In the tool: a
retirement-locked instrument — it isn't used to pay for life events; it becomes spendable when you retire. Grows at
8.25%.
Auto step-up is ON by default for EPF, because it's a % of salary and rises automatically as your pay grows.
PPF — Public Provident Fund 7.1% return
Like you're 5: a government savings scheme anyone can open. You put in up to ₹1.5 lakh a year, it earns tax-free interest, and it's locked for 15 years. Totally safe.
Deeper: the rate is set by the government each quarter (recently ~7.1%) and the interest is completely tax-free. The catch is the long lock-in and the ₹1.5L/yr cap.
In the tool: a retirement-locked instrument, grows at 7.1%. The monthly contribution is capped at ₹12,500 (= ₹1.5L/yr).
NPS — National Pension System 10% return
Like you're 5: a retirement account where your money is invested in a mix of shares and bonds. It usually earns more than EPF, but there's a rule: at age 60, you must use at least 40% of it to buy a "pension" (a fixed monthly payout for life), and you get the other 60% as cash.
Deeper: market-linked (you choose the equity/debt mix), so ~9–11% historically — typically more than EPF/PPF but with some bounce. Key quirks: it's locked until 60, and the forced 40% annuitisation means part of it becomes a (taxable, non-inflation-adjusted) pension rather than a spendable lump.
In the tool (this is the most detailed part):
- Grows at 10% while you hold it.
- Locked until age 60 — if you retire before 60, your whole NPS is set aside (it keeps growing) and only "unlocks" at 60.
- At 60, 40% is annuitised → a level annuity paying 6%/yr (this income offsets your withdrawals but never rises with inflation). The other 60% lump sum returns to your spendable corpus.
- Set "NPS annuitised %" to 0 if you want to ignore this.
Liquid vs locked vs illiquid — the three buckets
The tool sorts everything into three buckets, because when you can use money matters as much as how much you have:
| Bucket | What's in it | What it means |
|---|
| Liquid | Equity/MF, Debt, FD | Freely accessible. Funds life events before retirement; receives property-sale proceeds. |
| Retirement-locked | EPF, NPS, PPF | Not used for life events. Becomes spendable when you retire (NPS only at 60). |
| Illiquid | Property / real estate | Grows but can't be spent — until you sell it (then it moves into the liquid corpus) or leave it as inheritance. |
Property & selling it 6% growth (per property)
Like you're 5: a house or land. It usually rises in value slowly, but you can't spend a wall — it's only "real money" when you sell it. You can tell the tool to sell a property at a certain age, and then that cash joins your investments.
Deeper: Indian residential property has appreciated ~5–8% a year long-term — often barely above inflation, and it's illiquid and costly to transact. That's why the tool keeps it separate from your spendable corpus.
In the tool: add any number of properties, each with a value, a growth rate (6% suggested), and an optional Sell age. While held, it grows but isn't spendable (it shows as a green band on the chart). When sold, the after-tax proceeds move into your investment corpus and compound with it. Left unsold, its value passes as inheritance.
Capital-gains tax on a property sale 12.5%
Like you're 5: when you sell something for more than you "paid", the government taxes the profit. So you don't get the full sticker price in your pocket.
Deeper: India taxes long-term capital gains on property. Post-Budget-2024 the headline rate is 12.5% (without indexation) for most cases. The tax applies to the gain, not the whole sale price.
In the tool: each property has an optional "Bought for ₹" field — what you originally paid (the cost basis). When sold, the gain = sale value − bought-for, the 12.5% rate (editable) is applied to that gain, and only the after-tax proceeds enter your corpus. If you leave "Bought for" blank, it assumes you bought at today's value (so only future appreciation is taxed). For a property you've held for years, enter what you actually paid to get the tax right. The tool keeps it simple — flat rate on the gain, no indexation (which Budget 2024 largely removed anyway).
Returns & why these default rates
Every instrument grows at a return rate you can edit. The defaults are conservative-to-moderate long-run nominal (before inflation) estimates for India:
| Instrument | Default | Why |
|---|
| Equity / MF | 12% | Long-run Indian equity ~11–13%; volatile. |
| NPS | 10% | Equity+debt blend; between equity and pure debt. |
| EPF | 8.25% | Govt-set rate, recent years. |
| PPF | 7.1% | Govt-set rate, recent quarters. |
| Debt funds | 7% | High-grade bond-like returns. |
| FD | 6.5% | Current bank deposit rates. |
| Property | 6% | ≈ inflation; Indian residential has been sluggish in real terms. |
These are estimates, not promises. The point of editing them is to stress-test your plan — try lower numbers and see if it still works.
