Lumpsum calculator
What does a one-time investment grow to, and how much of it is returns?
Annual, before tax. Equity has done ~12% over long periods — that is history, not a promise.
₹15,52,924after 10 years
- You put in
- ₹5,00,000
- Returns
- ₹10,52,924
- Absolute return
- 210.6%
Returns are assumed, not guaranteed. Exit load and capital-gains tax are not deducted.
- Invested
- Returns
| Year | Invested | Returns | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹60,000 | ₹5,60,000 |
| 2 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹1,27,200 | ₹6,27,200 |
| 3 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹2,02,464 | ₹7,02,464 |
| 4 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹2,86,760 | ₹7,86,760 |
| 5 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹3,81,171 | ₹8,81,171 |
| 6 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹4,86,911 | ₹9,86,911 |
| 7 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹6,05,341 | ₹11,05,341 |
| 8 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹7,37,982 | ₹12,37,982 |
| 9 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹8,86,539 | ₹13,86,539 |
| 10 | ₹5,00,000 | ₹10,52,924 | ₹15,52,924 |
You have a single sum sitting somewhere — a bonus, a maturity, the sale of something, money that has been in a savings account for two years — and you want to know what it turns into if you leave it alone. This works out the ending value, and then splits it into the part you contributed and the part the market added, which is usually the number that surprises people.
A worked example
Take the figures the calculator opens with — ₹5,00,000 invested once, left for 10 years, at an assumed 12% a year. Nothing is added after the first day.
The value at the end of year 10 is ₹15,52,924. You put in ₹5,00,000 of that, so ₹10,52,924 is return — an absolute gain of 210.6% over the whole period, not per year. Two-thirds of the ending pile is money you never contributed.
- ₹5,00,000 What you invested — once, on day one
- ₹10,52,924 Return added — 210.6% of the amount invested
₹5,00,000 for 10 years at 12%: what the final ₹15,52,924 is made of.
The year-by-year table shows why the split lands there. Its Returns column is a running total, not that year’s growth, so a single year’s growth is the gap between two rows. Year one adds ₹60,000 — 12% of ₹5,00,000. Year ten adds ₹1,66,385 — the ₹10,52,924 on the last row less the ₹8,86,539 on the row above it — because by then it is 12% of ₹13,86,539 rather than of ₹5,00,000. The amount invested is a flat line across the whole table; only the Returns column grows, and it grows on itself.
Leave the same ₹5,00,000 for 20 years instead of 10 at the same 12% and it reaches ₹48,23,147. The second decade adds roughly ₹32,70,000 against the first decade’s ₹10,52,924, on identical money and an identical rate. Time, not the amount, is doing most of the work.
What this number does not account for
Tax on the way out
The figure is gross. Equity and equity-fund gains are taxed under sections 111A and 112A of the Income-tax Act, at different rates depending on how long you held; debt-fund gains bought after April 2023 fall under section 50AA and are taxed at your slab. Nothing here is deducted.
Costs inside the fund
A fund's expense ratio is charged against NAV every year, so the return you actually see is already net of it — but the rate you type here is not. Exit load, if the scheme has one for early redemption, is in the scheme information document, and stamp duty applies on the purchase.
A smooth line the market will not draw
The maths applies the same rate every single year. Real returns arrive as a bad year, a flat year and a violent good one. The ending value can be right while every year in between is wrong, and a lumpsum feels the first bad year on the whole amount.
Inflation
The answer is in future rupees, not present ones. A figure that looks life-changing in twenty years is being compared against twenty years of prices you have not seen yet.
Four things that sit between this figure and your bank account.
Two more, specific to how people actually use a lumpsum. First, this assumes annual compounding and one deposit — if you are really putting the money in over three months because you are nervous, the answer is slightly optimistic. Second, it assumes you do not touch it. A lumpsum withdrawn in year six is a different calculation entirely, and the years you removed it from are the expensive ones to lose.
Where to go next
- SIP calculator — the same money paid in monthly instead, if you would rather not commit the whole amount to one day’s price.
- Capital gains calculator — what the return above looks like after tax, which is the figure you can actually spend.
- SWP calculator — the other end of the same investment: how much a built-up corpus can pay out each month, and how long it lasts.
Is a lumpsum better than a SIP?
For the same money over the same period a lumpsum ends up ahead on paper, because every rupee is invested from day one instead of trickling in. The catch is that it is also fully exposed from day one, so a bad first year hits the whole amount. A SIP buys at many prices and lowers the cost of getting the timing wrong. If the money already exists as a lump, the honest answer is that a lumpsum wins on average and a staggered entry wins on sleep.
What return should I assume for a lumpsum in mutual funds?
There is no correct figure to enter, only an honest one. Indian broad-market equity indices have returned roughly 11 to 13 percent a year over long stretches, which is why 12 percent is the common assumption and why this calculator opens on it — but that is history, not a promise, and it is nominal, before inflation and before tax. Run the same amount at 8 percent as well. If the plan only survives at 12 percent, it is not a plan.
Does this calculator deduct capital-gains tax?
No. It shows the gross value of the investment. What you actually keep depends on what you held and for how long — gains on listed equity and equity mutual funds are taxed under sections 111A and 112A of the Income-tax Act at different rates for short and long holdings, with a small annual exemption on long-term gains, and gains on debt-oriented funds bought after 1 April 2023 are taxed at your slab rate under section 50AA regardless of holding period. Rates and thresholds are reset by each Finance Act, so check the current year's before you plan around a net figure.
Is the ending value in today's rupees?
No. It is the rupee figure on that future date, and a rupee then buys less than a rupee now. A rough way to read it in today's money is to enter your expected return minus your expected inflation instead of the raw return — at 12 percent growth and 6 percent inflation, enter 6, and the answer becomes what the money is worth rather than what the statement will say.
Why do the last few years add so much more than the first few?
Because each year's growth is calculated on the previous year's closing value, not on what you put in. The base keeps getting bigger, so the same percentage moves a larger number every year. The Returns column in the year-by-year table above is a running total, so to see what one year added, subtract the row above it: on ₹5,00,000 at 12%, year one adds ₹60,000 and year ten adds ₹1,66,385.
This page starts from typical figures. In Hundo the same calculator opens on your own — the loan, the deposit, the salary already on the ledger — and says where each number came from.