How long does ₹5 crore realistically sustain a modern Indian retirement, and under what conditions does it fall short?
It is a confronting question, but it is the only version of the conversation that actually matters. The economics of retirement have shifted so colossally that the numbers people rely on today bear little resemblance to the real costs they will face over the next 20 to 30 years.
This is why the question above is worth sitting with for a moment. The inquiry of this piece is not to challenge the idea of ₹5 crore, but to understand what it actually represents when mapped onto a modern retirement — one that spans multiple phases of life, each with its own economics, rhythms, and pressures.
Intriguingly, I see retirement less as a financial milestone and more as a design problem. It needs to be structured thoughtfully, with clarity on sequence, priorities, and trade-offs. A corpus like ₹5 crore is just one element within that design. How well the design holds is what we will examine next.
Let’s dive deep.
How long will you need your portfolio to provide for you?
We will begin by addressing the elephant in the room.
The first variable in any retirement plan is not the corpus. It is time. And that timeline is quietly expanding. Life expectancy in India has moved steadily higher and now averages over 71 years. For anyone retiring at 60 in reasonable health, it is prudent to plan for 25 to 30 years of post-retirement spending. That is the real duration a retirement corpus must be built to support.
The second reality is uncertainty. The environment you retire into will be meaningfully different from the one you built your career in. Several shifts are already evident:
- Senior roles are being reshaped by automation and artificial intelligence, reducing the reliability of late-career or post-retirement income.
- Organisations are structurally leaner, with persistent cost pressures limiting second-innings opportunities.
- Second careers are harder to rely on, particularly at senior compensation levels.
- Retirement support systems are under strain, not expanding at the pace many assume.
- Skilled caregivers and specialised healthcare staff are in short supply, pushing costs higher.
- Quality senior living infrastructure is becoming more expensive and harder to access.
These trends increase the importance of planning for a retirement that is fully self-funded and resilient to external constraints. All of these amplify one fundamental risk: you do not want to run out of resources when flexibility is lowest, and dependence is highest.
How can cash distributions and inflation impact your portfolio?
Living longer is only half the equation. The other half is what it costs to live for longer, and how that cost is funded once regular income stops.
A lot of people approach retirement with a simple mental shortcut. Markets have delivered roughly 12% returns over the long term, so they assume withdrawing 12% every year should be safe. The capital stays intact, and life carries on.
That assumption breaks very quickly in the real world. Returns do not arrive evenly.
- Some years, markets are up sharply.
- Some years, they barely move.
- Some years, they fall.
When you withdraw money during a weak year, you are not just taking cash out. You are locking in losses and shrinking the base from which future recoveries can happen. This is a blind spot, people seem to miss out on.
Now add inflation to the picture.
Living costs do not stay flat after retirement. They rise every year.
Even at a reasonable 6% inflation, expenses compound faster than most people expect. What costs ₹1 lakh a month today will cost roughly ₹3.2 lakh a month in 20 years. That increase has to be met through larger and larger withdrawals from the same portfolio.
Healthcare adds another layer of pressure. Medical costs have historically grown much faster than general inflation. While overall inflation usually stays around 4–6%, healthcare expenses have been rising at 12–15% a year for a long time.
This is not just about big hospital bills. Regular diagnostics, medicines, home care, and specialist support all add up over time. Planning for retirement usually misses this reality and understates the corpus required in later years, precisely when flexibility is lowest.
So, how long does ₹5 crore actually last?
Once you account for time, uncertainty, withdrawals, and inflation, the question becomes very practical. What does ₹5 crore sustain in real terms?
To answer this, we need to fix a few assumptions and keep them sensible:
- Retirement begins at 60
- Expenses rise at 6% a year to reflect inflation
- Portfolio returns fall in an 8–12% post-tax range, depending on asset mix. Taking the midpoint at 10%
- Withdrawals increase every year to preserve purchasing power
With those assumptions, the biggest driver of outcomes is not returns. It is a starting lifestyle.
Consider three common retirement spending levels in today’s terms:
₹1.5 lakh per month
At this level, ₹5 crore has room to work. Withdrawals rise steadily with inflation, but the portfolio is not under immediate stress. There is capacity to absorb periods of weak market returns, higher healthcare costs later in life, and some degree of lifestyle drift, as long as spending remains broadly controlled. For many retirees, this is where the maths stays comfortable.
