Enter your monthly investment, expected annual return, and duration. PaisaCalc works out your estimated maturity value and a year-by-year growth breakdown.
Got a bonus, maturity payout, or any one-time amount you added along the way? Add each one below with the date you invested it — we'll grow it alongside your SIP from that point on.
| Year | Opening balance | Invested this year | Est. returns this year | Closing balance |
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Work backward from a target amount to the monthly SIP that gets you there — whether it's a round number or a specific life goal.
Using the monthly amount, return, and duration from the calculator above — here's what starting late actually costs you.
Equity mutual fund gains are taxed as capital gains, not at your income slab — the rate depends on how long each investment was held.
Your fund app might show this as "XIRR" — the actual annualized return your money earned, accounting for exactly when each rupee went in. Check it here from your own numbers, not a projection.
A SIP grows through two things working together: a fresh contribution every month, and compounding on everything you've invested so far.
Assuming your investment happens at the start of each month and compounds monthly at your expected rate:
Maturity Value = P × [((1+r)n − 1) / r] × (1+r)
Where P is your monthly investment, r is your expected monthly return (annual rate ÷ 12 ÷ 100), and n is your total number of monthly installments. This is the same formula used by most SIP calculators - each month's contribution compounds for however long it's been invested, and all of it adds up at maturity.
Unlike your EMI or FD calculators, a SIP's actual growth depends entirely on real market performance - the rate you enter here is just an assumption for planning purposes. Real mutual fund returns fluctuate year to year, and can be negative in some years even if the long-term average is positive. Use this to get a feel for how contribution amount, rate, and time interact, not as a guaranteed outcome.
Basics
A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is a fixed amount automatically debited from your bank account and invested into a mutual fund on a set date every month (or other interval). Each installment buys units of the fund at that day's price - over time, your total holding grows both from fresh contributions and from the market value of everything you've already invested.
A SIP invests in mutual funds, which are market-linked - unlike a Fixed Deposit, there's no guarantee, and your investment can genuinely lose value, especially over short periods. The "expected return" you enter here is an assumption for illustration, not a promise. What SIPs do reduce is timing risk, since rupee cost averaging spreads your entry price across ups and downs rather than betting on one moment - but that's a risk-reduction tool, not a safety guarantee.
Since you invest a fixed amount every month regardless of the market price, you automatically buy more units when prices are low and fewer when prices are high. Over time this averages out your purchase cost - one of the reasons SIPs are often recommended over trying to time a lump sum investment.
SIPs suit people investing out of regular income who want to reduce timing risk through rupee cost averaging. A lump sum can outperform a SIP if invested right before a sustained market rise, but carries more timing risk. Many investors use both approaches for different money.
A step-up (or top-up) SIP increases your monthly investment periodically, often annually in line with salary increments, instead of staying fixed. This calculator assumes a fixed monthly amount throughout; a step-up SIP would reach a higher value for the same starting amount. Try the Step-Up SIP Calculator to see exactly how much more.
Each does something different, so "better" depends on the job. FDs and RDs are safer and predictable but usually lag inflation after tax; PPF is government-backed with tax benefits but has a 15-year lock-in; gold hedges currency and crisis risk but pays no income and can be volatile over shorter windows; real estate is illiquid and needs large capital but can appreciate well long-term. A SIP into equity mutual funds generally offers the highest long-term growth potential of these, with correspondingly higher short-term volatility and no guarantee. Most well-diversified plans use several of these together rather than picking just one.
Goals & planning
It depends on your time horizon and assumed return, but as a reference point: at an assumed 12% annual return over 20 years, roughly ₹10,000/month gets you to about ₹1 crore. Halve the target and the required SIP roughly halves too - ₹25 lakh needs about ₹2,500/month over the same period. Use the "How much SIP do you need for your goal?" section above with your own target, timeline, and return assumption for an exact figure.
Your "FIRE number" is the corpus size where withdrawing from it can sustainably cover your living expenses indefinitely - commonly estimated as 25 times your annual expenses, based on a 4% annual withdrawal rate. For example, ₹60,000/month in expenses (₹7.2 lakh/year) implies a FIRE number of roughly ₹1.8 crore. Use the "Financial freedom (FIRE)" option in the goal calculator above to work out the monthly SIP that gets you there.
Yes - use the "House" option in the goal-based calculator above (it works the same way for a flat, land, or any real estate purchase; just adjust the target cost). One caveat: if you're less than about 3-5 years from the purchase, consider shifting some of that money to a lower-volatility option (short-duration debt fund, RD, or FD) as you get closer, since a market dip right before you need the money can hurt a lot more than it would with a longer runway to recover.
Yes, but bump up the inflation assumption in the goal calculator - foreign education costs tend to rise faster than domestic education (often 8-12%+), and if the fees are in a foreign currency, historical INR depreciation against currencies like the USD (roughly 3-4%/year on average) adds another layer on top. A reasonable starting assumption for a foreign education goal is 10-12% combined inflation, higher than the calculator's 8% default for domestic education.
