Retirement Planner

The retirement planner answers three questions in one place. How much money will you need on the day you retire, given what you spend today and how prices rise? What will your EPF, PPF, NPS, mutual funds and other savings have grown to by then? And if there is a gap, how much more should you invest each month, starting now, to close it? Each kind of saving grows by its own rules — EPF and SIPs monthly, PPF once a year up to its ₹1.5 lakh limit — and EPF and PPF start at today’s official rates.

1. Enter your age, the age you want to retire at, and the age to plan until. Planning past the average lifespan is safer: the money should outlast you.
2. Enter what your household spends in a month today, and the inflation you expect.
3. Fill in what you already have and add: EPF, PPF, NPS, mutual funds and other savings, each with its balance, what you add and the return you expect.
4. Set how much your contributions rise each year, usually in line with your salary.
5. Read the result: the extra monthly SIP to start now, or how far ahead you are, with the amount needed and what your savings reach.

• These are projections, not promises. EPF and PPF use today’s official rates, which change; NPS, mutual fund and post-retirement returns are assumptions you choose. Try lower returns to see how sensitive the plan is.
• Taxes are not included — neither tax on withdrawals nor the tax you save by contributing. Your actual spendable amount may be lower.
• The need is based on expenses alone. Large one-off costs — a child’s education, a home, medical care — should be planned separately.
• PPF deposits are capped at ₹1,50,000 a year. The planner assumes you keep extending your PPF account in 5-year blocks until you retire.
• EPF is projected from the monthly amount going into your EPF account, employee and employer share together; the pension (EPS) is not counted.
• All the arithmetic happens in your browser. The figures are kept in the page address so a copied link reopens them; they are not sent to a server. Treat such a link as private, since it shows your savings.

Your monthly expenses are grown by inflation to the year you retire. The corpus must then pay that amount each year, rising with inflation, for every year of retirement, while the rest keeps earning the post-retirement return. The formula is shown under “How is this calculated?”.

Once you depend on the money, most people move it into safer investments — deposits, debt funds, annuities — which earn less but do not fall sharply just when you need to withdraw.

India’s consumer inflation has averaged around 5–6% over the last decade, and medical and education costs have often risen faster. 6% is a sensible starting point; try 7% to see a cautious plan.

It steps up by the same percentage as your other contributions, which matches how salaries rise. A step-up lets you start with a smaller amount; set the yearly rise to 0% to see a flat monthly figure.