Calculate SIP returns: the maturity value of a monthly mutual fund SIP with an optional yearly step-up, or the SIP needed to reach a goal.
By AdminDrafted with AI writing toolsUpdated Checked examples: 7
Investing $5,000.00 a month for 10 years grows to $1,161,695.38. Of that, $600,000.00 is your money and $561,695.38 is return.
| Year | Monthly SIP | Invested this year | Total invested | Value at year end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $64,046.64 |
| 2 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $120,000.00 | $136,216.00 |
| 3 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $180,000.00 | $217,538.24 |
| 4 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $240,000.00 | $309,174.17 |
| 5 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $300,000.00 | $412,431.83 |
| 6 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $360,000.00 | $528,785.15 |
| 7 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $420,000.00 | $659,894.99 |
| 8 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $480,000.00 | $807,632.83 |
| 9 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $540,000.00 | $974,107.53 |
| 10 | $5,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $600,000.00 | $1,161,695.38 |
Money shown rounded half-to-even to 2 decimals.
A SIP (systematic investment plan) puts a fixed amount into a mutual fund every month. At a steady return, N monthly installments grow to FV = P × ((1 + i)^N − 1) ÷ i × (1 + i), where i is the annual return ÷ 12. The extra factor (1 + i) counts each installment as invested at the start of its month, the convention AMFI's SIP calculator uses. A step-up raises the installment by a fixed percentage every 12 months.
With the defaults, 5,000 a month for 10 years at an expected 12% a year grows to 1,161,695.38. Of that, 600,000 is the money invested and 561,695.38 is estimated returns. In goal mode the same formula runs backwards: reaching 1,000,000 in 10 years at 12% takes 4,304.05 a month.
The return is held constant and compounded monthly. Fund returns vary from month to month, so treat the result as one scenario; taxes and exit loads are not deducted.
A SIP's maturity value is FV = P × ((1 + i)^n − 1) ÷ i × (1 + i), where P is the monthly installment, i the expected annual return ÷ 12 and n the number of months. Investing 5,000 a month for 10 years at 12% gives 1,161,695.38, of which 600,000 is your own money. The formula assumes the same return every month.
The final (1 + i) counts each installment as invested at the start of its month, the convention AMFI's SIP calculator uses. Here is the same plan with and without a 10% yearly step-up:
| Yearly step-up | Total invested | Estimated returns | Maturity value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 600,000.00 | 561,695.38 | 1,161,695.38 |
| 10% | 956,245.48 | 730,917.66 | 1,687,163.13 |
Estimated returns are maturity value minus the money invested, an amount, not a yearly percentage. Each figure is rounded on its own, so the parts can differ from the total by 0.01.
With the 10% step-up, the installment is 5,000 in year one, 5,500 in year two and 11,789.74 in year ten. The 12% return is an assumption, not a recommended fund or rate: AMFI explains that mutual funds do not offer assured returns.
Take 10,000 a month for 15 years at an expected 10% a year.
You invest 1,800,000, so estimated returns are 2,379,242.66, and 57% of the final value is growth.
In Excel, =FV(10%/12, 180, -10000, 0, 1) gives the same figure; the final 1 puts payments at the start of each period. Leave it out and you get the end-of-month value, 4,144,703.46, which is 34,539.20 less: one month's growth on the whole balance.
SIP is the Indian name for the plan, but the arithmetic is the same for a monthly investment into any fund in any currency.
Run the formula backwards: divide the target by what 1 a month grows to over the same period. Reaching 1,000,000 in 10 years at 12% takes 4,304.05 a month, or 2,963.55 a month to start with if you step it up 10% a year.
The amounts are rounded to two decimals: investing exactly 4,304.05 ends at 999,999.00, one unit short of the target.
The monthly rate is the yearly return ÷ 12, so a 12% assumption compounds to 12.68% a year: 1.01^12 − 1 = 12.6825%.
That matters when a fund reports a compound annual growth rate (CAGR). To model an effective 12% a year, use the monthly rate 1.12^(1/12) − 1, which as a yearly figure is 1200 × (1.12^(1/12) − 1) = 11.3865515215%. Over 15 years at 10,000 a month:
Using 12% directly gives about 286,446 more, roughly 6%. Rounding the converted rate to 11.39% adds a further 1,556.32. Compare calculators only on the same monthly rate, payment timing, contribution and years.
Maturity values for 10,000 a month at four steady returns, with the monthly rate set at the yearly return ÷ 12:
| Years | Invested | 8% | 10% | 12% | 14% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 600,000 | 739,667.02 | 780,823.81 | 824,863.67 | 872,007.35 |
| 10 | 1,200,000 | 1,841,656.75 | 2,065,520.20 | 2,323,390.76 | 2,620,913.83 |
| 15 | 1,800,000 | 3,483,451.43 | 4,179,242.66 | 5,045,760.00 | 6,128,537.79 |
| 20 | 2,400,000 | 5,929,472.18 | 7,656,969.10 | 9,991,479.19 | 13,163,462.75 |
| 25 | 3,000,000 | 9,573,665.71 | 13,378,903.48 | 18,976,350.92 | 27,272,777.15 |
| 30 | 3,600,000 | 15,002,951.78 | 22,793,253.24 | 35,299,137.74 | 55,570,556.28 |
The return assumption dominates long horizons. Over 5 years, 14% instead of 8% adds 18% to the result; over 30 years it multiplies it by 3.7.
At 30 years, moving from 12% to 14% adds 57%, more than investing half as much again each month would. For other amounts, scale the table: 5,000 a month is half of each figure.
