How much do you actually need to retire in India? (the number, no vibes)

KitnaSIP Team·17 Jul 2026

Most people guess their retirement number off their salary — “I earn well, so I’ll need a fat corpus.” Plot hole: retirement isn’t paid for by the salary you’ll no longer earn. It’s paid against the expenses you’ll still have. Fix that one framing and the whole thing gets clearer.

Step 1: start with what you actually spend

Ignore your paycheck. What does your household spend in a year right now? That’s the number your corpus has to cover — bumped up for the fact that by the time you retire, everything costs more (yeah, inflation again, it’s the villain of every money story).

Step 2: the rough corpus rule

A popular guideline: your retirement corpus should be around 25–30× your annual expenses at retirement. The logic — pull out roughly 3–4% a year, leave the rest invested, and it can last decades.

So if you expect to spend ~₹12 lakh a year (future money) when you retire:

• 25× → ₹3 crore
• 30× → ₹3.6 crore

These are rules of thumb, not guarantees — your real number depends on how long retirement lasts, other income (rent, EPF, pension), and your risk comfort.

Step 3: inflation hits twice (this is where people fumble)

1. Your future expenses > today’s. ₹6 lakh/year of spending now could be ~₹19 lakh/year in 20 years at 6% inflation. 😵
2. Your corpus has to keep growing through retirement, because prices don’t stop rising the day you stop working.

This is exactly why “₹1 crore and I’m set” is usually cap for anyone with decades left on the clock.

Step 4: reverse-engineer the SIP

Once you’ve got a realistic corpus + a timeline, the question flips to: what monthly SIP, at a sensible assumed return, gets me there? The longer your runway, the smaller that number — compounding rewards starting early way more than investing big.

The part calculators skip

Knowing the SIP you need is half the story. The other half: can you actually afford it from your monthly surplus — and if not, what do you tweak (time, target, or savings rate)? That gap is the whole reason the calculator below exists.

Educational information only — not investment advice. Figures are illustrative assumptions, not guarantees, and KitnaSIP does not recommend specific mutual funds. Please consult a SEBI-registered investment adviser before investing.