"How much is enough?" is the hardest question in personal finance. The honest answer is: it depends on your expenses, not someone else's. Here's a simple framework to estimate your own number.
Step 1 — your future annual expense
Take what you spend in a year today, then inflate it to your retirement age. At 6% inflation, expenses roughly double every 12 years — so ₹6 lakh a year today becomes about ₹12 lakh in 12 years and ₹24 lakh in 24 years.
Step 2 — the corpus
A common rule of thumb is 25–30× your first year of retirement expenses, assuming the corpus keeps growing and you withdraw sustainably. So if you'll need ₹24 lakh a year, you're aiming for roughly ₹6–7 crore.
Step 3 — the monthly SIP
Work backwards from that target. Reaching ₹6 crore in 25 years takes roughly ₹32,000 a month at a 12% assumed return; starting earlier or stepping up annually cuts that sharply.
These are illustrative figures. Your inflation rate, lifestyle and life expectancy all change the answer — model yours in the retirement calculator.
Where to go next
FAQs
For most urban households, ₹1 crore alone is unlikely to fund a 25–30 year retirement once inflation is included — it might cover only a few years of expenses. The right number depends on your annual spending; use the corpus framework above to estimate yours.
It suggests you need about 25–30 times your annual retirement expenses as a corpus, so that sustainable withdrawals (and continued growth) can fund you for decades. It's a starting estimate, not a precise rule.
As early as possible — a 25-year-old needs a fraction of the monthly SIP a 40-year-old needs for the same corpus, because compounding has far longer to work.
Educational information, not financial advice. Figures are illustrative and assume the stated return or rate; actual outcomes vary and aren't guaranteed. Run your own numbers before deciding.