The honest answer most of us avoid: if you're 30 and saving ₹10,000/month, you're almost certainly under-saving for the lifestyle you want at 60. The numbers are not subjective — let's walk through them.
The real target isn't a round number
Pick a current monthly expense level. Inflate it. Multiply by the years you'll live after retirement, discounted for the real return your corpus will earn. That's the corpus you actually need — usually 200–300× your current monthly spend.
- Current expense ₹50,000/month, 6% inflation, 30 years → ₹2.87L/month at age 60.
- 25 years in retirement, post-retirement real return ~1% → corpus ≈ ₹7.6 cr in future rupees.
- To accumulate ₹7.6 cr in 30 years at 12% equity returns → monthly SIP ≈ ₹22,000.
Where the SIP actually goes
- 70% equity (index + flexi-cap): compounding engine. Boring works.
- 15% debt (PPF + EPF): tax-free EEE, immune to credit risk.
- 10% NPS: extra ₹50K 80CCD(1B) deduction. Annuity at 60 covers floor expenses.
- 5% gold / sovereign gold bonds: currency hedge.
Tax on the corpus (post-Budget 2024)
- Equity LTCG: 12.5% above ₹1.25L/year (was 10% above ₹1L).
- Debt funds bought after 1 April 2023: taxed at slab — no indexation benefit.
- PPF, EPF, NPS lump-sum (60% of corpus): tax-free.
The post-Budget tilt favours the EEE bucket — PPF, EPF, NPS lump sum — for a meaningful slice of the portfolio. Equity for growth, EEE for tax-free withdrawal at the end.