Compounding doesn't add up. It multiplies.
Each ring to the right is one year of your Step-up SIP. Watch how thin the early rings are, and how much fuller the outer ones get — the same monthly habit, doing more work every year it's left alone.
(outer ring = latest year)
Standard vs. Step-up, side by side
Every number below comes from the same two engines: a plain monthly SIP, and a Step-up SIP that raises your contribution once a year. Nothing here is estimated after the fact — it's the direct output of the formulas in "How was this calculated?".
Top insights from your numbers
How was this calculated?
Both engines use the compounding formula for every monthly contribution, then add those compounded contributions together. This makes the year-wise table and every chart use the same underlying numbers.
- Monthly rate:
r = Expected Annual Return / 12 / 100 - SIP final amount: each contribution uses
A = P × (1 + r/n) ^ (n×t), wherePis that monthly contribution,ris the annual return,n = 12, andtis its remaining investment duration. The SIP corpus is the sum of all such compounded monthly contributions. - Step-up SIP: identical, except the contribution in year k (0-indexed) is
monthlySIP × (1 + stepUp%) ^ k. - Inflation adjustment:
real value = nominal corpus ÷ (1 + inflation%) ^ elapsed years— a standard present-value discount, applied at each year-end. - Effective annual return ("CAGR"):
(1 + r) ^ 12 − 1. This is the true annualised rate implied by monthly compounding of your stated return — not (final ÷ invested)^(1/years), which would be misleading for a SIP since money goes in at different times, not as one lump sum. - Real annual return: Fisher equation,
(1 + effective return) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1.
Wealth Growth Chart
Four curves, one question each: what your money becomes nominally, and what that's actually worth once inflation has taken its cut. Toggle any curve off to isolate a comparison.
Complete SIP Projection
One full view of every annual milestone: contributions, nominal corpus, and inflation-adjusted corpus for both the Standard and Step-up SIPs. This is the clearest way to see how contributions, compounding, and inflation interact.
Contribution Growth Chart
This isolates just the money you put in — no growth, no market returns — so you can see exactly how much extra a Step-up SIP actually asks of you over time.
Lumpsum Calculator
A single one-time investment today, compounded at the same return and inflation assumptions you've set on the left — shown both nominal and inflation-adjusted, so it's directly comparable to your SIP figures.
How was this calculated?
The lumpsum uses the standard compound-interest formula: A = P × (1 + r/100) ^ t, where A is the future value, P is the amount invested, r is the Expected Annual Return, and t is the number of years — compounded annually, matching how lumpsum investments are conventionally calculated (this differs from the SIP engines above, which compound monthly to match monthly contributions). The inflation-adjusted figure discounts that back with A ÷ (1 + Inflation%) ^ t — the same present-value approach used for the SIP corpus.
Where does the final corpus actually come from?
Stacked left to right: your base contribution, what stepping up added on top, the growth your base investment earned, and the extra growth generated specifically because you stepped up.
Inflation Impact
The gap between these two lines is money you'll never get to spend — it's been quietly absorbed by rising prices between now and the day you withdraw.
Why inflation matters
A rupee ten years from now buys less than a rupee today. Ignoring inflation makes every projection look better than the lifestyle it can actually fund.
Milestones
The year each corpus threshold is first crossed in nominal terms, alongside what you'd actually have invested by then and what that milestone is worth in today's rupees.
Year-wise Timeline
The full ledger — every year of both plans, sortable and searchable. Click a column header to sort.
How was this calculated?
Each row is a year-end snapshot from the month-by-month simulations described in the Overview tab, with the Standard ("Simple") and Step-up runs lined up side by side for direct comparison. Investment is the cumulative amount contributed by that year; Corpus is the nominal value of the investment at that point; Infl.-Adj. Corpus discounts that back to today's rupees using corpus ÷ (1 + inflation%) ^ elapsed years. Returns % is the cumulative gain relative to what's been invested so far (corpus ÷ invested − 1). Infl.-Adj. Return % applies the same real-return logic as the Fisher equation used elsewhere in this app — Real Return = (1 + Nominal Return) ÷ (1 + Inflation)^years − 1 — which is exactly what falls out of comparing Infl.-Adj. Corpus to the amount invested.
What your numbers are telling you
Every observation below is generated by a fixed rule applied to your inputs — no AI model, no black box. The rule behind each statement is shown beneath it.
Four ideas worth understanding
The concepts behind every chart on this page, explained plainly.
The power of compounding
Returns earn returns. Money you made two years ago is now itself earning a return, and so is the money that earned on that money. The effect is small early on and dramatic late — which is why the last few years of a long SIP often add more wealth than the first ten.
Why inflation matters
Prices rise even while your corpus grows. A number that looks large in twenty years' time needs to be measured against what things will cost in twenty years, not what they cost today. That's what the "inflation-adjusted" figures throughout this app are for.
What is a Step-up SIP?
Instead of investing a fixed amount every month forever, you increase it by a fixed percentage once a year — typically in step with a salary increment. Because the increase compounds too, even a modest annual step-up can meaningfully change the final outcome.
Why long horizons matter
Compounding needs time more than it needs a high rate of return. A SIP given twice the years to run, even at the same return, will typically outperform one given twice the monthly amount but half the time — because growth is applied to a larger base for longer.