A retirement corpus of around Rs 5 crore was seen as a comfortable goal for many urban Indians until a few years ago. It was the number people worked towards, planned around and believed would be enough to sustain life after 60.
But that assumption is now being challenged. Sandeep Jethwani, co-founder of wealth management firm Dezerv, has raised eyebrows by suggesting that the real number could be far higher, around Rs 40 crore.
For years, a retirement corpus of Rs 5–10 crore was seen as a reasonable goal. But Sandeep Jethwani, co-founder of wealth firm Dezerv, says that number may be far off the mark.
Appearing on a podcast, Jethwani said a person spending Rs 1–2 lakh a month today may need as much as Rs 40 crore by age 60 to retire comfortably in a metro. The number sounds excessive at first, but he says the math tells a different story.
“When we ran these numbers internally, our first reaction was the same as everyone else’s. The headline figure feels punitive,” Jethwani said.
He explained that the discomfort comes from how people underestimate long-term costs.
“2 lakh a month today is not extravagant for our client base. It is a household running with help, a car, regular travel, private healthcare, school fees. Standard HNI baseline,” he said.
This forms the starting point for calculating retirement needs.
Jethwani said commonly cited inflation numbers do not reflect actual urban spending.
“Retail CPI runs at 5–6%. That is not the basket our clients actually consume,” he said.
He broke it down further:
“Private healthcare in India inflates at 12–14%. Domestic staff wages are running at 10–12% in metros. Premium school fees, club memberships, international travel, all hover between 8–10%,” he said.
“Blended, HNI lifestyle inflation lands at 9%. That is empirical, not aggressive.”
Using that 9% inflation, he showed how current expenses rise sharply.
“Apply 9% to 2 lakh a month over 20 years. The number becomes 11.2 lakh a month at age 60 or 1.34 crore a year,” he said.
Jethwani said many people underestimate how long they will need money.
“People plan to 75 or 80 because that is what national averages suggest. National averages are dragged down by rural, lower income, and infant mortality data,” he said.
He added that actual life expectancy for urban Indians is higher.
“Data shows that for a couple at 65 today, there is a 71% probability one partner reaches 85 years of age. A 44% probability one reaches 90,” he said.
“Planning to ninety is not optimistic. It is the new baseline.”
Even investment returns may not reduce the burden as much as people expect.
“Even if your retirement portfolio earns 9%, inflation also runs at 9%. Your real return is zero,” he said.
Jethwani laid out the math clearly.
“30 years of retirement at 1.34 crore a year 30 multiplied by 1.34 crore a year is 40 crore,” he said.
Despite the large figure, he said the target looks different when viewed in today’s terms.
“At 12% returns before retirement, 40 crore at 60 translates to roughly 4.2 crore today. If I mentioned 4.2 crore retirement corpus today, no one would have batted an eye,” he said.
Jethwani said the goal is not to alarm people but to shift how they think about long-term planning.
“The point of this exercise is not to scare anyone. It is to make sure people understand inflation and power of compounding,” he said.
The takeaway is simple: what once felt like a comfortable retirement number may no longer be enough, especially when rising costs and longer lifespans are factored in.
(Disclaimer: The views, opinions, recommendations, and suggestions expressed by experts/brokerages in this article are their own and do not reflect the views of the India Today Group. It is advisable to consult a qualified broker or financial advisor before making any actual investment or trading choices.)