SIP for Retirement Planning: Build Your Corpus

1) Estimate your target corpus

Start with expected monthly expenses at retirement (in today’s rupees). Inflate them to retirement year. Plan for 25–30 years of post-retirement life.

2) Asset allocation by age

• 20s–30s: Equity-heavy (70–80%), debt (20–30%).
• 40s: Gradually lower equity to 60–70%.
• 50s: Glide to 40–50% equity by retirement.

3) SIPs with annual step-up

Use a 10% step-up with salary growth. It moves you closer to corpus without early pain. Model it in our SIP calculator.

4) Pre-retirement glide path

In the last 5 years, shift gradually to debt to protect the corpus from sequence-of-returns risk.

5) Withdrawal plan

Use a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP) from debt for stability. Keep 2–3 years of expenses in low-volatility funds.