Investing calculator
SIP Calculator
A monthly investment does very little for several years and then does almost everything. This projects where a SIP could reach, and shows the year the growth finally overtakes what you put in.
Your numbers
An assumption, not a forecast. Try it two points lower before you rely on it.
Raise the instalment each year in line with your income. Zero keeps it flat.
Projected value after 15 years
Projection, not a promise₹75,68,640
You would put in ₹27,00,000. The remaining ₹48,68,640 is growth, assuming 12% a year on average.
- You invest
- ₹27,00,000
- Estimated returns
- ₹48,68,640
- Total gain
- 18%
Contributions against growth
Growth overtakes your own contributions in year 11. Everything before that is the entry fee.
- Amount invested
- Estimated returns
Split at maturity
How much of the final figure you contributed, and how much compounding added.
Year by year
Contributions, growth and total value at the end of each year.
| Year | Invested | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | ₹1,80,000 | ₹1,92,140 |
| Year 2 | ₹3,60,000 | ₹4,08,648 |
| Year 3 | ₹5,40,000 | ₹6,52,615 |
| Year 4 | ₹7,20,000 | ₹9,27,523 |
| Year 5 | ₹9,00,000 | ₹12,37,295 |
| Year 6 | ₹10,80,000 | ₹15,86,355 |
The arithmetic
How this calculator works
No proprietary model, no adjustment factor we will not name. This is the standard formula, applied exactly as written.
FV = P × [ ((1 + i)ⁿ − 1) ÷ i ] × (1 + i)
where i = expected annual return ÷ 12 ÷ 100
n = number of monthly instalments
With an annual step-up, the instalment is raised each
year and the balance rolled forward month by month:
balance = (balance + instalment) × (1 + i)- P
- The monthly instalment
- i
- Expected return for one month, as a decimal
- n
- Total number of instalments
- FV
- Projected value at the end of the period
- The trailing (1 + i) treats the SIP as an annuity due — the instalment is invested at the start of each month and earns for that month. This is the convention Indian fund houses use, so the figures here match the ones on a fund's own calculator.
- A step-up cannot be expressed in closed form, so the projection is stepped forward one month at a time. The arithmetic is identical; only the method differs.
Worked example
The same maths, on real numbers
₹15,000 a month for fifteen years, at an assumed 12% a year — with and without a 10% annual step-up.
| Monthly investment | ₹15,000 |
|---|---|
| Assumed return | 12% p.a. |
| Period | 15 years |
| Total invested | ₹27,00,000 |
| Estimated returns | ₹48,68,640 |
| Projected value | ₹75,68,640 |
| With a 10% annual step-up | ₹1,30,25,774 |
Growth is nearly double the contributions — but almost all of that separation happens after year eight. Someone who stops at year six sees a portfolio barely ahead of a deposit and concludes the whole thing was oversold. The step-up figure is the more useful lesson: raising the instalment with your income adds more than any plausible improvement in the assumed return, and it is entirely within your control.
What this calculator assumes
- Returns are assumed to arrive smoothly at the rate you enter. Real markets do not behave this way.
- Every instalment is invested on time, at the start of the month, and nothing is withdrawn.
- Any step-up is applied once at the start of each new year.
- Dividends and payouts, where they exist, are reinvested.
What it deliberately leaves out
- Expense ratios, exit loads and transaction costs are not deducted. Your realised return will be lower than the headline figure.
- Tax on redemption is not applied. Long-term capital gains on equity funds are taxable above the annual exemption.
- Sequence risk is ignored. A poor run of years near the end, when the balance is largest, costs far more in rupees than the same run early on.
Questions about the sip calculation
Anything you enter is an assumption, not a forecast, and the honest approach is to test a range rather than pick a number. Run your figure, then run it two points lower. If the decision holds at the lower figure, the plan is robust. If it only works at the higher one, you are relying on the market rather than on the saving.
Mathematically, a lump sum wins more often, because money invested earlier spends longer compounding. Practically, a SIP wins for most people, because it matches how salary arrives and removes the timing decision — which is where most of the damage gets done. If you have a windfall and a long horizon, staggering it over six to twelve months is a reasonable compromise.
Far more than it looks. Raising a ₹15,000 SIP by 10% each year over fifteen years turns roughly ₹76 lakh into roughly ₹1.30 crore on the same assumed return — because each increase compounds for the remaining years. It also keeps your investing in step with your income instead of frozen at whatever you could afford when you started.
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