SIP Investment Calculator
The SIP Calculator shows how regular monthly investing can grow over the years. Enter your monthly amount, expected annual return, and time period to see your total contributions, estimated growth, and projected final value.
Recurring investment growth
Estimate how a fixed monthly investment grows over time.
FAQs
What return rate should I assume?
Use a modest, long-term average for the kind of investment you plan to buy, and try a few rates to see the range. A diversified stock fund has historically averaged around 7% to 10% a year before inflation, but no future period is guaranteed to match the past.
Is it better to invest monthly or in one lump sum?
A lump sum invested earlier has more time to compound, so it usually wins on paper. But monthly investing is easier to sustain, spreads out market timing risk, and matches how most people earn money. Consistency beats perfect timing.
How it works
A systematic investment plan means putting the same amount into your investments every month, rain or shine. The power comes from two things: you keep buying through market ups and downs, and your returns start earning their own returns, which is compounding at work.
The calculator projects your future value using the monthly compounding of your expected annual return. It shows three numbers: how much you put in, how much growth added, and the projected total. Time is the biggest lever here, bigger than the return rate or even the monthly amount.
Worked example: invest $500 every month for 30 years at an average 7% annual return. Your total contributions are $180,000. With monthly compounding, the projected value is about $610,000, meaning growth contributes roughly $430,000, more than double what you put in.
A shorter example: $200 a month for 10 years at 8% gives $24,000 in contributions and a projected value of about $36,600. Starting earlier matters more than starting bigger, because every extra year of compounding multiplies everything before it.
These projections are estimates, not promises. Real returns vary year to year, and the calculator assumes a steady average. Use the numbers to set a target and check whether your monthly amount is enough to reach it.
The Quiet Math Behind Monthly Investing
Monthly investing feels unremarkable: the same $500 leaves your account, month after month, for decades. But the math is anything but boring. In the $500-a-month example above, the last ten years of a thirty-year plan contribute most of the growth, because by then your earlier money is earning returns on top of returns.
This is why financial advice keeps repeating the same line: start early. A person who invests $500 a month from age 25 to 55 will typically end up with far more than someone who invests $1,000 a month from 45 to 55, even though the second person put in more money. Time does the heavy lifting.
Why Automatic Beats Willpower
The hardest part of monthly investing is not the math, it is the follow-through. Markets fall, bills pile up, and skipping one month feels harmless. But a skipped month is a month of compounding you never get back, and one skip makes the next one easier.
That is why automation matters more than motivation. An automatic transfer on payday turns investing into a default instead of a decision. You do not need discipline thirty years running; you need it once, on the day you set up the transfer.
Raising Your Amount as Income Grows
Most people start small and earn more later. Increasing your monthly amount by a little each year, say 5% or 10%, keeps your plan matched to your income and dramatically raises the final number. This is sometimes called a step-up plan, and it is the easiest upgrade to a basic monthly habit.
Run the calculator twice: once with your current amount, once with a yearly increase. The gap between the two totals is the price of standing still. Even a $25 monthly raise each year adds up to tens of thousands over a few decades, for almost no extra effort.