Child Education SIP Planner
Plan a goal-based child education SIP in seconds. Enter the current cost of your child's higher education, the years you have, education inflation, and expected return — the planner computes the inflated future cost and the monthly SIP you need to start today. Runs entirely in your browser. No sign-up.
Investment Summary
Chart shows SIP corpus growth (purple area) vs cumulative invested (gold line) approaching the inflated future-cost target.
Growth Over Time
Year-by-Year Breakdown
| Year | Invested | Returns | Total Value | Growth % |
|---|
Scroll horizontally to view all years. Values are projected based on the inputs above.
Note: the "Returns" column shows the gap between inflated future cost at that year and the corpus accumulated so far (negative means surplus).
Why child education planning needs SIPs
Child education is one of the largest single expenses an Indian family will ever face — and it is also the fastest-inflating one. Education inflation in India has historically run at 10–12% per year, more than double the general CPI inflation of 5–6%. A private engineering seat that cost ₹4 lakh in 2010 costs ₹12–18 lakh today. A medical seat through management quota has crossed ₹50 lakh at many private colleges. An MBA from a top-20 Indian b-school is now ₹20–50 lakh. A foreign undergraduate degree (US, UK, Australia, Singapore) easily runs ₹50 lakh to ₹2 crore once tuition, living, and travel are added up.
Few Indian families have that kind of money lying around when the bill arrives. The standard response — taking an education loan at the last minute — works, but it loads the child with EMI pressure right at the start of their career. A far better approach is to plan ahead with a child education SIP: a dedicated monthly investment that compounds for 10–18 years and pays the bill in cash when the child turns 18. A SIP turns a terrifying lump-sum into a manageable monthly number, and gives compounding enough time to do most of the heavy lifting.
Start when the child is 3 and you have 15 years. Start when the child is 10 and you have 8. Start when the child is 14 and you have 4 — at which point SIPs alone will not bridge the gap. The earlier you begin, the smaller the monthly amount, and the more time your money has to grow. Use this child education SIP calculator the day your child is born; redo it every year as costs and time horizons shift.
How the Child Education SIP Planner works
The planner asks four questions. What does the education cost today? — enter the current cost of the course your child might pursue, whether that is an engineering degree (₹8–20 lakh), medical college (₹15–50 lakh), an MBA (₹20–50 lakh), or a foreign education (₹50 lakh–₹2 crore). How many years until they need the money? — typically 18 minus the child's current age, but you may want to fund a postgraduate degree too, which adds 4 more years.
What is education inflation? — 10% is a sensible default. For tier-1 private colleges it has been 11–13% in recent years; for government institutions, closer to 7–8%. What return do you expect on your SIP? — for horizons of 10+ years, 11–12% is reasonable for an equity mutual fund SIP; for shorter horizons use 8–10% for hybrid funds and 6–7% for debt funds.
With those four inputs the planner does two things. First, it inflates the current cost to a future cost using compound inflation. Second, it computes the monthly SIP that will accumulate to that future cost, using the future value of an annuity formula. The result is the single number that matters: how much you need to invest every month, starting now, to write a cheque for the full course fee when the child is ready. Use the sliders above to model your scenario, and pair this planner with the SIP Calculator and the SIP Goal Calculator to sanity-check the numbers.
The math: future cost and required SIP
Two formulas drive the planner. The first inflates today's cost to a future cost:
Future Cost = Current Cost × (1 + inflation)^years
The second solves for the monthly SIP that will grow to that future cost, using the future value of an annuity due (the standard SIP formula used across this site):
P = Future Cost / [((1 + r)^n − 1) / r × (1 + r)]
where r is the monthly return (annual return ÷ 12) and n is the number of months (years × 12). The × (1 + r) at the end accounts for the fact that each SIP instalment is invested at the start of its month.
A worked example. Suppose your 3-year-old will likely pursue an engineering degree that costs ₹20 lakh today. You have 15 years. Education inflation is 10% per year. You expect your equity SIP to compound at 12% per year. The future cost works out to ₹20,00,000 × (1.10)^15 = ₹83,54,432 — about ₹83.5 lakh. The required monthly SIP, plugging into the formula above with r = 1% and n = 180, comes out to approximately ₹16,558 per month. Over 15 years you will invest ₹29,80,440, and the remaining ₹53,73,992 of the ₹83.5 lakh corpus comes from compounding. Roughly two-thirds of the goal is funded by markets, not by you — that is the power of starting early.
