Retirement Calculator: How Much Corpus Do You Need in India?
The 25× Rule: Your Starting Point
A simple rule of thumb: you need 25 times your annual expenses as a retirement corpus. If you spend ₹6 lakh/year, you need ₹1.5 crore. But this assumes constant expenses. In reality, inflation means your ₹6L today will be ₹19L in 20 years at 6% inflation. So you need 25× of your future annual expenses, not today’s.
Step-by-Step Corpus Calculation
- Current monthly expenses: ₹50,000 (₹6L/year)
- Years to retirement: 25 (retire at 55)
- Inflation-adjusted expenses at retirement: ₹6L × (1.06)^25 = ₹25.7L/year
- Corpus needed (25× rule): ₹25.7L × 25 = ₹6.4 crore
That’s a big number, but 25 years of compounding makes it achievable. A SIP of ₹34,000/month at 12% gets you to ₹6.4 crore in 25 years. With a 10% annual step-up, you’d start at only ₹12,000/month.
Will Your Corpus Last?
| Withdrawal Rate | Corpus ₹5 Crore at 8% Return | Monthly Income | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4% | ₹20L/year | ₹1.67L | 30+ years |
| 5% | ₹25L/year | ₹2.08L | ~25 years |
| 6% | ₹30L/year | ₹2.5L | ~20 years |
Use the retirement calculator to compute your specific number. Factor in EPF, NPS, PPF, and any pension income to reduce the required corpus.