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Compare Step-Up SIP scenarios

Change one input, hold everything else identical, and see how much that one input is actually worth. The gap between the scenarios is the whole answer.

What to compare

Everything else below is held identical across the scenarios, so the only thing separating the lines is this one input.

Shared by every scenario

The amount debited at the start of each month.

Whole years. Longer tenures are where compounding does its work.

An assumption you choose, not a forecast. Returns on equity funds vary a great deal from one year to the next, and past returns do not predict future ones.

Side by side

Projected value for each scenario, with every other input held identical
ScenarioAnnual step-upProjected value
Scenario A5%₹65,30,752
Scenario B10%₹86,83,849
Scenario C15%₹1,18,35,225

Moving annual step-up from 5% to 15% changes projected value by +₹53,04,473. Every other input was identical in both.

Show how each scenario is calculated

Scenario A — 5%

A step-up SIP has a different instalment each year, so the level-payment formula above does not apply. The engine simulates every month instead, which is why these steps show the schedule rather than a single substitution.

  1. Convert the annual return to a monthly rate

    12% ÷ 12

    = 1% (0.01)

    Divided, not compounded — the nominal convention every Indian AMC calculator uses.

  2. Count the instalments

    15 years × 12

    = 180 months

  3. First instalment

    the amount you entered

    = ₹10,000

  4. Instalment in the final year

    ₹10,000 raised by 5% on each of 14 anniversaries

    = ₹19,799

  5. Everything you paid in

    every instalment, added up

    = ₹25,89,428

  6. Value at the end

    each instalment grown from the month it was paid

    = ₹65,30,752

Scenario B — 10%

A step-up SIP has a different instalment each year, so the level-payment formula above does not apply. The engine simulates every month instead, which is why these steps show the schedule rather than a single substitution.

  1. Convert the annual return to a monthly rate

    12% ÷ 12

    = 1% (0.01)

    Divided, not compounded — the nominal convention every Indian AMC calculator uses.

  2. Count the instalments

    15 years × 12

    = 180 months

  3. First instalment

    the amount you entered

    = ₹10,000

  4. Instalment in the final year

    ₹10,000 raised by 10% on each of 14 anniversaries

    = ₹37,975

  5. Everything you paid in

    every instalment, added up

    = ₹38,12,698

  6. Value at the end

    each instalment grown from the month it was paid

    = ₹86,83,849

Scenario C — 15%

A step-up SIP has a different instalment each year, so the level-payment formula above does not apply. The engine simulates every month instead, which is why these steps show the schedule rather than a single substitution.

  1. Convert the annual return to a monthly rate

    12% ÷ 12

    = 1% (0.01)

    Divided, not compounded — the nominal convention every Indian AMC calculator uses.

  2. Count the instalments

    15 years × 12

    = 180 months

  3. First instalment

    the amount you entered

    = ₹10,000

  4. Instalment in the final year

    ₹10,000 raised by 15% on each of 14 anniversaries

    = ₹70,757

  5. Everything you paid in

    every instalment, added up

    = ₹57,09,649

  6. Value at the end

    each instalment grown from the month it was paid

    = ₹1,18,35,225

Every scenario is computed by the same engine the projected value calculator uses, so the last line of each is the figure in the table above. Intermediate values are shown rounded for reading; the calculation carries full precision throughout.

Over time

Each line is one scenario. Because every other input is identical, the gap between them is the effect of annual step-up alone.

How to read this

  • Only one input differs. Every other value is identical across the scenarios, which is what makes the gap between them readable. If each scenario had its own assumed return, the chart would be comparing guesses rather than choices.
  • A bigger number is not automatically better. On a loan comparison the larger figure is the worse one, and on any of these the right answer depends on circumstances this page knows nothing about.
  • The rate is still an assumption. Comparing scenarios does not make any of them a forecast — it only shows how sensitive the outcome is to the input you changed.

To see the arithmetic behind a single scenario, use the Step-Up SIP Calculator, which shows the formula and works it through with your numbers.