Inflation 6%
Like you're 5: things cost more every year. ₹100 of groceries today might cost ₹106 next year. So you'll need more money each year just to live the same life.
Deeper: India's long-run consumer inflation is ~5–6%. It's the silent enemy of retirement: a number that looks huge today (say ₹5 Cr) buys far less in 30 years.
In the tool: default 6%. Your expenses grow at this rate every year, the FIRE target grows with them, and the "today's value" toggle uses it to translate future rupees back into what they're worth now.
Salary growth & "auto step-up" 8%/yr
Like you're 5: as your salary rises, you can invest a bit more each year. "Auto step-up" means: automatically increase a monthly investment every year, instead of putting in the same amount forever.
Deeper: these two settings work together, not against each other:
- Salary growth %/yr = the rate (how fast a stepped-up contribution rises). Default 8%.
- "Auto step-up" checkbox (per instrument) = the on/off switch for whether that contribution uses the rate.
In the tool: tick auto step-up on a contribution and it grows by the salary-growth % each year (e.g. ₹40k/mo → ₹43.2k next year at 8%). Untick it and it stays flat. EPF is ticked by default (it's a % of salary, so it rises automatically). If you untick everything, salary growth has no effect at all — it's only used to step up contributions (the tool doesn't model take-home pay or tax).
Safe Withdrawal Rate & the "FIRE number" 3.5% SWR
Like you're 5: how much of your pot you can spend in the first year of retirement without it running dry. If you can safely spend 3.5% a year, then you need about 29× your yearly expenses saved up. That 29× is your "FIRE number".
Deeper: the famous US "4% rule" says 4% (= 25× expenses). India typically uses a lower rate — 3 to 3.5% (≈ 29–33×) — because inflation is higher and retirements can be longer. Lower SWR = safer, but a bigger pot needed.
In the tool: default 3.5% (presets for 3% / 3.5% / 4%). The FIRE number = your annual expenses ÷ SWR, recomputed each year as expenses inflate. You'll see it as the dashed lines on the corpus chart.
Lean / Normal / Fat FIRE
Like you're 5: the same idea at three spending levels — a frugal life (Lean), your current life (Normal), or a more lavish life (Fat). Each needs a different size pot.
In the tool: three dashed lines on the chart = your expenses × 0.7 (Lean) / 1.0 (Normal) / 1.5 (Fat), each ÷ SWR. Where your corpus crosses a line, that lifestyle becomes retire-able. The "FIRE scenarios" tab shows the earliest age for each.
Target retirement age vs the earliest you actually can
Like you're 5: the age you'd like to retire might not be the age your money can support. The tool shows both, honestly.
In the tool: you set a target retirement age. The chart and cards show what happens if you retire then — including the corpus running out early ("Falls short") if it can't last. Separately, the tool runs a rigorous check — simulating the full drawdown (with the NPS lock, annuities, life events and property sales) — to find the earliest age at which the money actually survives to life expectancy. That earliest age is the headline "Earliest you can retire".
Life events examples: education @50, marriage @55
Like you're 5: big one-time expenses in the future — a child's college, a wedding, a big trip. They take a chunk out of your savings when they happen.
In the tool: add events with an age and an amount (in today's money; the tool inflates it to the future year). Before retirement they're paid from your liquid bucket (so the corpus rises less that year rather than dropping, if your savings cover it). After retirement they come straight out of the pot (a visible dip). Orange lines on the chart mark them.
Inheritance — what's left at the end
Like you're 5: whatever money and property is left over when the plan ends (at life expectancy) is what you'd pass on.
In the tool: Inheritance = leftover spendable corpus + the value of any unsold property, valued at the end of the plan. Real estate you choose to hold (no sell age) flows entirely into this. Shown as a card and labelled on the chart.
Monte Carlo / sustainability
Like you're 5: the future isn't a smooth line — some years markets crash, some boom. Instead of assuming one steady return, the tool rolls the dice thousands of times to see how often your money survives.
Deeper: the order of good and bad years matters (a crash just after you retire hurts far more than one later — "sequence-of-returns risk"). A single average return hides this.
In the tool: the Sustainability tab re-runs your retirement many times with the post-retirement return randomised (±8% swing) and reports the success probability (how often the money lasts) plus best/median/worst bands. 90%+ is comfortable; below ~75% is risky.
