If you have 20 years, roughly Rs.10,100 a month at a 12% assumed annual return gets you to Rs.1 crore. Start at 40 with 15 years to go and it is closer to Rs.20,000 a month. The single biggest lever is not the fund you pick — it is when you start.
Here is the full picture, and how to work out the number that is actually yours.
Assuming a 12% annual return (a long-term equity assumption, not a promise):
| Years you have | Monthly SIP needed |
|---|---|
| 25 years | Rs.5,300 |
| 20 years | Rs.10,100 |
| 15 years | Rs.20,000 |
| 10 years | Rs.43,500 |
| 5 years | Rs.1,22,400 |
Read that again. With 25 years, Rs.5,300 a month does it. With 10 years, you need more than eight times as much every month for the same Rs.1 crore. Time does the heavy lifting; you just have to give it time.
The table above uses 12%. Markets do not deliver a smooth 12% every year — some years are +25%, some are -15%. Over a long enough period, a diversified equity portfolio in India has historically landed in that range, but it is an assumption, not a guarantee.
If you would rather plan conservatively at 10%, the 20-year number rises from Rs.10,100 to about Rs.13,200 a month. Planning at a lower return means you aim higher and are pleasantly surprised if markets do better — a safer way to plan than assuming the best case.
A single "Rs.1 crore" target is almost never how real life works. You do not have one goal — you have several, each on its own timeline:
Each of these needs a different monthly amount and a different mix of equity, debt and gold — a goal 4 years away should not sit in the same aggressive equity allocation as one 20 years away, because a market fall right before you need the money is a real risk.
That is the part a single calculator cannot do. It gives you one number for one goal at one return. It does not tell you whether all your goals fit inside your actual monthly surplus, or which one to fund first if they do not.
The planner on this site does the full version: you enter your income, expenses and goals, and it works out the monthly SIP for every goal at once, splits each one into the right equity/debt/gold mix for its timeline, and tells you plainly whether the whole plan fits your surplus — and what to adjust if it does not.
It takes about 6 steps, and you can link the SIPs to real NSE mandates from inside the app once the plan is ready.
Q. Is 12% a realistic return to assume for a SIP?
A. For a long-term (10+ year) diversified equity portfolio in India, 12% has been a reasonable historical assumption, but it is not guaranteed and shorter periods can be very different. Many planners use 10-11% to stay conservative.
Q. What if I cannot afford the monthly SIP for my timeline?
A. You have three levers: extend the timeline, lower the target, or increase the SIP over time with a step-up (raising it ~10% a year as your income grows). A step-up SIP can cut the starting amount by a third or more.
Q. Should the whole SIP go into equity?
A. Only for long horizons. For a goal within about 3 years, most of it should sit in debt or a liquid fund so a market fall does not hit you right before you need the money. The right split changes as the goal gets closer.
Q. Lump sum or SIP for Rs.1 crore?
A. If you already have a lump sum, investing it and topping up with a SIP is usually better than waiting. If you do not, a SIP is simply the disciplined way to build the corpus from monthly income — and it averages your purchase price across market ups and downs.
Plan Our Future · AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor (ARN-360754). Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.