₹3 lakh per month
This is where the equation tightens. Withdrawals increase meaningfully year after year, and inflation does a larger share of the damage. The portfolio becomes more sensitive to sequencing, meaning poor early returns hurt disproportionately. ₹5 crore can still sustain this lifestyle, but only with disciplined withdrawals and a portfolio that continues to take some growth risk. The margin for error is limited.
₹5 lakh per month
At this level, the strain shows up early. Inflation compounds aggressively, withdrawals rise sharply, and even a 10% return assumption struggles to keep pace over a 25–30 year period. Healthcare costs and any large, unplanned expenses accelerate the drawdown further. For most people, ₹5 crore on its own does not comfortably support this lifestyle for the full duration of retirement.
This math confuses a lot of people. Here’s why.
At first glance, the numbers look reassuring. A ₹5 crore portfolio earning 10% generates about ₹50 lakh a year. If you are spending ₹1.5 lakh a month, or ₹18 lakh a year, it feels like the returns should comfortably cover expenses indefinitely.
The problem is that this comparison freezes the world in year one. Retirement does not work that way.
A simpler way to think about it is to separate nominal returns from real outcomes.
- Nominal portfolio return: ~10%
- Inflation on expenses: ~6%
- Real return on the portfolio: ~4%
In real terms, your portfolio is growing at about 4% a year, before withdrawals. Now look at the withdrawal.
At ₹1.5 lakh a month, your annual spending today is ₹18 lakh. On a ₹5 crore corpus, that is a 3.6% real withdrawal rate.
This leaves a 0.4% buffer and works as long as:
- markets cooperate reasonably
- withdrawals remain disciplined
- healthcare costs are managed
When these overlap, which they often do later in life, expenses start to catch up with real returns. At higher spending levels, this crossover happens much sooner. It must also be noted that these spending levels are in today’s terms. They must be adjusted over time to reflect inflation and rising living costs up until your age to retirement.
The better fix: work out your own math
A lot of you may not agree with the assumptions used here, and that is completely fair. Everyone’s reality is different. Some of you plan to spend more. Some less. Some want to travel aggressively in the early years. Others want to slow down. Many of you have large life goals in mind or responsibilities that do not neatly fit into a spreadsheet.
Some of you want to leave money behind for your family. Others are comfortable drawing the corpus down more fully. Some expect income to continue for a few years after retirement. Others do not. None of these choices are right or wrong. They simply change the outcome.
That is precisely the point. Retirement planning does not work with one answer. It works with your answer. This is where running the same exercise with your own numbers matters.
Inside the Dezerv app, the Retirement Planning Tool lets you adjust spending levels, assumptions, and goals and see how the picture changes. You can test different lifestyles, different timelines, and different priorities, instead of relying on a single scenario.
Behind the scenes, the tool works across various variables that shape retirement outcomes, including how long you plan to work, how your expenses evolve over time, the role of market volatility, and how large goals alter the runway.
If this newsletter has raised questions rather than settled them, that is a good place to be. The next step is simply to run the numbers for yourself and see what your version of retirement actually looks like.
In summary
₹5 crore is neither a magic number nor an inadequate one. Its effectiveness depends entirely on how long it needs to last, how it is drawn down, and what it is expected to fund along the way.
A longer retirement horizon changes the problem. Inflation, especially in healthcare, changes the slope. Withdrawals introduce sequencing risk that averages cannot capture. And lifestyle choices quietly determine whether the margin for error is wide or wafer-thin.
At lower spending levels, the math can work with discipline and structure. As spending rises, the system becomes far more sensitive to shocks, timing, and trade-offs. The difference is rarely visible in year one. It shows up over decades.
Which is why retirement planning cannot be reduced to a single corpus figure or a rule of thumb. It is a design exercise. One that needs to reflect your priorities, your risks, and your version of a life well lived.
If this piece has done its job, it has not told you what to think. It has given you a framework to think with. The rest depends on the numbers you plug in and the choices you make early enough to matter.
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