Wealth Reality Check Calculator
True value of your SIP after inflation + tax (the shock number)
Reviewed by the PaisaTools Editorial Team · Last reviewed September 2026
How to use: Enter your SIP or lumpsum, return, inflation and tax — see the nominal, inflation-adjusted, post-tax and true value side by side, plus a year-by-year chart.
Example₹10,000/month at 12% for 20 years looks like ₹1 crore — but the true value after 6% inflation and tax is about ₹28 lakh
How are you investing?
Raise your SIP each year, e.g. with your salary
Assumptions — inflation & taxtap to adjust
India's long-run average is around 6%
What you'll actually have (today's money, after tax)
₹56,98,972
Nominal — what other calculators show
₹1,98,88,715
Vanishes to inflation + tax (71.3%)
₹1,41,89,743
Step-up — your biggest lever
Inflation and tax eat most of your returns. Raising your SIP 10% a year is how you fight back.
Flat SIP — true value
₹28,24,380
With 10% step-up
₹56,98,972
+₹28.75L · 2.0× more
Stepping up turns ₹28.24L of real, spendable wealth into ₹56.99L — for the same start.
The four numbers
Reality check: that ₹1.99Cr headline is really worth ₹56.99L in today's money after tax — 71.3% less.
The gap widens every year
Year by year
| Year | Invested | Nominal | True value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ₹1.2L | ₹1.28L | ₹1.21L |
| 2 | ₹2.52L | ₹2.85L | ₹2.54L |
| 3 | ₹3.97L | ₹4.76L | ₹4L |
| 4 | ₹5.57L | ₹7.07L | ₹5.58L |
| 5 | ₹7.33L | ₹9.85L | ₹7.24L |
| 6 | ₹9.26L | ₹13.16L | ₹9.04L |
| 7 | ₹11.38L | ₹17.1L | ₹11L |
| 8 | ₹13.72L | ₹21.76L | ₹13.12L |
| 9 | ₹16.3L | ₹27.27L | ₹15.42L |
| 10 | ₹19.12L | ₹33.74L | ₹17.91L |
| 11 | ₹22.24L | ₹41.35L | ₹20.6L |
| 12 | ₹25.66L | ₹50.24L | ₹23.52L |
| 13 | ₹29.43L | ₹60.64L | ₹26.67L |
| 14 | ₹33.57L | ₹72.75L | ₹30.08L |
| 15 | ₹38.13L | ₹86.84L | ₹33.76L |
| 16 | ₹43.14L | ₹1.03Cr | ₹37.73L |
| 17 | ₹48.65L | ₹1.22Cr | ₹42.02L |
| 18 | ₹54.72L | ₹1.44Cr | ₹46.64L |
| 19 | ₹61.39L | ₹1.7Cr | ₹51.62L |
| 20 | ₹68.73L | ₹1.99Cr | ₹56.99L |
Most investment calculators sell you a comforting lie: a big nominal number with no mention of inflation or tax. The Wealth Reality Check fixes that. It shows all four numbers at once — nominal, inflation-adjusted, post-tax, and the one that actually matters: real value after tax, the money you can genuinely spend in today's terms.
Enter a SIP or lumpsum, your duration, expected return (with presets for FD, debt, Nifty and smallcap), an annual step-up, inflation, and your tax type. The chart shows the four lines diverging year by year — and the gap between the top line (the fantasy) and the bottom line (the truth) is usually a shock: often 40–60% lower.
It's not meant to discourage you — quite the opposite. Seeing the real number is how you set a goal that actually works: invest more, step it up, start earlier, and lean on tax-efficient options. Plan the building blocks with our SIP, step-up SIP and income tax tools.
Nominal value uses standard compounding (monthly for SIPs, with annual step-up; annual for lumpsum). Real value discounts the nominal by your inflation rate to today's money. Post-tax value subtracts tax on the gain — equity LTCG at 12.5% above the ₹1.25 lakh annual exemption, or debt-fund/FD gains at your income-tax slab. The “true value” applies both. Tax is modelled on the projected gain as if realised at the horizon; returns, inflation and tax rules are assumptions, not guarantees. Educational estimate, not financial advice.
- A projection, highly sensitive to the rates you assume.
- Not a guarantee of any future outcome.
- Why is the 'true value' so much lower than a normal SIP calculator?
- Because normal calculators stop at the nominal figure — the headline crore — and ignore two things that quietly halve it: inflation and tax. Inflation shrinks what your money can actually buy in the future, and tax takes a cut of your gains. Subtract both and the real, spendable value is often 40–60% lower than the number you were shown. That gap is the whole point of this tool.
- What does 'real' (inflation-adjusted) value mean?
- It's your future corpus expressed in today's money — what it could actually buy. ₹1 crore in 20 years sounds huge, but at 6% inflation it has the purchasing power of roughly ₹31 lakh today. Nominal answers 'how many rupees', real answers 'how much can I actually buy', which is the question that matters.
- How is the tax calculated?
- For equity (stocks/equity mutual funds), long-term gains above ₹1.25 lakh a year are taxed at 12.5% (LTCG). For debt mutual funds and fixed deposits, gains are added to your income and taxed at your slab rate (5%, 20% or 30%) — so pick your slab. The tool taxes the projected gain as if realised at the end; your actual tax depends on when and how you redeem.
- What return should I assume?
- Use the presets as a guide: FD around 6.5%, debt funds around 7.5%, the Nifty 50 around 12% over long periods, and smallcaps around 15% (with far more risk). These are long-run averages, not promises — real returns are lumpy and not guaranteed.
- Does the step-up really matter that much?
- Hugely. Raising your SIP a little every year — say 10%, in line with a salary hike — can roughly double the true value over 20 years, because you invest far more without it ever pinching. Toggle the step-up to see the before-and-after on your own numbers.
- Is this financial advice?
- No — it's an educational projection to show how inflation and tax change the picture. Returns and inflation are assumptions, tax rules can change, and your real outcome will differ. Use it to set realistic expectations, not as a recommendation to buy or sell anything.
Related guides
- How much SIP do you need to reach ₹1 crore?The monthly SIP that grows to ₹1 crore — for 10, 15, 20 and 25 years — and why starting early does most of the work.
- SIP vs Lumpsum — discipline or timing?What history says about systematic investing versus one-shot deployments — and the rule that resolves the debate.
- Step-up SIP: the yearly tweak that changes your corpusRaising your SIP a little each year — in step with your salary — changes your 20-year corpus far more than you'd guess. The honest math inside.
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