Retirement, FIRE & taxes — answered

A rough rule is 25× your annual post-retirement expenses if you follow a 4% safe-withdrawal rate. For India's higher inflation, a more realistic target is 30–35× annual expenses (3–3.5% SWR). A 35-year-old with ₹1 lakh/month current expenses, retiring at 60, typically needs ₹4–6 crore at retirement. Run the exact number for your inputs at /calculators/retirement-corpus.

Your freedom date is the earliest month at which your invested corpus, growing at your expected return, can sustain your inflation-adjusted expenses for the rest of your life without further contributions. Run a month-by-month simulation at /calculators/freedom-date — it accounts for milestones (home, child education), inflation, and Indian taxes.

It depends on corpus size, withdrawal rate, post-retirement return, and inflation. A common failure mode in India is underestimating medical inflation (8%) and longevity. Stress-test your plan against a 30+ year retirement at /calculators/retirement-survival.

FIRE means saving and investing aggressively — typically 40–70% of income — so you can stop depending on a paycheck by your 40s. In India, FIRE math requires a larger corpus than Western FIRE because of higher inflation (6%+ vs ~2–3% in the US) and education/medical costs. Plan for 30–35× annual expenses rather than 25×.

For lean FIRE (₹50k/month expenses today, age 40 retirement), expect to need ₹2.5–3.5 crore in today's rupees. For fat FIRE (₹2 lakh/month expenses), you're looking at ₹8–12 crore. Both numbers grow with inflation between now and your target FIRE date.

Not reliably. The 4% rule was derived from US market data with US inflation. India's 6–7% inflation makes 3–3.5% a safer withdrawal rate. Use 4% only if you have flexibility to cut expenses in down years.

An equity SIP returning 12% nominal in 6% inflation has a real return of ~5.7% (1.12/1.06 − 1). Over 25 years, the corpus is roughly 4× smaller in real terms than its nominal value. Always run SIP projections with inflation at /calculators/sip-inflation.

Depends on corpus size, monthly withdrawal, withdrawal step-up, and post-retirement return. A ₹1 crore corpus at 8% return, withdrawing ₹50,000/month with 6% annual step-up, lasts roughly 22 years. Calculate yours at /calculators/swp.

Mathematically, lump sum wins ~66% of the time over 10+ years because markets trend up. Practically, SIPs win because they enforce discipline and protect you from buying at a peak. For an investible amount > ~6 months of expenses, a STP (Systematic Transfer Plan) over 6–12 months is a sensible middle ground.

Use 6% as a baseline (matches India's 2014–2024 CPI average). Use 8% for "lifestyle inflation" if you're middle-class urban. Use 10% for education milestones. Stress-test all plans at 8% to verify they survive.

Post-Budget 2024: 12.5% on long-term capital gains above a ₹1.25 lakh annual exemption (for equity and equity-oriented MFs held >1 year). Cockroach Money's optional tax module applies this rule automatically when computing post-tax withdrawals.

Up to ₹1.5 lakh per financial year is deductible from taxable income under Section 80C — covers ELSS, PPF, EPF, life insurance premiums, and principal repayment on home loans. At a 30% tax slab this saves ₹45,000/year.

Rarely. A 7% FD becomes ~5% post-tax at the 30% slab. If inflation is 6%, your real return is roughly -1% — your money loses purchasing power every year. Equity index funds historically deliver 11–13% nominal, comfortably ahead of inflation after LTCG.

A 4-year engineering programme costing ₹10 lakh today will cost ₹26–30 lakh in 18 years at 10% education inflation. For a US master's programme (₹40 lakh today), plan for ₹1.1–1.3 crore in 18 years. Run your specific case at /calculators/child-education.

Crypto can amplify returns but also volatility. A 5–10% allocation is what most advisors recommend for risk-tolerant investors. Cockroach Money's crypto calculator lets you model conservative (15%), moderate (25%), and bull-case (50%) annual return scenarios — see the impact before committing.

Yes. All calculators and the full life-cycle simulator are free with no signup required. Auth0 sign-in is only offered if you want to save multiple named scenarios. There is also a free public calculation API at /api/v1/calculate that anyone (including AI agents) can call without an API key.

No. We do not recommend specific mutual funds, stocks, or instruments. We are a simulation tool that shows you the math behind your assumptions. For investment advice, consult a SEBI-registered investment advisor.

It runs a deterministic month-by-month projection — no Monte Carlo, no hidden assumptions. The math is exactly as documented at /methodology. Accuracy of the output depends on the accuracy of your inputs (return assumptions, inflation, expense estimates). Treat outputs as projections, not predictions.

Yes. The public REST endpoint at /api/v1/calculate is unauthenticated, CORS-open, INR-denominated, and runs on Vercel Edge with typical 50–150ms response. Rate-limited to 5 requests/minute per IP on the free tier. Full docs at /api-docs.