The retirement maths in India
India has two things working against retirees: high inflation (5–7% average) and no universal social security system. What this means: you need to save significantly more than most other countries.
A worked example
Couple, aged 30. Monthly household expenses: ₹60,000. Retirement age: 60. Life expectancy: 85.
At 6% inflation for 30 years, ₹60,000 becomes ₹3.4 lakh/month in real terms.
Corpus needed: approximately ₹6–7 crore.
Monthly SIP needed: ₹18,000–22,000 for 30 years at 12% CAGR.
Don't forget EPF
If you're salaried, you already contribute to EPF (12% of basic salary, employer matches). At ₹50,000 basic salary, you're accumulating ~₹12,000/month already. Factor this in — it reduces your self-funded corpus requirement significantly.
NPS as a supplement
NPS allows you to build a retirement corpus with additional tax benefits. Tier 1 offers extra ₹50,000 deduction under 80CCD(1B). At 60, 60% of NPS corpus is tax-free; 40% must buy an annuity. Current NPS equity allocation can return 8–10% over long periods.
The 15-30-30 thumb rule
Retire by 60: save at least 15% of your post-tax income from age 30, invest 70%+ in equity for the first 20 years, shift to conservative assets in the final 10 years.