Find out how long your retirement savings can sustain your lifestyle — adjusted for Indian inflation
From the 1998 Trinity Study (USA): Withdraw 4% of your starting corpus in year 1. Then increase that rupee amount by inflation every year after.
Common mistake: People think it means "withdraw 4% of the current balance each year." It doesn't. It's 4% of the initial amount, adjusted for inflation.
Why India is different: The original study assumed ~3% inflation and ~10% returns. India has 6–7% inflation, which eats into your real return. The safe rate here is lower.
Total Savings (Corpus) — The lump sum you can access over time. Include mutual funds, stocks, FDs, savings account balance, PF/EPF balance (check UMANG app or your passbook), NPS corpus, and PPF. Most people undercount by 20–40% because they forget PF and NPS — these are real money you'll eventually access.
Expected Return — The annual growth rate on your investments. Diversified equity mutual funds in India have historically returned 10–14% CAGR over 10+ years. Debt funds or FDs return 6–8%. Use 10–11% for a realistic blended estimate.
Monthly Expense — Your total household spend per month. Include rent/EMI, groceries, utilities, school fees, insurance premiums, medical expenses, and any SIP contributions you plan to continue.
Inflation — How fast prices rise. India's CPI inflation has averaged ~6% over the last decade. Metro cities tend to be 6–7%, smaller towns 4.5–5.5%. This makes your expenses grow every year even if your lifestyle stays the same.
Monthly Income — Any regular income you have during this period — salary, consulting, freelancing, rental income, pension. Even a small income dramatically extends your corpus because it reduces the net withdrawal.
Many Indian families feel financially anxious because they only count their bank balance and mutual funds. But a typical middle-class household with 10–15 years of working experience often has ₹30–80 lakh in property and ₹5–15 lakh in gold sitting at home — wealth that doesn't show up in any app.
The "Your real safety net" section in the calculator lets you enter your property, gold, vehicle, and other asset values. These aren't money you withdraw monthly (so they don't change the drawdown calculation), but seeing your true net worth alongside your spendable savings gives a much more complete — and often reassuring — picture of where you stand.
1. Reduce your withdrawal rate. Moving from a ₹2L/month metro lifestyle to a ₹1L/month tier-2 city with your own house can 2–3× your corpus lifespan. The presets let you see this instantly.
2. Earn even a small income. ₹50–75K/month from consulting, freelancing, or rental income during the first 10–15 years can turn a finite corpus into a permanent one. The corpus only needs to beat the gap between your expenses and income.
Taxes on capital gains (which reduce effective returns by 1–2%), sequence-of-returns risk (a bad market year early on hurts more than later), large one-time expenses (medical emergencies, weddings), and real-world return volatility. Use this for directional planning, not precise predictions.