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Professionally managed, SEBI-regulated pooled investments across equity, debt and hybrid categories. You can start with a small monthly SIP and stop, pause or redeem when you need to.
Start from ₹500 a month
About Mutual Funds →Home › Calculators › Inflation Calculator
Inflation is the quietest risk in personal finance because nothing appears to happen — the number in your account stays the same while what it buys shrinks. Pick the question you are actually asking below, and the calculator answers it in a sentence before showing you the numbers.
Prices rise at a constant rate every year. Real inflation varies year to year and differs by category — healthcare and education have historically risen faster than the general index. The return field is used only by the third question.
Illustration only. Inflation is assumed steady, which it never is, and the rate you experience depends on what you actually spend money on.
| Year | The same basket costs | Your money still buys | Purchasing power lost |
|---|
Money sitting in a savings account is losing this race quietly, year after year. Send us your figures and we will look at where it could sit instead, matched to when you actually need it.
Inflation works in two directions at once, and confusing them is what makes the subject hard. Prices compound upward, so the same basket costs more each year. Purchasing power compounds downward, so the same rupees buy less. Both describe one thing, but they answer different questions — which is why this calculator asks you to pick one.
Future cost = P × (1 + i)n
Future purchasing power = P ÷ (1 + i)n
At 6% inflation over fifteen years, something costing ₹1,00,000 today will cost around ₹2,40,000, while ₹1,00,000 left untouched will buy roughly what ₹41,700 buys today. Same erosion, two framings.
The third question is the one most worth asking. A deposit paying 7% while inflation runs at 6% is not growing your wealth by 7%. The real rate is what is left after inflation is stripped out:
Real rate = [ (1 + return) ÷ (1 + inflation) ] − 1
At 7% against 6%, that is roughly 0.94% a year — and that is before any tax on the return. After tax it can easily be negative. This is the arithmetic behind the observation that "safe" investments carry their own risk: the capital is protected in rupees but not in what those rupees can buy.
Almost every long-term financial decision quietly assumes an inflation rate, whether or not anyone says so. A retirement corpus, a child's education fund, the rent you expect to pay in twenty years — all of them move with prices. Planning any of them in today's rupees produces a target that is comfortably too small. Work out the future cost here first, then take that figure to the Goal Planner.
Nidhish Investments, founded by Nimesh Vala, is an AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor and an APMI-registered PMS Distributor working with families across Gujarat. We distribute three categories of SEBI-regulated products, and the right one depends on the capital you are working with and the risk you can carry.
Core
Professionally managed, SEBI-regulated pooled investments across equity, debt and hybrid categories. You can start with a small monthly SIP and stop, pause or redeem when you need to.
Start from ₹500 a month
About Mutual Funds →Newer category
A SEBI category positioned between Mutual Funds and PMS. SIF strategies have wider freedom in how they are run, including the use of derivatives, and carry higher risk than conventional Mutual Funds.
Minimum ₹10 lakh
About SIF →Larger portfolios
Securities are held in your own demat account and managed on your behalf by a SEBI-registered portfolio manager, against a defined strategy rather than a pooled scheme.
Minimum ₹50 lakh
About PMS →6% is a reasonable long-term general assumption. Category matters, though — education and healthcare have historically risen faster, closer to 8–10%, while some goods have barely moved. Use a rate that matches what you are actually planning for.
It separates the number in your account from what that number can buy. Enter the return you expect and it shows both: the nominal balance, and what that balance is worth in today's money. If the second figure is lower than what you started with, you are losing ground even though the account balance went up.
For money you may need next month, no — that is exactly what it is for. For money you will not touch for ten years, it means the balance is shrinking in real terms every year. The question is not whether to hold cash but how much, and for how long.
By holding assets whose returns have historically exceeded it over long periods, and by giving them enough time. Equity has done so historically in India, though with substantial volatility and no guarantee. Debt instruments typically deliver a smaller real return. The trade-off between the two is the central decision in most portfolios.
Because the official index reflects an average basket across the country, and yours is not average. If a large share of your spending goes on school fees, medical care or domestic help — all of which have risen quickly — your experienced inflation is genuinely higher than the headline number.
Statutory disclosures and risk disclaimer
Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.
Nidhish Investments is an AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor holding ARN-364347, and an APMI-registered Portfolio Management Services Distributor holding APRN-10163. We act solely as a distributor of investment products. We are not registered with SEBI as an Investment Adviser and do not provide investment advice, financial planning or portfolio management services.
This calculator is provided for illustration only. It uses the assumptions you enter and does not constitute a projection or guarantee of returns. It does not account for taxes, exit loads, expenses or changes in regulation. Past performance of any scheme, strategy or portfolio manager is not indicative of future results, and no returns are assured or guaranteed.
As a distributor, Nidhish Investments receives commission or brokerage from Asset Management Companies and portfolio managers on investments made through us. Details of commission earned on any product will be disclosed to you on request. Investors are advised to consult their own tax and legal professionals before investing. Registration status can be independently verified on the AMFI and APMI websites.