A step-up SIP increases your monthly investment every year, so your savings keep pace with your income instead of staying fixed. See how much difference that makes at maturity.
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 step-up SIP from that point on.
| Year | Monthly SIP that year | Opening balance | Invested this year | Est. returns this year | Closing balance |
|---|
Same starting amount, same expected return, same duration — the only difference is whether your monthly contribution stays fixed or steps up every year.
| Step-up | Total invested | Maturity value | Extra vs no step-up |
|---|
A higher step-up grows your wealth faster, but also means a bigger monthly outgo by the end of your tenure — make sure the later-year contribution stays realistic for your expected income growth.
Try one of the classic what-ifs, or set your own two scenarios side by side — same math as the calculator above, just twice. Both include your existing investments from above, if any.
Scenario A
Scenario B
Using the maturity value and year-by-year growth from the calculator above.
Using the step-up SIP above — see whether a monthly withdrawal for living expenses still leaves you ahead, and from when your returns alone start covering it.
A step-up SIP works exactly like a regular SIP, except your monthly contribution itself grows every year - which compounds on top of the market returns.
Starting from your chosen monthly amount, at the start of every new year your contribution increases by your chosen step-up percentage. So a ₹5,000 SIP with a 10% annual step-up becomes ₹5,500/month in year 2, ₹6,050/month in year 3, and so on - each amount then compounds monthly at your expected return for however long it's invested, exactly like a regular SIP.
Monthly amount in year Y = Starting amount × (1 + step-up%)Y−1
Two things stack together here: you're investing more money overall (since your contribution keeps growing), and because a step-up SIP tends to shift more of your investing toward mid-to-late tenure - when your contribution is largest - those larger contributions still get meaningful time to compound if your tenure is long enough. The comparison box above shows exactly how much more your step-up SIP is projected to reach versus a flat SIP of the same starting amount.
Basics
A step-up (or top-up) SIP automatically increases your monthly investment by a fixed percentage every year, usually to match salary increments, instead of investing the same fixed amount for the entire tenure.
No. Like a regular SIP, a step-up SIP invests in mutual funds, which are market-linked. The expected return you enter is an assumption for illustration only, not a guaranteed outcome.
Yearly is the standard, most widely offered option, usually timed to your annual appraisal - it's what most fund houses and brokers support directly. Every 6 months is offered by some platforms and suits people with mid-year bonuses or biannual reviews. A true monthly step-up isn't a standard product feature anywhere. Use the "Every 6 months" / "Every 12 months" toggle above to compare the two realistic options.
Planning & comparison
It depends on your step-up percentage, return rate, and duration, but a step-up SIP typically results in a meaningfully higher maturity value than a fixed SIP with the same starting amount, since your total invested amount is also higher and later, larger contributions still get time to compound.
Many investors set it to roughly match their expected annual salary increment, commonly 5-10%, so their SIP contribution grows in line with their income rather than staying fixed while their earning capacity increases. Use the "Which step-up percentage is best?" table above to see exactly how 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% compare for your numbers.
Use the "Compare two scenarios" section above - it has one-click presets for the classic comparisons (5% vs 15% step-up, 10 vs 20 years, ₹10K vs ₹20K SIP, 10% vs 12% return, 5% vs 7% inflation), or you can set both scenario columns to whatever you want to test directly.
Yes - enter it in the "Existing investments" field at the top of the calculator. It's treated as a lump sum that starts compounding from day one alongside your new step-up SIP, and the results below (including the regular-vs-step-up comparison and the step-up percentage table) all account for it automatically.
Inflation & retirement
Less than the headline number, since ₹1 in the future buys less than ₹1 today. Use the "What's this really worth" section above to see your maturity value converted into today's purchasing power at your assumed inflation rate - that's the number that actually reflects what your goal will cost.
FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) uses a "25 times annual expenses" rule of thumb, based on a 4% sustainable annual withdrawal rate. The "What's this really worth, and when could you retire?" section above checks your year-by-year corpus against that target - inflation-adjusted for the year in question - and tells you which year (if any) within your current plan you'd cross it.
Yes, and it's a real, well-known idea - not a special product feature, just how compounding works. Once your invested balance is large enough, the returns it generates in a month can exceed a modest monthly withdrawal, so you're effectively spending the growth rather than the principal, and the underlying corpus keeps building. This is the same logic behind the "safe withdrawal rate" used in retirement planning (commonly around 4% per year) - stay meaningfully below your return rate, and the balance tends to grow rather than shrink, even with regular withdrawals. Use the "Can you withdraw for expenses while this still grows?" section above to test this against your own numbers.
Two things matter: how big your balance already is when withdrawals start, and how your withdrawal compares to your monthly returns at that point. The "Can you withdraw for expenses while this still grows?" section above finds your exact "crossover point" - the month your returns alone start covering the withdrawal - and clearly warns you if your settings would run the corpus to zero before maturity, so you're not guessing.
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 →Monthly mutual fund investments, plus unlimited one-time lumpsum top-ups on any date during your tenure.
Open →Withdraw a fixed amount every month from a lump sum, and see exactly how long it lasts — or when it runs out.
Open →