Net worth & liabilities
Like you're 5: everything you own minus everything you owe.
In the tool: Net worth today = all your investment balances + property values − loans (home/personal/car). Loans reduce your net worth but aren't auto-paid-down in the projection — they're a snapshot of where you stand now.
Nominal vs "today's value"
Like you're 5: ₹5 crore in 30 years sounds huge, but it won't buy what ₹5 crore buys today. "Today's value" strips out inflation so the big future numbers make intuitive sense.
In the tool: the "₹ Today's value" toggle in the header switches every figure between nominal (actual future rupees) and today's value (discounted back by inflation). Same plan, two lenses.
Spouse / household
Like you're 5: if you're planning as a couple, both incomes, savings and ages matter — and the money needs to last until the last person, who may be younger.
In the tool: turn on Spouse and enter their age, life expectancy, salary growth, investments and balances. Everything is pooled into one household corpus; expenses, events, property and inheritance are shared. Each person's NPS unlocks at their own 60. The plan must last until the longest-living person's life expectancy — so if your spouse is younger, "your age 93" on the chart may mean "your spouse's 88".
Loans & EMIs that "end"
Like you're 5: a loan means a fixed monthly payment (an EMI) until it's paid off — then the payment stops and that money is free again.
In the tool: each loan has a balance, a rate, and "yrs left." From those it computes the EMI. The loan balance reduces your net worth today. More importantly: if the loan is still running after you retire, the EMI becomes an extra drain on your corpus each year — until it's paid off, then it stops (freeing up cash, often a real boost). EMIs while you're still working are assumed paid from your salary (outside the model), so they don't double-count against your savings. Set "yrs left" to 0 if you only want the loan to reduce net worth without modelling an EMI.
Healthcare — the faster-inflating expense 10%/yr
Like you're 5: medical costs go up much faster than everything else. So we track them in their own bucket that grows quicker.
Deeper: Indian medical inflation runs ~10–14%/yr vs ~6% general. Over a long retirement that gap compounds into a large, often-underestimated cost.
In the tool: enter the medical part of your spending separately (keep the rest in Current expenses, so you don't double-count). It inflates at its own rate — default 10% — and is added on top of living expenses every year, raising both the FIRE number and your retirement withdrawals.
Other retirement income (rent / pension / part-time)
Like you're 5: if money keeps coming in after you retire — rent, a pension, a bit of part-time work — you don't have to pull as much from your savings, so a smaller pot is enough.
In the tool: enter an amount (today's ₹), the age it starts, and whether it grows with inflation. From that age it offsets your withdrawals each year. Tick "grows with inflation" for rent (keeps its real value); untick for a level pension (fixed nominal amount, like the NPS annuity). This is separate from — and adds to — the NPS annuity. More retirement income → earlier feasible FIRE.
All defaults in one table
| Setting | Default | Why |
|---|
| Current age (you & spouse) | 40 | Mid-career starting point. (Money amounts start blank — you fill them in.) |
| Life expectancy (you & spouse) | 85 | Plan conservatively long — running out at 80 is the real risk. |
| Target retirement age | 55 | A common early-retirement target. |
| Inflation | 6% | India long-run CPI. |
| Salary growth | 8% | Typical nominal mid-career raises. |
| Post-retirement return | 8% | More conservative (debt-heavy) than pre-retirement. |
| Safe Withdrawal Rate | 3.5% | ≈29×; safer than US 4% given Indian inflation. |
| Equity / NPS / EPF / Debt / FD / PPF returns | 12 / 10 / 8.25 / 7 / 6.5 / 7.1% | Long-run nominal India estimates. |
| Property growth | 6% | ≈ inflation; sluggish in real terms. |
| Property capital-gains tax | 12.5% | India LTCG on property (post-2024, no indexation). |
| NPS annuitised at 60 | 40% | The mandatory minimum. |
| Annuity rate | 6% | Typical level annuity payout in India. |
| Monte Carlo return volatility | ±8% | Rough post-retirement portfolio swing. |
| Healthcare inflation | 10% | Medical costs rise far faster than general inflation. |
| Other retirement income | 0 (from age 60) | Opt-in: rent/pension/part-time that offsets withdrawals. |
| Loan "yrs left" | 0 | EMI only burdens the corpus if the loan outlasts your working years. |
Disclaimer: This is an educational planning tool, not financial advice. Returns, inflation, tax and rule-of-thumb figures are editable estimates and India-specific assumptions that change over time — verify against current rules and your own situation. All computation runs in your browser.