Retire-in-India corpus calculator

Short answer: The corpus you need to retire in India depends on your annual expenses, inflation, and a safe withdrawal rate. A 4 percent withdrawal rule implies roughly 25 times your annual expenses. This tool sizes the corpus for your target retirement age and spending.

Every returning NRI asks the same question and gets a different answer from every forum: is three crore enough, is five, is fifty lakh a month too little. The reason the answers scatter is that people argue about the corpus without agreeing on the assumptions underneath it, the inflation, the return, how many years in retirement.

This calculator puts the assumptions on the table and does the arithmetic. Tell it what a comfortable month costs today and when you plan to stop working, and it inflates that to your retirement date, sizes the corpus that funds it, and tells you the monthly saving to get there. Change any assumption and watch the number move.

What it does

The corpus you need, inflation-adjusted to your retirement date
The monthly saving to reach it, net of what you have already
Cross-checked against the 25x and 30x rules of thumb
Every assumption exposed and editable: inflation, returns, years
A downloadable report you can take to an adviser

Why the forum answers never agree

Search any NRI forum for "how much to retire in India" and you get a shouting match. Three crore, says one. Not a chance, says the next, you need ten. Fifty thousand a month is plenty, says a third, and gets told he has clearly never paid a hospital bill. Everyone is right, and everyone is arguing past each other, because they are quoting a corpus without stating the assumptions that produced it.

A corpus is an output, not an opinion. It falls out of four inputs: what a month costs you today, how long until you stop working, how long retirement lasts, and what inflation and returns do in between. Fix those and the number stops being a debate. The calculator above asks for exactly those inputs and shows the corpus, the monthly saving to reach it, and the assumptions it used, so you can argue with the assumptions instead of the answer.

The model, in plain terms

Three steps.

Inflate today's expense to your retirement date. A comfortable month that costs ₹1.2 lakh today costs far more in fifteen years. At 6 percent inflation it roughly doubles every twelve years.
Size the corpus that funds that inflating expense. The corpus has to pay a withdrawal that itself grows with inflation, for all the years of retirement, while what is left keeps earning. The model uses a real return, the return above inflation, to do this honestly. A pile that earns 8 percent while prices rise 6 percent is really growing at under 2 percent, and the maths respects that.
Back out the monthly saving. Given years to retirement and an expected return, what monthly investment reaches the corpus, after crediting what you have already saved.

As a sanity check, the tool also shows the 25x and 30x rules: 25 times your annual retirement expense implies a 4 percent withdrawal, 30 times implies a safer 3.3 percent. For a long Indian retirement with higher inflation, leaning toward 30x is the conservative read.

The assumptions that decide everything

Inflation. The single most powerful lever. Six percent is the top of the RBI's 4-plus-or-minus-2 target band and a safer household default than 4, because lifestyle and, above all, medical costs tend to outrun the headline. Move this from 4 to 7 and the corpus can swell by half.
Return before retirement. What your savings compound at while you are still working. Ten percent reflects a long-run equity-tilted Indian portfolio, not a guarantee.
Return during retirement. Usually lower, because a retiree holds more in debt for stability. Eight percent is a reasonable balanced assumption.
Years in retirement. Plan long. Underestimating your own lifespan is the expensive mistake. Thirty years is a sensible default, more if you retire early.

The tool defaults to the conservative end and lets you change every one, because the honest version of this calculation is not a single number, it is a range you can see move.

The NRI layer the generic calculators miss

Two things make a returning NRI's retirement different, and no generic calculator handles them.

First, the RNOR window. For two to three years after you move back, you are Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident, and your foreign income and foreign-held assets stay outside the Indian tax net. That is the window to realise foreign gains, restructure overseas holdings, and move money before worldwide taxation begins. Check where you fall with the residential status calculator.

Second, currency and healthcare. If you are saving in dollars or dirhams and spending in rupees, the exchange rate at the time you convert matters, and a weakening rupee cuts both ways. And medical inflation in India runs ahead of general inflation, so a separate healthcare buffer on top of the corpus is prudent, not paranoid.

Where 66 MG Road fits

We do not manage your investments; a SEBI-registered adviser does that. What we handle is the property leg of a return: the India flat you rent out on the way to retirement, the sale and repatriation if you decide to free the capital, and the paperwork around the RNOR window. If your retirement plan leans on an Indian property earning or selling well, that is the part we run, with dated proof and billing at actuals, in Delhi NCR and Bangalore. See the services or request a proposal.

Common questions

How much do I need to retire comfortably in India?

As a rule of thumb, 25 to 30 times your annual expense at retirement. The exact figure depends on your monthly cost of living, years to retirement, expected inflation, and returns. This calculator inflates today's expense to your retirement date, sizes the corpus with a real inflation-adjusted return, and cross-checks against the 25x and 30x rules.

Is 5 crore enough to retire in India?

It depends entirely on your monthly expense and how long retirement lasts. Five crore comfortably funds a ₹1 lakh-a-month lifestyle inflating at 6 percent for 30 years in many cases, but a higher expense or a longer horizon can need more. Enter your own numbers above rather than trusting a headline figure.

What return should an NRI assume for retirement planning in India?

A common set is around 10 percent while accumulating (an equity-tilted portfolio) and 8 percent during retirement (a more conservative, debt-heavier mix). These are long-run assumptions, not guarantees. The calculator lets you set both and shows how sensitive the corpus is to each.

Does the RNOR window matter for retirement planning?

Yes. For two to three years after returning to India you are RNOR, and foreign income and assets stay outside the Indian tax net. Planning large foreign realisations or asset moves inside that window can save significant tax. Check your status with the residential status calculator before you time those moves.

Is this a substitute for a financial adviser?

No. It is a planning estimate that makes the assumptions explicit, not personalised financial advice, and it does not promise returns. Use it to frame the question and pressure-test the numbers, then confirm the plan with a SEBI-registered investment adviser who knows your full situation.

More free tools

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NRI residential status & RNOR calculator — NRI, RNOR, or Resident? The full test, not half of it.
NRI repatriation calculator (NRO to NRE) — How much you can send abroad, and the forms each transfer needs.
Cost of managing property from abroad — The gap between the headline rent and what you keep.
NRI rental income tax & tenant-TDS calculator — Rent tax from both sides: what you owe, and who must deduct.
Capital-gains exemption calculator (54 / 54F / 54EC) — You sold. Now cut the tax by reinvesting the gain.