The short answer
₹1 crore invested at an assumed 8% a year generates about ₹66,667 a month in growth. Withdraw less than that and the corpus keeps rising indefinitely. Withdraw more and you are eating into capital, and the only question left is how many years it takes to finish.
Monthly income from ₹1 crore at different return rates
The second column is the withdrawal a ₹1 crore corpus can sustain forever at that return. The remaining columns show how long the corpus survives three common withdrawal targets.
| Assumed return | Sustainable / month | ₹60,000 / month lasts | ₹80,000 / month lasts | ₹1,00,000 / month lasts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7% p.a. | ₹58,333 | 51 yr 4 mo | 18 yr 8 mo | 12 yr 6 mo |
| 8% p.a. | ₹66,667 | Never runs out | 22 yr 5 mo | 13 yr 9 mo |
| 9% p.a. | ₹75,000 | Never runs out | 30 yr 11 mo | 15 yr 5 mo |
| 10% p.a. | ₹83,333 | Never runs out | Never runs out | 17 yr 11 mo |
| 11% p.a. | ₹91,667 | Never runs out | Never runs out | 22 yr 8 mo |
| 12% p.a. | ₹1,00,000 | Never runs out | Never runs out | Never runs out |
Why the “never runs out” rows are more fragile than they look
A row that says the corpus is never depleted assumes the return arrives smoothly, every month, forever. Real markets do not oblige. A portfolio averaging 10% over twenty years might deliver −18% in year three, and a retiree withdrawing a fixed ₹80,000 through that year redeems far more units than planned, permanently shrinking the base that has to recover. This is why a plan that looks perpetual on paper can still fail in practice, and why keeping two or three years of withdrawals in a low-volatility holding is common advice.
What inflation does to a fixed withdrawal
₹80,000 a month buys considerably less after twenty years than it does today. At 6% inflation, its purchasing power roughly halves in twelve years and falls to about a third in twenty. A withdrawal plan that is comfortable at the start and never rises can become inadequate long before the corpus runs out. If you expect to raise the withdrawal over time, model the higher future amount now and see whether the corpus still holds.
Building the ₹1 crore in the first place
Running the arithmetic backwards: at an assumed 12% a year, a monthly SIP of about ₹19,819 for 15 years, or roughly ₹10,009 for 20 years, reaches ₹1 crore. Use the combined SIP and SWP calculator to set the accumulation target and the withdrawal plan side by side — the corpus your SIP produces flows straight into the withdrawal projection, so you can see immediately whether the income you want is the income your contributions will actually support.
Disclaimer: Every figure on this page is an illustration produced by a compounding formula, not a forecast and not investment advice. Mutual fund returns are market-linked and are neither guaranteed nor uniform year to year. Verify your own plan with a SEBI-registered investment adviser before acting on it.