Retirement Corpus
Two things make retirement planning hard: your expenses keep inflating after you stop earning, and the corpus has to survive thirty years rather than three. This accounts for both.
- Years to retirement
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- Years the corpus must last
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- Monthly expenses at retirement
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- Existing savings will grow to
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- Gap to close
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- Invest each month
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Projected corpus Amount invested
What this model does not capture
It assumes a steady return every year. Reality delivers them in a random order, and a severe fall in the first few years of retirement, while you are drawing down, does disproportionate damage. That is sequence-of-returns risk, and it is the main reason retirement plans need a cash buffer rather than just a big number.
Most people see this number and pause.
It is large, but it is reachable with a long runway. Let's look at yours.