The same logic scales up. A ₹40 lakh medical degree today, with the same 15-year horizon, doubles the SIP to about ₹33,000 per month. A ₹1 crore foreign education needs about ₹83,000 per month. None of these are out of reach for a middle-class family in their 30s with 15 years to plan — but they are catastrophic if you start when the child is in Class 10.
The cost of waiting
Time is the single most powerful variable in child education planning, because two things happen simultaneously as you delay. First, the future cost keeps inflating at 10% per year — every year you wait, the goal grows by 10%. Second, your SIP has fewer months to compound — every year you wait, the future value factor shrinks. Both push the required monthly SIP up, and the combined effect is brutal.
Using the same ₹20 lakh engineering example above: start at year 15 (the default), and the required SIP is ₹16,558 per month. Wait 5 years and start at year 10 — the future cost is now ₹51,87,400 and your monthly SIP jumps to ₹22,332. Wait another 5 years and start at year 5 — the future cost is ₹32,21,000 and your required SIP is ₹39,040 per month. A 10-year delay more than doubles the monthly burden, from ₹16,558 to ₹39,040. Read our detailed post on the cost of delaying SIPs for more on this asymmetry.
The implication is simple but easy to forget in your 20s: start a child education SIP the year your child is born, even if it is a small amount. A ₹5,000 per month SIP started at birth is worth far more than a ₹20,000 per month SIP started when the child is 10. Step it up as your salary grows — see the Step-up SIP Calculator for how a 10% annual step-up changes the math.
Asset allocation glide path: equity when young, debt near college
A 15-year equity SIP will see at least two or three market corrections of 30–40%. That is fine while you are accumulating — corrections are when SIPs buy more units at lower prices. But in the last 3–5 years before the goal, a market crash just before you need the money can wipe out years of gains. The 2008 crash, the 2020 COVID crash, and the 2022 correction all illustrate this risk.
The fix is a glide path: shift the corpus from equity to debt as the goal approaches. A simple rule of thumb is to stay 100% in equity until 5 years before the goal, then move 20% per year into debt funds or arbitrage funds. By the year the child enters college, the corpus is 100% debt and immune to equity volatility. This sacrifices a small amount of return in the final years but removes the worst-case scenario: a 30% drop in the corpus right when the fee bill is due.
For the debt portion, use short-duration debt funds, money market funds, or arbitrage funds (which have equity-fund taxation but debt-like volatility). Avoid long-duration debt funds at this stage — they can swing 5–8% with rate changes. The SIP Inflation Calculator can help you stress-test your assumptions about real returns through the glide path.
Section 80C benefit via child education SIPs (ELSS)
A child education SIP can be structured to deliver tax savings alongside the corpus. ELSS (Equity Linked Savings Scheme) funds are diversified equity mutual funds that qualify for Section 80C deduction up to ₹1.5 lakh per financial year. At the 30% tax slab, that is ₹46,800 saved per year — money that stays invested and compounds. Over 15 years, the tax saved alone can add up to ₹7 lakh, and the compounding on that ₹7 lakh can take the total benefit well above ₹15 lakh.
ELSS funds have a 3-year lock-in from each instalment date, but for a child education SIP with a 10–15 year horizon, this lock-in is irrelevant. The funds are equity-diversified, so expected returns (10–12%) match those of a regular flexi-cap or large-cap fund. The main constraint is the ₹1.5 lakh annual 80C cap — once you max it out (₹12,500 per month), additional SIPs should go into non-ELSS equity funds to avoid concentration. Use our ELSS Tax Saver SIP Calculator to model the tax-saver SIP in detail.
Note that child insurance plans and child ULIPs sold by banks and agents also offer Section 80C benefits, but they typically carry 2–4% annual charges compared to 0.5–1.5% for direct mutual funds. Over 15 years, that difference in expense ratio can compound into ₹10–20 lakh of lost returns. Stick with mutual fund SIPs — ELSS or otherwise — and skip the insurance-cum-investment products. Read more on this in our blog post on SIP for child education and the broader guide on the power of compounding in SIPs.
Frequently asked questions about the Child Education SIP Planner
How much should I invest monthly for my child education through SIP?
Why is education inflation assumed at 10% in this calculator?
What return should I assume for a child education SIP?
Should I use ELSS funds for my child education SIP?
How do I shift from equity to debt as my child approaches college?
Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Please consult a SEBI-registered investment adviser before investing.