The Cost of Waiting Calculator

Starting your SIP feels like something you can do next year. See exactly what each year of delay quietly costs you by retirement. The number is bigger than the delay.

Inputs

years
years
% p.a.

Your result

₹90.26 lakh

Start your ₹15,000 SIP today and it grows to ₹2.85 crore over 25 years. Start it 3 year(s) later and it only reaches ₹1.94 crore. That 3-year delay costs you ₹90.26 lakh, which is 32% of the final corpus, for the same monthly investment.

If you start today
₹2.85 crore
If you start in 3 years
₹1.94 crore
Cost of the delay
₹90.26 lakh
As a % of the corpus
32%

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Plan the SIP you start today

Now that you have seen the cost of waiting, set up the actual plan with a step-up so it grows with your income.

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Why the first years matter most

In a compounding system, every rupee grows for the entire remaining time horizon. A rupee invested in year one of a 25-year plan compounds for 25 years. A rupee invested in year four compounds for only 21. The difference sounds small annually and is enormous over decades, because the gap itself compounds. This is the single most counterintuitive and most important idea in personal finance.