Math & Calculator
SIP Calculator
Calculate returns on your monthly SIP investment with compounding
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Turning a Monthly Amount Into a Projected Corpus
Enter what you can invest each month, the annual return you expect, and how many years you plan to keep going. The result splits into three figures that matter separately: the total you will have actually invested, the projected value at the end, and the gain between them. Amounts are formatted in the Indian numbering system, so you read lakh and crore directly instead of translating from millions. Change any input and everything recalculates instantly, which makes it easy to test whether five hundred rupees more a month is worth it.
Why Starting Five Years Earlier Beats Investing More Later
Compounding rewards time far more than it rewards amount, and the gap is larger than most people expect. Someone investing five thousand a month from age twenty five usually ends up ahead of someone investing ten thousand a month from age thirty five, despite putting in less money overall, because the early contributions have a decade longer to compound. Test this yourself by halving the monthly amount and adding ten years. The result is the strongest argument for starting a small SIP now rather than waiting for a salary that feels adequate.
Setting a Realistic Return Instead of the Best Case
The default of twelve percent reflects long run Indian equity returns, but no fund delivers that smoothly year after year. Markets fall for stretches, and a plan that only works at fourteen percent is fragile. Run your numbers three times, at roughly eight, twelve and fifteen percent, and look at the spread. If the goal is still reachable at the low end you have a plan that survives a bad decade. If it only works at the high end, either extend the timeline or raise the monthly amount rather than hoping for good markets.
Working Backwards From a Goal Instead of Guessing
Most people pick a monthly amount first and see what comes out, but goals work better in reverse. Decide the target, whether that is a house deposit, a postgraduate course abroad or retirement, then adjust the monthly figure until the projection reaches it within your timeline. The number you land on tells you something concrete about whether the goal needs a bigger SIP, a longer horizon or a smaller target. A goal that needs forty thousand a month on a thirty thousand salary is worth discovering now rather than in year six.
Step Up SIPs and Why the Flat Projection Understates Things
This calculator assumes a constant monthly amount for the whole period, which is the standard way SIP returns are quoted. In practice most people can raise the amount as their salary grows, and even a ten percent annual increase makes a large difference over fifteen years. A simple way to approximate it here is to run the calculation in blocks, using your current amount for the next three years and a higher amount for the years after, then adding the results. It is rough, but it is closer to what you will actually do than a flat figure.
What This Calculation Deliberately Leaves Out
Three real costs sit outside the projection and all of them reduce what you actually receive. Expense ratio is charged by the fund every year and quietly lowers your effective return, so a fund quoting twelve percent with a two percent expense ratio behaves closer to ten. Exit load applies if you redeem early, usually within a year. Long term capital gains tax applies on equity gains above the annual exemption when you sell. None of these make SIPs a bad idea, but a projection that ignores them is optimistic, so treat the final figure as a ceiling rather than a forecast.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is completely free with no account, no email and no app install. Fund houses and broker apps usually ask you to sign in before showing projections so they can pitch their own schemes. This one just runs the maths, shows the number, and does not try to sell you anything.
Long run Indian equity index returns have historically fallen somewhere in the ten to fourteen percent range before tax, so twelve percent is a common middle assumption. Debt funds are far lower. Whatever you pick is an assumption, not a promise, so run a pessimistic figure as well and see whether the plan still works.
No, the figure shown is the nominal corpus. Real purchasing power will be lower because of inflation, and equity gains above one lakh rupees a year attract long term capital gains tax on redemption. A rough way to see the real value is to run the calculation again with your return reduced by about six percent.
A SIP invests a fixed amount every month, so you buy more units when markets fall and fewer when they rise, which averages your cost over time. A lump sum puts everything in at one price. SIP suits salary earners because it matches monthly cash flow and removes the pressure of timing the market.
No. Every calculation runs in your browser, so the amounts you enter never reach a server and nothing is saved or logged. There is no account, no tracking of your figures and no follow up call, which is the main practical difference between this and the calculators built into distributor websites.