Key takeaways
- Enter your monthly SIP amount, an assumed annual return, and your investment duration to see the estimated maturity value
- Use the Goal Planner to work backward — enter a target amount and find the monthly SIP or years needed to reach it
- Add a step-up rate to model salary-linked increases to your SIP, or turn on inflation adjustment to see your maturity value in today's purchasing power
- Fund category presets (Debt, Balanced, Large Cap, Mid/Small Cap) are historical averages, not guaranteed or promised returns
- All figures shown are illustrative estimates based on the rate you enter — not a forecast, and not financial advice
The basic inputs
Monthly SIP amount: what you plan to invest each month. Start with whatever you can commit to consistently — a smaller, steady amount generally serves you better than an irregular large one you can't sustain.
Assumed annual return: this is your own assumption about future returns, not a promised or expected figure — the calculator deliberately uses "assumed" rather than "expected" for this reason. You can either drag the slider yourself or pick one of the fund category presets, which are based on historical averages rather than guarantees.
Investment duration: how long you plan to invest, in years. Longer durations give compounding more time to work, but projections beyond 25 years carry meaningfully more uncertainty — the calculator flags this with an on-screen caveat once you go past that mark.
Try the SIP Calculator
Open the SIP calculator — model your investment from any starting amount.
Understanding the fund category presets
Rather than guessing a return rate from scratch, four presets are available as a starting point:
| Preset | Historical average used | Typical use case |
|---|---|---|
| Debt | 6% | Capital preservation, short-term goals, low risk tolerance |
| Balanced (default) | 10% | A moderate, conservative-leaning starting assumption for most goals |
| Large Cap | 12% | Long-term equity goals with a preference for larger, more established companies |
| Mid/Small Cap | 15% | Higher long-term growth potential, with correspondingly higher volatility |
These are historical averages, not guarantees. Nifty 50's long-term average has historically been in the 12–13% p.a. range, but actual returns in any specific period — including the years you'll actually be invested — can be meaningfully higher or lower. The calculator defaults to the more conservative 10% Balanced preset rather than a higher equity assumption, specifically to avoid overstating what you might realistically get.
Reading the results panel
Est. Maturity Value: your projected corpus at the end of the tenure, based entirely on the assumed return rate you entered — not a guaranteed figure.
Est. Wealth Gain: the portion of your maturity value that comes from returns, as opposed to your own contributions.
XIRR (approx.): the annualised return on your specific stream of monthly investments. This is usually a bit higher than a simple CAGR figure, since your earliest instalments have had the most time to compound — hover the ⓘ icon for a plain-language explanation if this distinction is unfamiliar.
Extra vs 7% FD: a quick, illustrative comparison showing how much more (or less) your SIP is projected to yield versus a simple fixed deposit benchmark at 7% — useful for a gut-check, not a precise comparison, since FD rates vary by bank and tenure.
Years to Double: based on your assumed rate, using the standard doubling-time formula — a quick way to translate a percentage return into something more intuitive.
Invested vs Est. Wealth Gain donut chart: shows the split between what you actually put in and what's projected to come from growth. Tap either segment for the exact rupee amount.
Modelling a step-up SIP
Toggle on "Step-up SIP" to increase your monthly instalment automatically by a fixed percentage each year, mirroring how a step-up SIP works in real life. The calculator supports increases up to 50% annually, though realistically most people model something closer to their actual expected salary growth — 5–15% is a common, sustainable range.
Reminder built into the tool: a step-up SIP projection assumes you can genuinely increase your contribution every year without fail. Before committing to a specific step-up rate, it's worth checking that your budget can realistically sustain it — the calculator surfaces this reminder directly under the step-up field.
Once active, a step-up banner shows your extra amount invested due to the step-up and the estimated additional gain attributable to that extra contribution, separate from your base SIP's own growth.
Adjusting for inflation
Toggle on "Inflation Adjustment" to see your projected maturity value expressed in today's purchasing power, rather than just the raw future rupee figure. India's CPI has historically averaged roughly 5–6%, though you can adjust the assumed rate between 1% and 15% to model your own view.
This matters because a large maturity value decades from now buys meaningfully less than the same number would today — the inflation-adjusted figure gives you a more honest sense of what your future corpus will actually be worth to you.
Using the Goal Planner to work backward
Most people start by entering what they can invest and seeing what they'll end up with. The Goal Planner flips this around — useful once you have a specific target in mind, like a retirement corpus or a child's education fund.
Two modes are available:
- Find SIP needed: enter your target amount, an assumed rate, and your timeframe — the tool calculates the monthly SIP required to reach it
- Find years needed: enter your target amount, an assumed rate, and how much you can invest monthly — the tool calculates how many years it will take
Target: ₹2 crore in 20 years, assumed return 12% → the Goal Planner works out the required monthly SIP directly, instead of you needing to guess-and-check with the main calculator.
Comparing two scenarios side by side
Open "Scenario Comparison" to test a change without losing your current numbers. Scenario A is pre-filled with whatever you've already entered; every field in Scenario B is independently editable.
Common comparisons people run here:
- 10% vs 12% assumed return on the same SIP amount and tenure — to see how sensitive your outcome is to the rate assumption alone
- A smaller SIP starting now vs a larger SIP starting later — a direct, numeric way to see the real cost of delaying
- With step-up vs without — same base SIP amount, to isolate exactly how much a step-up adds over the same tenure
Click "Compare Scenarios" to see both side by side in a single table. If you change an input after running a comparison, a notice appears reminding you to refresh the results.
Using the growth schedule
Under "Growth Schedule (Estimated)," three views are available:
Chart view: a year-by-year view of total invested versus estimated portfolio value. Click any point to open a detail panel showing that year's total invested, estimated gains, and estimated portfolio value.
Yearly table: a row-by-row breakdown showing the amount invested that year, cumulative total invested, estimated gains, and estimated portfolio value — a clear view of how the growth curve steepens over time.
Monthly table: the full month-by-month figures, paginated for easier browsing, for anyone who wants to check a specific month's numbers precisely.
A few things worth keeping in mind
All figures here are illustrative estimates, not guarantees. Mutual fund investments are subject to market risk, and past performance doesn't guarantee future results. This calculator doesn't constitute financial advice — for a plan tailored to your specific situation, consult a SEBI-registered investment adviser.
Long tenures carry more uncertainty, not less. It's tempting to treat a 30-year projection as more "locked in" simply because it's a bigger, more impressive-looking number — in reality, the longer the tenure, the more the final figure depends on an assumed rate holding steady for decades, which real markets rarely do in a straight line.
