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SIP, Lumpsum, SWP, Goal & Backtest Calculators

Dhanik's calculators answer the practical questions every mutual fund investor faces: how much will a monthly SIP grow to, what is a lumpsum worth after ten years, how long will a corpus last under a monthly withdrawal, and how much do I need to invest to reach a goal. All of them are free and run instantly in your browser.

The calculators

  • SIP calculator — project the future value of a monthly investment at an assumed return, and see how much of the final corpus is your contribution versus growth. New to SIPs? Start with SIP vs lumpsum.
  • Lumpsum calculator — the same projection for a one-time investment, using compound annual growth.
  • SWP calculator — model a Systematic Withdrawal Plan: a corpus, a monthly withdrawal, and an assumed return, showing how the balance evolves and when it would run out.
  • Goal calculator — work backwards from a target amount and date to the SIP required to get there.
  • CAGR and XIRR — convert absolute gains into annualised rates. XIRR matters because SIP money is invested on many different dates; a simple absolute return overstates or understates what you actually earned.
  • SIP backtester — the most honest of the lot: instead of assuming a smooth 12%, it replays a real fund's historical NAV series and computes the XIRR an actual SIP would have earned, including every crash and rally along the way.

A note on assumptions

Projection calculators are only as good as the return you assume. Indian equity funds have historically delivered roughly 10–14% CAGR over long periods depending on category (see the category explainers), but no calculator can promise the future. Test your plan at a pessimistic return too, and remember equity fund gains are taxed — long-term gains above ₹1.25 lakh a year at 12.5%, short-term gains at 20%. For fund-specific research, continue to the screener or Best Funds lists.

Frequently asked questions

What return should I assume for a SIP projection?

A common practice is 10–12% for diversified equity funds and 6–7% for debt funds — deliberately below long-term historical averages, so the plan still works if markets disappoint. This is an assumption, not a prediction.

How is the SIP backtest different from the SIP calculator?

The calculator assumes a constant return every month. The backtester uses the fund's real dated NAVs, so it captures actual market volatility and reports the true XIRR a past SIP would have produced. Past performance still does not guarantee future results.

Is the difference between CAGR and XIRR important?

Yes. CAGR describes one lumpsum held for a period; XIRR handles multiple cash flows on different dates. Judging a SIP by absolute return or CAGR of the NAV can be misleading — XIRR is the fair measure.