How much money is enough to retire in India? The corpus formula with worked examples

There is no single number that works for everyone. The right amount comes from your own monthly expenses, not from your salary or a round figure like ₹1 crore. This guide shows the method, step by step, so you can work out your own figure. The example below is for one person: aged 30 today, spending ₹50,000 a month, retiring at 60 and planning for money to last until 85.

A retirement corpus is the total money you have saved and invested on the day you stop working. After that day, you take money out of it every month to pay your bills. The corpus keeps earning a return on the part you have not yet spent.

• Inflation is the rise in prices over time. At 6% inflation, something that costs ₹100 today costs ₹106 next year. Over 30 years, ₹50,000 of monthly expenses becomes ₹2.87 lakh.
• Return is what your money earns in a year, such as interest or fund growth. After retirement most people hold safer investments, so this guide assumes a lower return after 60 (8%) than before it (12%).
• Real return is the return left after inflation. With an 8% return and 6% inflation, the real return is roughly 2% a year. A low real return means the corpus must be large, because it barely grows in today's money.
• Withdrawal rate is the share of the corpus you take out in the first year of retirement. The 4% rule, explained below, is one version of this idea.

1. Start with today's monthly expenses. Count household costs you will still have after retirement: food, bills, rent if any, travel, health insurance. Leave out costs that will end, such as EMIs you will have repaid or school fees.
2. Inflate them to your retirement age. Use Future expenses = Today's expenses × (1 + inflation)^years. ₹50,000 a month for 30 years at 6% becomes ₹2,87,175.
3. Decide how many years the money must last. This is life expectancy minus retirement age. India's official SRS life tables for 2016-20 put life expectancy at age 60 at 18.3 years on average, but that is an average. Planning to 85 or 90 gives a margin in case you live longer.
4. Pick a return after retirement and work out the corpus. The corpus is the amount that can pay the first year's expenses and then keep paying a rising amount each year until the last year, while the balance earns the assumed return.

Corpus = E × [1 − ((1 + g) ÷ (1 + r))^n] ÷ [1 − (1 + g) ÷ (1 + r)], where E = first year's expenses at retirement, g = inflation, r = return after retirement, n = years in retirement

This is the retirement corpus formula our retirement calculator uses. Each year's expenses are taken out at the start of the year, they rise with inflation, and what is left earns the return. When the return and inflation are close, the corpus is close to E × n, because the money hardly grows in real terms.

The table below is for someone aged 30 today, with money lasting until 85. It assumes 6% inflation, 12% a year before retirement and 8% after. Retiring earlier needs more money for two reasons: the corpus must last more years, and there are fewer years to save.

Retiring at 60 needs the largest figure in rupees in this table, because prices have had the most years to rise. Retiring at 45 needs a smaller number of rupees on the day, but that corpus has to last 40 years instead of 25, and you have only 15 years to build it instead of 30.

Small changes in inflation, return or life expectancy move the corpus by lakhs or crores. The table keeps the same person (30 today, ₹50,000 a month, retiring at 60) and changes one assumption at a time.

• Inflation has the biggest effect, because it works on both the expenses at 60 and every year after that.
• The return before retirement does not change the corpus at all. It only changes how much you must invest each month to reach it.
• India's CPI inflation ranged from 3.4% to 9.9% a year between 2012-13 and 2024-25, so testing 5% and 7% as well as 6% is a sensible range.

Work out your own retirement corpusEnter your age, expenses, savings so far and assumptions. The planner shows the corpus, the SIP and how the money runs down after retirement.Open with these numbers

A popular shortcut is the 25x rule: save 25 times your yearly expenses. It comes from the 4% rule, based on William Bengen's 1994 study of US stock and bond returns. He found that taking out 4% of the corpus in the first year, then raising the amount with inflation, lasted at least 30 years in every past period he tested. People who aim to retire early (FIRE, financial independence, retire early) call this target their FIRE number.

India is different in two ways: inflation has been higher than in the US, and the data history is shorter. A 2022 study of Indian market data by Ravi Saraogi found the 4% rule ran out of money early in many 30-year periods, and later work suggested 3% to 3.5% as a safer range for India. The table compares the shortcut with the detailed method for ₹50,000 a month, in today's money.

The 25x figure of ₹1.5 crore, withdrawn at ₹50,000 a month rising at 6% a year with an 8% return, lasts about 37 years. Compare that with the years your own retirement must cover: 25 years if you retire at 60 and plan to 85, but 40 years if you retire at 45. The shortcut ignores this, while the detailed method uses the actual number of years, which is why it suits early retirement better.

Find your FIRE numberTry 3%, 3.5% and 4% withdrawal rates and see the age at which your savings could cover your expenses.Open with these numbers

A SIP (systematic investment plan) is a fixed amount invested every month, usually in a mutual fund. The table below assumes ₹50,000 of monthly expenses today, retirement at 60, money lasting to 85, 6% inflation, 8% after retirement and no savings so far. Older starters need a smaller corpus in rupees, because prices have fewer years to rise, but a much larger SIP because there is less time to save.

These are flat SIPs that stay the same every year. Raising the SIP each year with your salary, a step-up SIP, lowers the starting amount a lot. See is a step-up SIP worth it for the trade-off. Money you have already saved for retirement also lowers the SIP, and the retirement calculator lets you add it.

Check what a monthly SIP grows toChange the amount, return and years to see how close a SIP gets to your corpus.Open with these numbers

Most salaried people already build part of their corpus through schemes. Count the expected value of these in your plan, and the SIP you need becomes smaller.

• [EPF](/schemes/employees-provident-fund): you and your employer each put in 12% of basic pay plus DA. The current interest rate is 8.25%. The balance can be withdrawn in full at retirement. The EPF calculator projects it.
• [NPS](/schemes/national-pension-system): a market-linked pension account regulated by PFRDA. Under the exit rules notified in December 2025, part of the corpus at normal exit must buy an annuity (a regular pension from an insurer), and the rest can be taken as a lump sum. The share depends on the corpus size and on whether you are a government employee.
• [PPF](/schemes/public-provident-fund): a government savings scheme with a 15-year lock-in and tax-free interest, now 7.1%. Deposits are capped at ₹1.5 lakh a year, so PPF alone rarely covers a full corpus.
• Pensions and rent: any income that continues after retirement reduces the amount the corpus must pay. Subtract it from your monthly expenses before you start, but note whether it rises with inflation.

A round number like ₹1 crore is a common goal. To see how far it really goes, read is ₹1 crore enough to retire in India.