How Much Retirement Corpus Do You Need?

Estimate Spending Before Choosing a Corpus

There is no universal retirement corpus. A calculation needs spending, years until retirement, the remaining retirement horizon, inflation, returns and other income. These are explicit assumptions, not predictions.

The Retirement Readiness Planner uses spending categories with editable retirement weights. Essentials carry at 100%; the other starting weights are illustrations. Include housing payments if they continue, and enter healthcare and dependent support separately.

Inflate Today's Spending

The compound-inflation calculation is:

Future monthly expense = today's retirement monthly expense × (1 + assumed annual inflation)^years until retirement

For example, ₹60,000 per month over 25 years at an assumed 6% annual inflation becomes approximately ₹2,57,512 per month. The 6% is an example, not a statement about current or future Indian inflation.

Use multiple inflation assumptions and durations. The example does not establish a recommended corpus.

Match the Corpus Calculation to the Tool

The readiness planner funds each year's expenses at the beginning of that year. It subtracts the entered annual pension, held flat in nominal rupees, and discounts any positive shortfall using the assumed post-retirement return. It then adds the entered one-time buffers, inflated to retirement.

Required corpus = sum of discounted annual spending shortfalls + one-time buffers at retirement

The Retirement Withdrawal Scenario Explorer uses month-end withdrawals, monthly equivalents of effective annual returns, and inflation increases on each annual anniversary. It has no pension-income or source-by-source accumulation model.

These are different models. Even with similar-looking spending and return inputs, annual upfront funding and monthly withdrawals can give different required corpus amounts. A comparison must align timing, inflation, years, buffers and pension treatment first.

Withdrawal-Rate Ratios Are Illustrations

Dividing annual spending by a chosen starting withdrawal percentage is a simple ratio, not the calculation used by the readiness planner. For annual spending of ₹30.8 lakh:

None of these percentages is certified safe for an Indian household. This table does not model longevity, inflation, taxation or the sequence of investment returns. It is not a recommended target range.

Compare Projected Resources Without Double Counting

The planner projects each entered balance and its contributions. EPF, NPS and superannuation balances may be subject to access, annuity or tax restrictions; projected value is not the same as freely withdrawable money.

Pension entered as income reduces modeled withdrawals. It must not also represent money counted as a fully available balance. Rental income and property values need separate assumptions about costs, vacancies, taxes and realizability; the tool is not a property-income model.

Understand a Positive Gap

A shortfall is required corpus minus projected resources, floored at zero. Before retirement, the additional monthly amount is a starting contribution under the entered return and contribution-growth assumptions. It is not necessarily a constant SIP and is not an investment recommendation.

At or after retirement, no working-years runway remains. The planner displays the immediate corpus gap. For an already-retired person it models remaining years from current age, not years that have already passed.

Stress-Test the Estimate

Compare longer life, higher inflation, lower returns and an earlier retirement date. Fixed-return scenarios do not simulate market volatility, sequence risk, tax or fees. A modeled surplus is not a guarantee that money will last.

For a broader review workflow, see Retirement Planning in India. For implementation conventions, see the disclosures beside the planner's scenarios.

This is educational arithmetic, not personalized financial or investment advice.