How a ₹3,000 SIP grows over 10 years
By investing ₹3,000 every month for 10 years, you contribute a total of ₹3,60,000. Assuming an average return of 12% per year — typical for Indian equity mutual funds over long horizons — the corpus compounds to about ₹6,97,017. Roughly ₹3,37,017 of that is pure compounding gain.
The power of compounding
Compounding is when your returns start earning returns of their own. In a SIP, every monthly contribution gets its own runway to grow. The contributions you make in the first 5 years usually generate the most lifetime growth — simply because they have the longest time to compound.
Why long-term horizons matter
Most of the gain in a long SIP arrives in the final stretch. In a 10-year plan, the last 5 years often contribute more growth than the first 5 combined, because compounding works on a much larger base by then. Staying invested through market noise is what separates great outcomes from average ones.
Tip: increase your SIP every year
Even a 5–10% yearly step-up — matched to your salary hike — meaningfully outperforms a flat SIP. Try the full SIP calculator to see what step-up does to this scenario.