How much SIP do I need for retirement?

Work backwards from a target corpus. Estimate what you will spend in your first year of retirement, inflate that to your retirement year, and aim for a corpus of roughly 25 to 30 times that annual figure — a common rule of thumb for a withdrawal rate that can last through retirement. Then use the SIP calculator to find the monthly SIP, ideally with a yearly step-up, that reaches that corpus in the years you have left.

Time does most of the heavy lifting. Starting a decade earlier can dramatically cut the monthly amount you need, because compounding has more years to work on every rupee. A step-up — raising your SIP by a fixed percentage each year as your income grows — closes much of the gap without needing a large starting amount, which is why it is usually more realistic than one big SIP from day one.

For a long horizon, a diversified equity core such as flexi cap, multi cap or low-cost index funds suits the growth phase. As retirement approaches, shift gradually toward debt and hybrid funds over the last five to seven years so a late market crash cannot wreck the corpus you spent decades building — a glide path rather than a single switch. This is research, not investment advice.