Financial Goal Calculator

How a goal is priced

A goal is entered at what it would cost today. Prices rise while the money is being built, so the calculator raises that cost at the inflation rate, year by year, to the month the money is needed. That later figure is the one the plan has to reach, and it is always shown beside today's price.

Different goals rise at different speeds. Education has historically risen faster than general prices, which is why an education goal starts at a higher inflation rate here.

How the monthly figure is worked out

Each instalment is invested at the start of its month and grows at the assumed return, compounded monthly. Money already saved grows alongside it. The monthly figure is the one that makes the two land exactly on the goal's future cost.

With a yearly step-up the instalment rises once a year, so the first year's figure is lower and the later ones higher. The answer is solved exactly rather than approximated.

The return can also step down as the date nears — a growth rate while the goal is more than five years away, a balanced one from five years out and a steadier one for the last two — so a short goal is never planned on equity returns.

Four ways to close the same gap

A goal can be reached by investing more each month, by adding a one-off amount today, by allowing more time, or by aiming for a smaller goal. The calculator solves all four with everything else held as entered, so each card is the same shortfall closed a different way — and choosing one sets what the chart, the breakdown and the tables below follow.

Why the finish line moves

Giving a goal more time also gives its price more time to rise. Solving for the date is a race between the money and the cost, month by month. When the return is below inflation and the monthly amount is small, the cost can pull away for good — and the calculator says so rather than inventing a date.

What a ₹25 lakh goal takes

Nothing saved yet, 6% inflation and a 12% return. Every row runs through the same engine as the calculator.

Reading the table

The cost column grows because of inflation alone; the goal itself has not changed. The monthly figure falls steeply at first as the years add up, because compounding does more of the work the longer money is invested — and a step-up lowers the first instalment further by asking for more later.

None of this is a forecast. A return two points lower or inflation a point higher moves every figure, and the section on the page that moves one assumption at a time shows by how much.

Several goals at once

Every goal keeps its own cost, date, savings and assumptions. The list shows what each one needs a month and the total across all of them. Its order is the priority: a monthly surplus is shared out from the top goal down, so the goals lower in the list are the ones left short when it runs out.

What this does not model

• Tax is optional, and assumes everything is redeemed at the goal date in one go. Drawing it out over time is what the SWP & Tax Calculator prices.
• Returns that swing from year to year; each phase here earns one steady assumed rate.
• Exit loads, expense ratios and surcharge.