Retirement corpus
What you need saved, allowing for inflation
Worked example
Using the default values, retirement corpus gives a you need to have saved of ₹9,17,12,957.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Years to retirement | 30 |
| Years in retirement | 25 |
| Expenses today | ₹60,000 a month |
| Same lifestyle at 60 | ₹3,44,609 a month |
| Corpus needed | ₹9,17,12,957 |
| Real return after inflation | 0.94% |
| Already saved, grown to | ₹0 |
| Gap to close | ₹9,17,12,957 |
| Monthly SIP needed | ₹32,405 |
| As % of current expenses | 54.0% |
What you need
- Monthly expenses today
- Your age now
- Retire at
- Plan until age
- Inflation
- Return before retiring
- Return after retiring
- Already saved
Questions
Why is the corpus so large?
Because it has to fund rising expenses for decades. At 6% inflation, costs roughly double every twelve years, so a retirement lasting 25 years ends with expenses about four times what they were at the start.
What return should I assume after retiring?
Lower than before, because the portfolio usually shifts towards debt. Something in the 6–8% range is common. What matters is the gap between that and inflation, not the headline number.
Important
The corpus is sized so that withdrawals rise with inflation for the whole of retirement and the money runs out at your planning age, not before. It uses the real return — what the corpus earns above inflation — which is the number that decides whether savings keep pace. At 6% inflation, ₹60,000 of monthly spending today needs about ₹3,45,000 a month in thirty years, which is the figure people consistently underestimate.