Retirement corpus calculator
Estimates what you’d need saved by the year you stop working, based on what you spend now, and what you’d have to invest each month to get there.
Illustrative only — this is not a projection or a promise of returns. Every figure below is arithmetic applied to the rate of return you typed in. H2 Investment is not suggesting that rate, forecasting it, or promising it. Returns are market-linked, vary from year to year, and can be negative.
The corpus figure is an order-of-magnitude estimate of what your retirement income would need, at the assumptions you set — not a target to bank on.
What this is, and what it isn’t
This is arithmetic on the numbers you typed. It compounds them at the rate you chose and shows you the result. That is all it does.
It is an illustration, not a projection. It is not a forecast, not a recommendation, and not an offer. Nobody knows what any investment will return, so the rate you enter is an assumption you are making, not a rate anyone is offering you. Real returns arrive unevenly — good years, flat years and falling years, in an order nobody can predict — and that order matters as much as the average.
Use the output the way you’d use a rough estimate on the back of an envelope: to see whether the shape of a plan is roughly right, not to decide what a specific rupee amount will be worth on a specific date.
Treat the corpus figure as an order of magnitude, not a target. Its job is to tell you whether you’re roughly on track or clearly not, and that is a question worth talking through with a person.
What this calculation assumes
This one stacks more assumptions than any other calculator here, so it deserves the most caution:
- Three rates that all hold steady: inflation between now and retirement, the return while you’re building the corpus, and the return afterwards while you’re drawing on it. Move any one of them by a point and the answer changes a great deal.
- Your spending today, inflated. It assumes what you spend now is what you’ll spend then, with prices risen. In practice some costs fall after retirement and others, health particularly, rise faster than general inflation.
- A fixed number of years. You choose a life expectancy. Living longer than the number you typed is a good outcome that this calculation treats as running out of money.
- No other income counted unless you enter it — no pension, no rent, no property sale. EPF is counted only if you fill in the optional EPF section.
- EPF, if you add it, follows steady rules. Contributions are a fixed share of a basic pay that rises once a year; 8.33% of pay up to the wage ceiling goes to the pension scheme instead; interest builds month by month and is added once a year at one assumed rate. In practice the rate is declared every year, the rules change, and any withdrawal before retirement reduces the balance.
- No health shock, nobody else to support, and no tax on withdrawals.
New to the idea behind this? Setting a financial goal walks through it in plain language.
Planning for retirement? See the whole picture.
About these calculators
How much do I need to invest for retirement?
That depends on the income you’ll want, when you stop working and the rates you assume — which is what this tool estimates from your inputs. Treat the result as roughly on-track-or-not, an illustration rather than a precise number.
Is this figure a projection of what I will earn?
No. Every figure here is an illustration produced from the numbers you type in, at a rate of return you choose yourself. It is arithmetic, not a forecast: mutual fund returns are market-linked and not assured, and the actual outcome will differ.
What rate of return should I assume?
That assumption is yours to make — the tool leaves it in your hands on purpose. A rate you enter is an illustration, not a rate we are promising or suggesting is likely. If you want to understand what drives returns in different kinds of funds, the explainers do that without putting a number on the future.
Does this account for tax, expense ratio or exit load?
Unless a field asks for it, no — the core calculators show how compounding works on the inputs you give. Real outcomes are reduced by the scheme’s expense ratio, by any exit load, and by tax on your gains.
Why do your figures differ from another site’s calculator?
Almost always because of the assumptions, not the maths — the return rate, whether tax and costs are included, and how compounding frequency is handled. Change those to match and the numbers converge. Every one of these is an illustration of arithmetic, not a claim about a real scheme.
Is an SIP better than investing a lump sum?
Neither is universally better — they suit different situations. An SIP spreads your investment across many dates, which fits money that arrives monthly and takes the timing decision off your plate; a lump sum puts money to work at once, which fits money you already hold. Which applies to you depends on your cash flow and goal, so it is a conversation rather than a rule. SIP or lump sum, compared goes deeper.
Talk to us
If you’d rather go through your own numbers with a person than a form, that’s what we’re for. You’ll speak to Himani, who runs H2 — the same person every time.
Other calculators
See all calculators. None of these ask for your name, your phone number or your PAN. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere. Use them as often as you like without hearing from us.