Retirement Corpus Calculator

Why the number is so much larger than it feels

Someone aged 30, spending ₹50,000 a month today, planning to retire at 60 and live to 85, needs a corpus of about ₹6,81,82,471 — roughly ₹6.8 crore.

That figure provokes disbelief, and the disbelief is the point. It comes from two compoundings working in sequence. First, thirty years of 6% inflation turns ₹50,000 a month of spending into ₹2,87,175 a month by the time you retire. Second, that inflated expense must then be sustained for twenty-five years of retirement, during which prices keep rising while the corpus earns a post-retirement return.

Neither step is pessimistic. 6% is close to India's long-run average, and living to 85 is an increasingly ordinary outcome rather than a cautious one.

How the target is built

Step 1 — inflate today's expenses to the retirement date:

Expense at retirement = current monthly expense × (1 + inflation)^(years to retirement)

50,000 × (1.06)³⁰ = ₹2,87,175 a month.

Step 2 — find the corpus that can sustain that, rising with inflation, for the retirement period, given a post-retirement return. Because the corpus keeps earning while it is drawn down, the right calculation uses the real return — the amount by which the post-retirement return exceeds inflation:

Real return = ((1 + return) ÷ (1 + inflation)) − 1

At 8% post-retirement return against 6% inflation, the real return is about 1.89% — which is the honest and uncomfortable heart of the problem. A conservative retirement portfolio barely outpaces inflation, so the corpus has to be large enough to fund the spending almost outright.

The calculator also shows the 25× annual expenses rule as a cross-check. That shortcut, derived from the 4% safe withdrawal rate, gives ₹8.6 crore here — higher than the full calculation, because it assumes a perpetual corpus rather than one deliberately consumed over twenty-five years.

What actually moves the number

Retirement age is the most powerful lever, because it works from both ends. Retiring at 62 instead of 60 gives two more years of contributions *and* removes two years of withdrawals.

Current expenses matter more than income. Two people earning identically but spending ₹50,000 and ₹80,000 a month need corpuses differing by roughly 60%.

Inflation assumption. At 5% rather than 6%, the same plan needs substantially less. It is the input the answer is most sensitive to, and the one you control least.

Post-retirement return. Assuming 10% rather than 8% cuts the target considerably, but a portfolio capable of 10% carries equity risk that a retiree drawing income may not want.

Reading the result

The number is a target, not a prediction, and it deliberately ignores several things that will reduce it: your EPF corpus, which for a long-tenured salaried person is often substantial; EPS pension; NPS; rental income; and any inheritance. Subtract what you already expect to have before despairing at the headline.

It also assumes expenses continue at today's level in real terms throughout retirement. In practice spending often falls in later retirement on travel and discretionary items, while healthcare costs rise sharply — and healthcare inflation in India runs well above headline CPI, which is an argument for health insurance rather than for a smaller corpus.

Common mistakes

Planning on today's expenses. Thirty years at 6% multiplies costs by 5.7.

Assuming retirement is short. Planning to 75 when life expectancy at 60 now commonly extends beyond 80 is the most dangerous simplification in the whole exercise.

Using a high post-retirement return. The portfolio that funds a retirement should be more conservative than the one that built it.

Forgetting health cover. A single uninsured medical event can consume years of planned spending.

Being paralysed by the figure. The corpus is built by decades of compounding, not saved from current income. A ₹6.8 crore target at 30 requires a large but achievable monthly investment — and starting five years later roughly doubles it.