SIP Calculator

SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) lets you invest a fixed amount in a mutual fund every month on a set date. On that date, units are purchased at whatever the NAV (Net Asset Value) happens to be. When markets fall, your fixed investment buys more units; when markets rise, it buys fewer. Over time this averages out your purchase price below the average market price - a benefit called rupee cost averaging. Combined with the power of compounding (returns earning further returns), even modest monthly amounts grow substantially over 10 to 20 years. SIPs are available from as little as ₹500 per month in most equity mutual funds.

Equity mutual funds in India have delivered 11 to 15% CAGR over any 10-year rolling period historically, depending on the fund category. Nifty 50 index funds have returned around 11 to 13% CAGR over long periods. Mid-cap and small-cap funds have delivered 13 to 18% but with higher volatility. For conservative planning, most financial advisors suggest 10 to 12% for equity SIPs and 6 to 8% for debt or hybrid funds. Past returns do not guarantee future performance - the stock market can return less (or more) in any given decade. Review your portfolio annually and adjust expectations if fund performance deviates significantly from benchmarks.

Yes - and increasing your SIP annually is one of the highest-ROI financial habits you can build. Most AMCs offer a 'step-up SIP' or 'top-up SIP' feature that automatically increases your monthly SIP by a fixed percentage or amount each year. A 10% annual step-up is ideal for salaried employees whose income grows each year. For example, starting at ₹5,000 per month and stepping up 10% annually, you invest ₹34,000 per month after 20 years and build roughly double the corpus compared to a flat ₹5,000 SIP. You can also manually start a new SIP alongside an existing one at any time - there is no restriction on how many SIPs you run simultaneously.

SEBI has mandated that mutual funds must accept SIPs starting at ₹100 per month. Most equity funds accept SIPs from ₹500 per month; many index funds also start at ₹100 to ₹500. There is no upper limit - investors can do lakhs per month. For someone just starting out, even ₹1,000 per month is a meaningful beginning. The discipline of consistent investing matters far more than the starting amount. A ₹1,000 per month SIP at 12% for 30 years grows to approximately ₹35 lakh - built entirely through consistency and compounding, not large sums.

Both approaches serve different situations. SIP works better in volatile or overvalued markets because you invest gradually, averaging your cost across different price levels and removing the stress of timing. Lumpsum works better when markets are at significant lows or corrections - your entire capital compounding from day one maximizes growth. For most salaried Indians who earn monthly, SIP is the natural fit. If you receive a large one-time sum (bonus, maturity proceeds, inheritance), consider STP (Systematic Transfer Plan): park the lumpsum in a liquid fund and auto-transfer monthly to equity. This captures the safety of SIP with the full-corpus compounding of lumpsum.

A market crash is actually the best environment for a SIP investor. When a fund's NAV falls 30%, your fixed monthly ₹10,000 buys significantly more units than it did before - say 142 units at NAV 70 instead of 100 units at NAV 100. When the market recovers, those extra units at a higher NAV add disproportionate gains. This is rupee cost averaging working in your favor. The biggest SIP wealth-creation stories in India belong to investors who continued their SIPs through 2008, 2011, 2015, and the 2020 COVID crash without pausing. Stopping a SIP during a crash is mathematically the worst decision - you lock in losses and miss the recovery upside.

ELSS (Equity Linked Savings Scheme) funds provide 80C tax deduction up to ₹1.5 lakh per year while investing in equities. When you invest via SIP in ELSS, each monthly installment has its own 3-year lock-in from the date of that specific investment. So an April SIP installment unlocks in April three years later, and a May installment unlocks in May three years later - meaning you cannot withdraw the entire corpus on one date. This rolling lock-in is manageable for long-term investors. ELSS is typically the best starting point for new investors: tax saving plus wealth creation in one product, with the shortest lock-in of all 80C instruments (3 years vs 5-15 years for others).