Tell me your goal. I'll tell you exactly how to get there.
Tell me your goal. I'll tell you exactly how to get there.
Same goal, different schedules — choose what fits your life.
| Year | Opening | Added | Returns | Balance | Goal % |
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Every financial goal — a car, a home down payment, children's education, or a sabbatical — shares the same underlying structure: a target amount, a time horizon, and a savings rate. The challenge is translating vague aspirations into a precise monthly number. This calculator does exactly that, using the future value of a recurring investment formula to show you what you must save now, given realistic return expectations, to reach any specific target on schedule.
Effective financial goals are Specific (₹50 lakh), Measurable (₹18,200/month), Achievable (within your income), Relevant (your actual priority), and Time-bound (in 10 years). Vague goals like "save more" produce vague outcomes.
Use 10–12% for long-horizon equity SIPs (10+ years), 7–8% for balanced funds (5–10 years), 6–7% for debt funds or FDs (1–5 years). Being conservative beats being surprised.
Increasing your monthly savings by just 5–10% per year — matching salary increments — can reduce your goal timeline by 2–4 years on a 15-year plan, or cut required monthly savings by 30%.
Separate your portfolio by goal: short-term (liquid funds/FD), medium-term (balanced/debt mutual funds), long-term (equity SIPs). Mixing them into a single pool makes progress invisible and withdrawals disruptive.
Research in behavioral finance consistently shows that labeling money improves savings outcomes. People who maintain separate accounts — or even just mental "buckets" — for each goal save significantly more than those with a single pool of money. When you can see a "Goa trip: ₹87,000 / ₹1,20,000" progress bar, motivation compounds alongside your investment. The act of naming and quantifying a goal transforms it from a wish into a plan.
A college education costing ₹10 lakh today may cost ₹18 lakh in 10 years at 6% education inflation. A home worth ₹80 lakh today may be ₹1.43 crore in 10 years at 6% real estate appreciation. The goal planner lets you specify an inflation rate so your target corpus automatically accounts for this drift — ensuring you're saving toward the actual future cost, not the comfortable present price.
For education goals: Sukanya Samriddhi (8.2%, daughters), PPF (7.1%, 15-year lock-in), ELSS mutual funds (equity returns + 80C). For home down payments: RD + debt funds for capital safety.
529 plans for college savings (tax-free growth), HYSA for short-term goals (4–5% APY currently), index fund IRAs for long-term wealth. Automate contributions on payday to remove friction.