Project a recurring investment, a recurring withdrawal, or a lump-sum's compound growth. Switch tabs below.
Projection for the currently selected tab and inputs.
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SIP uses the future value of an annuity formula: each monthly investment compounds at the monthly rate for the remaining months, and all installments are summed. Returns are estimates, not guarantees — actual market returns vary and aren't linear.
A step-up SIP increases your monthly contribution by a fixed percentage every 12 months — matching how most people's investable income actually grows, roughly tracking annual salary increments rather than staying flat for decades. A 10% step-up on a ₹10,000/month SIP means you're investing ₹11,000/month in year two, ₹12,100/month in year three, and so on. Because later, larger contributions still get meaningful time to compound, a step-up SIP with the same starting amount and rate produces a noticeably larger maturity value than a flat SIP — the "final month's investment" readout shows how large that monthly contribution has grown to by the end of the term, which is worth sanity-checking against what you'd realistically expect your income to support.
Maturity value is the nominal future amount; real value discounts that by your expected inflation rate to show what it's actually worth in today's purchasing power — real value = maturity ÷ (1 + inflation%)^years. A ₹23 lakh maturity value in 10 years sounds impressive, but if inflation runs at 6% over that period, it buys roughly what ₹12.8 lakh buys today. This is the single most overlooked number in retirement and goal planning: a return that beats inflation grows real wealth, a return that merely matches it treats you to a bigger pile of money that buys the same as before.
The starting balance grows by the monthly rate of return, then the withdrawal is subtracted, month by month, across the full duration. If withdrawals outpace growth, the balance can reach zero before the duration ends — the tool flags this rather than showing a negative balance. SWP is commonly used for retirement income planning: withdrawing less than the fund's growth rate can, in principle, sustain payouts indefinitely, which is the logic behind the "safe withdrawal rate" concept popular in retirement planning worldwide.
Compound growth adds earned interest back into the principal each period, so future interest is calculated on a larger base — that's what "compounding frequency" controls. More frequent compounding (daily vs. annually) produces a slightly higher return at the same stated rate, though the difference shrinks the more frequent compounding already is (daily vs monthly matters far less than monthly vs annual).
No — all three tools are projections based on a constant assumed rate of return you enter. Real investments fluctuate significantly year to year even when long-run averages look smooth, and past or assumed performance doesn't guarantee future results, regardless of which country or asset class you're modeling.
No — the figures shown are pre-tax growth projections. Actual take-home returns depend heavily on how the investment is taxed in your country: the US taxes long-term capital gains at preferential rates (0/15/20% federal brackets) separate from ordinary income; India taxes equity long-term capital gains above ₹1.25 lakh/year at a flat rate, with different rules for debt funds; most of Europe applies a mix of capital gains and dividend withholding tax that varies significantly by country and account type (many EU countries offer tax-advantaged wrapper accounts, similar in spirit to a US 401(k)/IRA or an ISA in the UK). This variance is too large to model generically, so build in your own after-tax adjustment based on your jurisdiction.
12% is a commonly used illustrative assumption for equity mutual funds in India based on long-term historical averages, but actual returns vary year to year and aren't guaranteed. For context, US equities (S&P 500) have historically averaged roughly 9–10% nominal annually over many decades, and European broad-market equities somewhat lower — treat any fixed-rate projection, in any market, as a planning estimate, not a promise, and consider running the numbers at a more conservative rate as a stress test.
It depends on the country and the point in the economic cycle — India has historically run inflation in the 5–7% range over the long term, the US and EU have more commonly targeted around 2% (their central banks' explicit target), though both saw much higher actual inflation in the early 2020s. Use your country's long-run historical average as a starting default, and adjust for your own view of where things are headed.
CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) is the single steady annual rate that would take a starting value to an ending value over a given number of years, smoothing out whatever bumpy path the actual returns took: CAGR = (Ending ÷ Starting)^(1/years) − 1. It's the standard way to compare investments fairly, since it accounts for compounding rather than just averaging year-to-year percentage swings — a simple average can look identical for two investments with wildly different actual outcomes if their swings happen to average out the same way.
CAGR describes the start and end points only — it says nothing about the path between them, so two investments with the same CAGR can have very different volatility along the way (one might have grown smoothly, the other crashed 50% then recovered). It's also not meaningful if the starting value is zero or negative, or across a period where the sign of the value flips (e.g. a business going from profit to loss).
Worked example: investing ₹10,000/month for 10 years at an assumed 12% annual return grows to roughly ₹23.2 lakh, of which ₹12 lakh is your own contributions and about ₹11.2 lakh is projected growth. At 6% assumed inflation over that decade, that ₹23.2 lakh is worth roughly ₹12.9 lakh in today's purchasing power — enter these exact numbers in the SIP tab above to verify both figures. Separately, an investment that grows from ₹1,00,000 to ₹2,50,000 over 5 years has a CAGR of (2.5)^(1/5) − 1 ≈ 20.1% — enter these numbers in the CAGR tab to confirm.
Just want a focused SIP or compound interest projection? Try the dedicated SIP Calculator or Compound Interest Calculator. Saving toward a specific goal or retirement instead? See the Savings Goal Calculator, Retirement Calculator, or work out your FIRE number. Curious what's driving markets right now? See what's behind the 2026 US market records. For fixed income specifically, the Bond Calculator prices yield and maturity, and the Finance Calculator solves any time-value-of-money variable once you know the other four. The same ground is covered chapter by chapter in our book, From Paycheck to Portfolio. For the two questions that usually come first: prepay or invest, and SIP or lump sum. Holding funds rather than cash? See what the fee costs with the Expense Ratio Calculator. For income-focused holdings see the Dividend Calculator. To run the same maths in reverse — what a target future balance is worth in today’s money — use the present value calculator.