Generally no. Equity SIPs are built for goals several years away, where short-term volatility has time to average out. Money you might need on short notice (an emergency fund) or within a year or two (a near-term vacation) is better kept somewhere liquid and stable - a savings account, liquid mutual fund, or a short-tenure FD - so a market dip doesn't force you to withdraw at a loss right when you need the cash. Use the FD Calculator for that kind of near-term, capital-safe goal instead.
There's no fixed threshold, but as a rough guide: under 5 years, equity markets can realistically be down at exactly the wrong moment, so returns are less predictable; 5-10 years gives more room to smooth out a bad patch; 10+ years historically gives the most reliable outcomes for equity-heavy SIPs in India. No duration is ever "too long" - compounding keeps working the entire time - so the real question isn't whether a tenure is long enough in the abstract, it's whether it matches when you'll actually need the money.
Yes, with enough time, amount, and consistency - the math is the same regardless of the size of the number. Use the "How much SIP do you need for your goal?" section above, pick "Custom amount" for a specific crorepati-style target or "Financial freedom (FIRE)" for a sustainable-income goal, and it'll show you the actual monthly SIP required at your assumed return. The number is often more achievable over 15-20+ years than people expect, precisely because of compounding - and also why starting late costs so much (see "What does delaying your SIP actually cost?" above).
Returns & risk
There's no guaranteed number since SIPs are market-linked, but many planning tools use 10-12% for equity mutual funds as a long-term illustrative assumption, based on historical index averages - lower (7-9%) for hybrid or debt-heavy funds, higher only for aggressive, higher-risk portfolios. If actual returns come in lower, your maturity value falls short of the estimate; the honest fix is to revisit your monthly amount or tenure periodically against your actual returns, rather than assuming the initial projection will hold.
Only if your return outpaces inflation. Your "real" (inflation-adjusted) return is roughly your assumed return minus the inflation rate - so a 12% SIP return against 6% inflation leaves you about 6% richer in real purchasing power each year, while an FD at 7% against 6% inflation barely keeps up. ₹1 crore 20 years from now will buy meaningfully less than ₹1 crore today; always think in terms of what your goal costs at the time you'll need it, not today's price.
Practical & mechanics
Missing one or two auto-debits usually just means those months' contributions weren't made - most fund houses don't penalize you, though your bank may charge a bounced-mandate fee. You can typically pause a SIP for a few months (many platforms offer a formal "pause" facility), stop it entirely, or restart a fresh one later. The main effect of gaps is simply less time in the market for that money, which is why the "cost of delay" section above is useful - a paused SIP is functionally similar to a delayed start for the skipped months.
Most mutual fund SIPs (in regular equity, debt, or hybrid funds) have no lock-in and can be redeemed, fully or partially, on any business day. The main exceptions are ELSS tax-saving funds (3-year lock-in per installment) and ULIPs (typically 5 years). Redeeming early on non-ELSS funds may still trigger a short-term capital gains rate or a small exit load if held under a year - check your specific fund's exit load terms.
A common starting rule of thumb is to invest 20-30% of your take-home income across all goals combined, adjusting up if you start young or down if other obligations (loans, rent) are heavy - there's no single correct number, so treat it as a planning anchor, not a rule. On frequency: monthly is the standard and most widely offered option; quarterly, weekly, or daily SIPs (where available) invest the same total amount just split differently, and the difference in outcome is small - a few tenths of a percent either way from how early each rupee gets invested, not something to plan around.
This calculator doesn't recommend specific funds - that's a call for a registered investment advisor, not a calculator, since the right fund depends on your risk appetite, goal, tax situation, and existing portfolio. As general starting points many beginners consider: broad index funds or large-cap funds for lower volatility, keeping the expense ratio low, and matching the fund category (equity, hybrid, debt) to how soon you'll need the money. Past performance shown by any fund is not a guarantee of future results.
Many funds allow SIPs starting from ₹100-500/month, though ₹500-1,000 is more common as a practical minimum. Yes, you can run as many SIPs as you like across different funds or even the same fund - many investors run separate SIPs per goal (retirement, house, education) so each one is easy to track independently, which also makes it simple to use the goal calculator above for each one separately.
Changing the amount usually means canceling your existing mandate and setting up a new one (some platforms support this in-app without a fresh mandate) - a step-up SIP automates this specific case for planned annual increases. Changing the debit date typically also requires a new mandate. Moving money from one fund to another ("switching" or an STP, systematic transfer plan) is different from a SIP itself and is usually done directly through your fund house or platform - each of these is a product mechanic that varies by provider, so check your specific app or registrar (CAMS/KFintech) for the exact process.
Eight free tools, all built the same way — exact date-based math, year-by-year breakdowns, and no signup.
Simple or compound interest by exact date range, with a year-by-year breakdown and chart.
Open →Monthly EMI for home, car, or personal loans — with a full amortization schedule you can expand month by month.
Open →Recurring Deposit maturity value from monthly installments, with the same quarterly compounding banks use.
Open →Public Provident Fund maturity value over the 15-year lock-in, at the current government-set rate.
Open →Fixed Deposit maturity value with quarterly compounding by default, matching how Indian banks actually calculate it.
Open →Increase your SIP every 6 or 12 months in line with salary hikes — and see exactly how much more you end up with.
Open →Withdraw a fixed amount every month from a lump sum, and see exactly how long it lasts — or when it runs out.
Open →