How Much Retirement Corpus Do You Need in India?

Step 1: current spending

Start with annual household expenses, remove costs that end before retirement and add healthcare, travel, rent and dependent support likely to remain.

Step 2: inflate

Future expense = current expense × (1 + inflation)^years. Use separate assumptions where healthcare inflation may differ from general living costs.

Step 3: fund withdrawals

Model yearly cash flows through a long life, not a fixed return forever. Use conservative post-tax returns and test bad early-market sequences.

Illustration

If today’s annual retirement spending is ₹6 lakh and retirement is 20 years away, 6% inflation implies about ₹19.2 lakh in the first year. This is an assumption, not a forecast.

Improve resilience

Include pension and rent conservatively, keep contingency and healthcare buffers, diversify, rebalance, review yearly and plan nominations and estate documents.

Action checklist

1. Write down the goal, amount and deadline.
2. Check liquidity, risk, costs, tax and exit restrictions.
3. Use only regulated intermediaries and original documents.
4. Record assumptions and review after major life or rule changes.

Sources and methodology

We prioritised official Indian regulator, tax authority and industry-body material. Numerical examples are illustrations, not forecasts. Product rates, limits and taxation should be rechecked on the transaction date.

• SEBI Investor — Introduction to Mutual Funds (accessed 2026-09-26)