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Project SIPs, lumpsums, deposits and withdrawals with explicit return assumptions — not promised market outcomes.
Investment calculators on Finaura answer a narrow question: if this amount is invested at this assumed rate for this many years, what does the arithmetic produce? They do not forecast markets, pick funds or guarantee returns.
That distinction matters in India, where SIP, PPF, FD and SWP are often discussed as if they were the same kind of product. They are not. A bank FD credits a contracted rate. A market SIP uses a rate you type in as an assumption. The page should say which one you are looking at.
Each tool shows the formula, assumptions and a short explanation. Numbers stay in your browser.
A SIP is a repeated contribution from income you have not earned yet. A lumpsum is capital you already hold. A step-up SIP is a SIP whose contribution rises on a schedule. Confusing them leads people to compare “₹10,000 a month for 20 years” with “₹24 lakh today” as if they were the same decision.
Use the SIP calculator, the step-up SIP calculator and the lumpsum calculator with the same assumed rate if you want an apples-to-apples illustration. Then read SIP vs lump sum for the decision that actually sits behind those numbers.
Small changes in assumed return dominate long horizons. A 10% illustration and a 12% illustration are not close cousins after 20 years. Always treat the rate field as a what-if, not as a track record.
Deposits such as FD, RD and PPF follow their own compounding conventions. Those calculators use the rules described on each page rather than a generic market-return formula. See how compounding works.
Read the explanation, then run the matching calculator with your own numbers.
A SIP is how you invest money you will earn later. A lump sum is how you invest money you already have. Treating them as rival products hides that difference.
A step-up SIP is a SIP whose instalment rises on a schedule. The extra growth comes from extra contributions, not from a special compounding trick.
Compounding is interest on interest — or returns on previous returns. Time and the rate you assume do most of the work. Markets do not compound in a straight line.
For most people the question answers itself, because a SIP is simply what investing a salary looks like. The genuine dilemma arrives when a large sum lands at once — and there the arithmetic and the behavioural answer point in different directions.