What waiting costs you
Put off a ₹5,000 SIP by five years and, with the same finish line twenty years out, you end up with ₹25,22,880 instead of ₹49,95,740. You skipped ₹3 L of instalments and lost ₹24.73 L — the difference is compounding you can never buy back.
Your SIP, and how long you wait
What leaves your bank account every month. Type any amount — the slider is just a shortcut.
An assumption, not a promise. Equity funds are usually modelled at 10–12%; see what rate to assume.
The price of the delay
What you investWhat compounding adds
| Year | Monthly | Invested so far | Returns | Value at year end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ₹5,000 | ₹60,000 | ₹4,047 | ₹64,047 |
| 2 | ₹5,000 | ₹1,20,000 | ₹16,216 | ₹1,36,216 |
| 3 | ₹5,000 | ₹1,80,000 | ₹37,538 | ₹2,17,538 |
| 4 | ₹5,000 | ₹2,40,000 | ₹69,174 | ₹3,09,174 |
| 5 | ₹5,000 | ₹3,00,000 | ₹1,12,432 | ₹4,12,432 |
| 6 | ₹5,000 | ₹3,60,000 | ₹1,68,785 | ₹5,28,785 |
| 7 | ₹5,000 | ₹4,20,000 | ₹2,39,895 | ₹6,59,895 |
| 8 | ₹5,000 | ₹4,80,000 | ₹3,27,633 | ₹8,07,633 |
| 9 | ₹5,000 | ₹5,40,000 | ₹4,34,108 | ₹9,74,108 |
| 10 | ₹5,000 | ₹6,00,000 | ₹5,61,695 | ₹11,61,695 |
| 11 | ₹5,000 | ₹6,60,000 | ₹7,13,074 | ₹13,73,074 |
| 12 | ₹5,000 | ₹7,20,000 | ₹8,91,261 | ₹16,11,261 |
| 13 | ₹5,000 | ₹7,80,000 | ₹10,99,656 | ₹18,79,656 |
| 14 | ₹5,000 | ₹8,40,000 | ₹13,42,090 | ₹21,82,090 |
| 15 | ₹5,000 | ₹9,00,000 | ₹16,22,880 | ₹25,22,880 |
| 16 | ₹5,000 | ₹9,60,000 | ₹19,46,891 | ₹29,06,891 |
| 17 | ₹5,000 | ₹10,20,000 | ₹23,19,604 | ₹33,39,604 |
| 18 | ₹5,000 | ₹10,80,000 | ₹27,47,196 | ₹38,27,196 |
| 19 | ₹5,000 | ₹11,40,000 | ₹32,36,627 | ₹43,76,627 |
| 20 | ₹5,000 | ₹12,00,000 | ₹37,95,740 | ₹49,95,740 |
Why the loss is so much bigger than the skipped instalments
This is the calculation that changed how I think about starting late, and it is why this tool exists — nowhere else seems to show it plainly.
In the reference case, five years of waiting means skipping ₹3 L of instalments. The final shortfall is ₹24.73 L — around 8 times the money you did not invest.
The reason is which years you lose. Waiting does not remove your last five years of instalments; it removes your first five — the only ones that get the full twenty years of compounding. You are not skipping the cheap seats, you are skipping the ones that compound longest.
The same mechanism explains why the last five years of a long SIP add so much less than people expect: that money has barely any time to work.
Catching up costs more than you would guess
The "instalment needed to catch up" row solves a specific question: if you do wait, what would you have to pay for the remaining years to land on the same final number?
In the reference case it is ₹9,901 a month rather than ₹5,000 — about 98% more, every month, for fifteen years. And that is the optimistic framing, because it assumes your income rose enough to make the larger figure affordable.
Waiting is not free and it is not neutral. It is a decision to pay considerably more later for the same outcome.
A fairer way to read this
This is not a reason for guilt
If you are reading this at 40 rather than 25, the useful conclusion is not "I have missed it" — it is "the next five years are the most valuable ones I still have". The same arithmetic that makes delay expensive makes starting today the best available move at every age.
Set the delay to 0 and note that the shortfall goes to zero. That is the point.
Before you rely on this
An estimate, not a forecast
This is arithmetic applied to assumptions you chose. Mutual funds carry market risk, returns are not guaranteed, and past performance does not indicate future results. Nothing here is personalised advice — for decisions of any size, speak to a SEBI-registered investment adviser.
Questions people actually ask
Is it too late to start investing at 40?
No, but the plan has to change shape. With 20 years to 60 you still have a long horizon, and the calculator above will show a real corpus. What you have less of is slack — so the step-up matters more, and pushing the goalpost out a few years buys a disproportionate amount.
Run your actual age and target through the retirement planner rather than a generic rule.
What if I invest a lump sum later to make up for it?
That works, and the required amount is larger than intuition suggests, because the lump sum also gets fewer years to compound. The goal planner gives the one-time figure for any target and horizon.
Does this assume markets go up steadily?
Yes — one constant rate, no volatility. That is a simplification, and in one respect it is conservative about delay: a late starter also has fewer market cycles to average across, which raises their risk in a way this model does not capture.
All assumptions are on the methodology page.