Investment Calculators

The most common error in investment calculators is applying one compounding convention to every product. Indian instruments do not share one. Fixed deposits compound quarterly, recurring deposits take monthly money but still compound quarterly, PPF compounds annually, and a SIP instalment is paid at the start of the period rather than the end.

Each of these calculators uses the convention its product actually uses. The differences are not academic: quarterly rather than annual compounding is worth over ₹6,000 on a ₹5 lakh five-year FD, and the start-of-period assumption is why a correct SIP figure is slightly higher than most calculators report.

Guaranteed-return products — FD, RD, PPF — will produce the number shown. Market-linked projections will not. A SIP figure is arithmetic applied to an assumption you supplied, and the assumption is the part that carries the risk.