Starting at 10,000 a month at 12%, raising the installment every 12 months:
| Step-up | Years | Final monthly SIP | Total invested | Maturity value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 15 | 10,000.00 | 1,800,000.00 | 5,045,760.00 |
| 5% | 15 | 19,799.32 | 2,589,427.63 | 6,530,751.93 |
| 10% | 15 | 37,974.98 | 3,812,697.80 | 8,683,849.43 |
| 15% | 15 | 70,757.06 | 5,709,649.30 | 11,835,224.59 |
| 0% | 20 | 10,000.00 | 2,400,000.00 | 9,991,479.19 |
| 5% | 20 | 25,269.50 | 3,967,914.49 | 13,737,623.28 |
| 10% | 20 | 61,159.09 | 6,872,999.94 | 19,888,715.49 |
| 15% | 20 | 142,317.72 | 12,293,229.91 | 30,255,941.57 |
Over 20 years a 10% step-up raises the maturity value by 9,897,236.30, of which 4,472,999.94 is extra money you put in.
Each unit invested also earns less. Returns are 3.16 times the amount invested without a step-up and 1.89 times with a 10% step-up, because the later, larger installments have less time to compound.
Check the final-year installment before committing. A 15% step-up over 20 years ends at more than 14 times the starting amount, which assumes your income grows as fast.
CAGR, (end value ÷ start value)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, describes a single lump sum. A SIP invests on a different date every month, so its return has to weight each installment by how long it was invested.
XIRR does that: it finds the yearly rate at which every dated installment, grown to the valuation date, adds up to the current value. Excel's XIRR counts time in days over a 365-day year (Microsoft).
Take 5,000 invested on the 1st of each month through 2025, worth 64,000 on 1 January 2026. The gain is 4,000 on 60,000 invested, an absolute return of 6.67%.
Treating 6.67% as a one-year CAGR understates the result, because the average installment was invested for only about six and a half months. XIRR on the 13 dated flows gives 12.48% a year.
XIRR is an effective annual rate, so compare it with the effective rate of your assumption, not the assumption itself.
At 12%, the same 12 installments grow to 64,046.64, an XIRR of 12.63%: close to the 12.68% effective rate, with months of unequal length making up the gap.
The XIRR calculator handles dated flows, and the ROI and CAGR calculator covers lump sums.
Real returns arrive unevenly, and for a SIP the timing of a fall matters because the balance is largest near the end. The projection also assumes no skipped installments, withdrawals or negative returns.
On 10,000 a month for 15 years at 12%, a 20% market fall at the end of year 1 cuts the maturity value by 136,316.10. The same fall at the end of year 8 costs 745,194.00, and just before maturity it costs 1,009,152.00.
Pauses cost more than the money skipped. A year's installments are worth 12.8093 times the monthly amount at the end of that year, and then keep growing.
Stopping 10,000 a month during year 5 of the 15-year plan leaves 10,000 × 12.8093 × 1.01^120 = 422,757.38 less at maturity, 3.5 times the 120,000 not invested.
Expense ratios, exit loads and taxes are not deducted. AMFI states that published NAV is after fund expenses, so a return measured from NAVs already reflects them: do not subtract the expense ratio again.
Taxes and exit loads depend on the investment and how you redeem it. To express a maturity value at today's prices, use the inflation calculator. The retirement calculator works out the corpus and monthly saving a retirement needs.
Checked against: 5000 × ((1.01^120 − 1)/0.01) × 1.01 = 1161695.3818…; equals Excel =FV(1%,120,-5000,0,1)
Checked against: AMFI Mutual Funds Sahi Hai SIP page: invested about ₹4.20 lakh, corpus around ₹6.60 lakh; exact decimal arithmetic gives 659894.9857…
Checked against: 1000 × ((1.01^12 − 1)/0.01) × 1.01 = 12809.3280…
Checked against: Year-by-year sum of 5000·1.1^y·a·1.01^(12(9−y)): 1687163.1321…
FV = P × ((1 + i)^n − 1) ÷ i × (1 + i), with P the monthly amount, i the annual return ÷ 12 and n the number of months. AMFI's example of 5,000 a month for 7 years at 12% gives 420,000 invested and a corpus of about 6.60 lakh; the exact figure is 659,894.99. Excel's =FV(1%, 84, -5000, 0, 1) returns the same.
At a steady 12% a year, reaching 1 crore (10,000,000) takes 43,040.54 a month over 10 years, 19,818.62 over 15 years, 10,008.53 over 20 years and 5,269.72 over 25 years. Each extra five years roughly halves the monthly amount, because the earliest installments compound for longer. A lower return raises every figure.
A SIP whose monthly amount rises by a fixed percentage each year, usually in line with salary. Starting at 5,000 a month with a 10% yearly step-up at 12% for 10 years, the installment reaches 11,789.74 in the final year, 956,245.48 is invested and the maturity value is 1,687,163.13, against 1,161,695.38 without the step-up.
At a constant return, yes, because all the money compounds from the first day. 600,000 invested at once at 12% (compounded monthly) grows to 1,980,232.14 in 10 years, against 1,161,695.38 when the same total is spread as 5,000 a month. A SIP spreads the purchase price over many months, which reduces the risk of investing everything just before a fall; this constant-return model does not capture that.
For planning only. Lenders, tax authorities and markets apply their own rounding, fees and rules; confirm figures with them before you commit.
This calculator includes 7 worked examples with independently sourced answers. They run in the test suite, and you can run them here too.