How to Achieve Your Retirement Number
Enter a retirement target and time horizon to explore an illustrative savings scenario. Check every assumption and treat any AI-generated allocation as a discussion prompt.
Last content review: June 1, 2026
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How to Calculate Your Retirement Number
A retirement number is an estimate of savings needed to support future spending. It depends on when you stop working, how long you live, inflation, other income and investment returns; no fixed crore range fits everyone.
A withdrawal-rate illustration
A withdrawal rate is a planning assumption, not a safety guarantee. Dividing expected annual spending by an assumed starting rate gives an illustrative corpus before tax, fees and changing spending needs. Test lower returns and higher inflation too.
Example: ₹1.5 lakh a month is ₹18 lakh a year. At an assumed 3.5% initial withdrawal rate, ₹18 lakh ÷ 0.035 is about ₹5.14 crore. This arithmetic does not show that the amount will last through retirement.
Why inflation changes a future target
At an assumed 6% annual inflation for 22 years, spending of ₹1.5 lakh a month today would be roughly ₹5.4 lakh a month then. This is a scenario, not a forecast of Indian inflation. Compare multiple inflation rates and include later health costs and other income before deciding on a target.
Key Variables That Affect Your Number
- Inflation: Test more than one rate; actual living and healthcare costs may rise at different speeds.
- Return on investments: Use a range of uncertain returns after fees and tax. Equity, debt and gold do not provide fixed future rates.
- Lifestyle expenses: Include rent/EMI, kids' education, healthcare, travel, and a buffer for unexpected costs.
- Passive income sources: Rental income, dividends, pension — these reduce the corpus needed.
- Longevity: Test a longer-than-expected retirement so the plan is not based on a single lifespan.
Steps to Achieve Your Retirement Number
- Define your monthly expense in today's rupees (be honest, include lifestyle costs)
- Annualise spending and test more than one assumed withdrawal rate
- Adjust for inflation to get future corpus needed
- Calculate required monthly SIP using compound interest formula
- Compare investment types by risk, liquidity, cost and your goal date
- Review whether your contribution can rise when income or expenses change
- Track milestones every 5 years — course-correct if behind
Use the planner above to explore an illustrative scenario. Recalculate with different inflation and return assumptions and verify any AI-generated suggestion before relying on it.