates, not guarantees. Returns from mutual funds, stocks and other investments are not fixed and can be lower than assumed. Capital Friends is a tracking tool and is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser; nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security.