Why is the corpus so much larger than I expected?

Because expenses keep rising after you retire while the corpus earns only a modest real return. Discounting at the nominal rate instead of the real one is the usual reason other estimates come out lower, and it is the wrong way to do it.

What age should I plan until?

Longer than you expect to need. Planning to eighty-five and living to ninety-two is a bad way to discover the limit of a plan. Some people avoid the question entirely by targeting a corpus that is never drawn down.

Should the return be the same before and after retiring?

No. Portfolios usually shift towards stability as retirement approaches, so the second figure should be lower. The gap between them is one of the more consequential assumptions here.

What is the real rate the tool prints?

The return after inflation has been removed, computed properly rather than by subtraction. It is often startlingly small, and it is the number that actually governs how long a corpus lasts.

Retirement Calculator

The corpus a retirement needs, and the monthly amount that builds it.

Everything runs inside your browser. Your files never leave your device.

Result

The result appears here as you type.

Ask about Retirement Calculator

Questions about what this tool does, which option to pick, or what it can and cannot handle.

The question you type here is sent to an AI provider to be answered — your files and whatever you put in the tool above are not, and the assistant cannot see them. Answers are generated and can be wrong. The tool itself is not guessing: it runs deterministic code on your device.

About the Retirement Calculator

Retirement planning has two halves and most calculators only do one properly. The first is working out what the corpus needs to be; the second is working out the monthly amount that builds it. This does both, and it uses a real rate of return for the drawdown half, which is where the usual arithmetic goes wrong.

Here is why that matters. Once retired, your expenses keep rising with inflation while the corpus earns a nominal return. Discounting the withdrawals at the nominal rate ignores that rising cost and can understate the corpus needed by a third or more. Using the real rate — the return after inflation is stripped out — models a corpus that keeps pace with a cost of living that will not stand still. The tool prints the real rate it derived so you can see how small it is: seven per cent against six per cent inflation is under one per cent in real terms, which is a sobering figure and an accurate one.

The expense figure is stated in today's money and inflated to the retirement date, which is the only way to ask the question sensibly. Sixty thousand a month today at six per cent inflation is roughly three and a half lakh a month in thirty years — a number that looks absurd until you remember what sixty thousand bought thirty years ago.

The corpus is built to reach zero at the age you set. Outliving that age is the risk this does not cover, which is the argument for targeting a corpus that generates income without depleting, or for buying an annuity with part of it.

How to use it

1Enter your age, the age you plan to retire, and the age to plan until.
2State your monthly expense in today's money — the tool inflates it for you.
3Set separate returns for building and for retirement; the second should be lower.
4Add whatever is already saved, then read the corpus and the monthly amount together.

Questions

Why is the corpus so much larger than I expected?: Because expenses keep rising after you retire while the corpus earns only a modest real return. Discounting at the nominal rate instead of the real one is the usual reason other estimates come out lower, and it is the wrong way to do it.
What age should I plan until?: Longer than you expect to need. Planning to eighty-five and living to ninety-two is a bad way to discover the limit of a plan. Some people avoid the question entirely by targeting a corpus that is never drawn down.
Should the return be the same before and after retiring?: No. Portfolios usually shift towards stability as retirement approaches, so the second figure should be lower. The gap between them is one of the more consequential assumptions here.
What is the real rate the tool prints?: The return after inflation has been removed, computed properly rather than by subtraction. It is often startlingly small, and it is the number that actually governs how long a corpus lasts.