How this calculator works
Inflation erodes the purchasing power of money over time — the same rupee buys less next year than it does today. This calculator does two things from one set of inputs: projects what a goal will cost in the future, and shows what your current money would actually be worth by then, in today's terms.
The formula
The purchasing-power view runs this in reverse — dividing instead of multiplying — to show how much of today's buying power a fixed sum retains after inflation over the same period.
Why category matters more than a single “inflation rate”
Headline CPI is an average across a broad consumption basket. Individual categories move very differently — which is why this tool lets you start from a goal type instead of guessing a single number:
| Category | Typical range used here |
|---|---|
| General / mixed expenses | 5–7% |
| Education | 10–12% |
| Healthcare | 11–14% |
| Weddings & lifestyle events | 7–9% |
| Real estate | 8–10% |
These are illustrative starting points based on commonly observed long-run trends in India, not a forecast for any specific city, provider, or institution. Always override with your own research where you have it.
Why we don't calculate this part for you
Working out the future cost is arithmetic. Working out the monthly investment required to actually reach it needs an assumed rate of return — and that assumption is where a calculator can do real harm if it's generic. The formula itself is straightforward:
The number this produces changes enormously depending on which return assumption goes in — and the right assumption depends on your risk capacity, your time horizon, what you're already holding, and how this goal ranks against everything else you're funding. A single page can't responsibly know any of that about you. That judgment call is the actual work of personal finance management, which is why it isn't automated here.
Why one calculator, run once, isn't the full answer
This tool looks at a single goal in isolation. In practice, most people are funding several goals at once — a child's education, a home, retirement, an emergency fund — all drawing from the same monthly surplus, each inflating at its own rate, each competing for priority when money is tight in a given month. Running this calculator for every goal separately and adding up the numbers is a reasonable starting point, but it doesn't tell you how to sequence them, what to trade off when they conflict, or how to adjust as income, priorities, and markets change year to year. That ongoing coordination — not a one-time plan handed over and left to age — is what personal finance management actually involves, and it's the core of what Taxomic does for clients.