₹5,000 vs ₹10,000 vs ₹20,000 a Month — How Much Will Your Child's Education Fund Grow, and What Will It Actually Pay For?
Personal Finance · Child Education SIP · India 2026
₹5,000 vs ₹10,000 vs ₹20,000 a Month — How Much Will Your Child’s Education Fund Grow, and What Will It Actually Pay For?
A ₹10,000 monthly SIP held for 18 years could reach about ₹57.6 lakh at a 10% return. After 10% education inflation, that buys roughly what ₹10.4 lakh buys today. Here are the full numbers for all three amounts.
Every parent who starts a SIP for a child eventually types some version of the same question into a search bar: if I put in ₹5,000, ₹10,000 or ₹20,000 a month, how much will I have when my child turns 18? Most calculators answer with one large, flattering number. They rarely answer the question that follows: is that number enough for the course my child is likely to want?
This article answers both. It projects all three amounts over 5, 10, 15 and 18 years at three different return rates, then converts each result into today’s money using a 10% education inflation assumption, so you can see what the fund really pays for.
Part 1 · The backdrop
Ten Crore SIPs Are Running. Few Are Sized to a Goal.
The monthly SIP has become India’s default way to save. AMFI data for August 2026, reported in September, showed record SIP inflows of ₹32,297 crore in a single month and more than 10 crore contributing SIP accounts. Yet most of those SIPs are set at an amount that feels comfortable, not one worked backwards from a costed goal.
The third figure in that strip matters most for this article. According to an April 2026 analysis by Finnovate using NSE historical data, the Nifty 50 has grown about 10.59% a year since its 1995 launch, and its 20-year rolling return fell below 10% at the end of FY 2025-26, only the second time that has happened. That is why this article does not lean on the popular 12% assumption alone.
Part 2 · The headline numbers
Three Monthly Amounts, Side by Side
Here is the core comparison. Each card shows what an 18-year SIP grows to at three different annual returns, alongside the amount you actually put in. The 10% column is the central case; 8% is a cautious case; 12% is the optimistic case that many online calculators default to.
Notice the gap between the 8% and 12% rows. For a ₹20,000 SIP, it is almost ₹49 lakh. That difference comes from nothing but the return assumption, which is why a single-number projection can mislead badly in either direction.
Part 3 · The full table
The Growth Table Worth Saving
The table below extends the comparison across four time horizons. Each cell shows the projected value at a 10% return in bold, with the 8% to 12% range beneath it. Use the column that matches the number of years until your child’s first fee.
| Monthly SIP | 5 years | 10 years | 15 years | 18 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ₹5,000 | ₹3.9 L3.7 to 4.1 | ₹10.1 L9.1 to 11.2 | ₹20.1 L17.0 to 23.8 | ₹28.8 L23.4 to 35.6 |
| ₹10,000 | ₹7.7 L7.3 to 8.1 | ₹20.1 L18.1 to 22.4 | ₹40.2 L34.0 to 47.6 | ₹57.6 L46.9 to 71.2 |
| ₹20,000 | ₹15.4 L14.7 to 16.2 | ₹40.3 L36.3 to 44.8 | ₹80.3 L68.0 to 95.2 | ₹1.15 Cr93.7 L to 1.42 Cr |
| Invested at ₹10,000 | ₹6.0 L | ₹12.0 L | ₹18.0 L | ₹21.6 L |
| Cost multiplier at 10% inflation | 1.61x | 2.59x | 4.18x | 5.56x |
The last row is the one most calculators leave out. It shows how much more any course will cost by then. Over 18 years, at 10% education inflation, fees multiply by about 5.56 times. A fund has to grow at least that fast just to stand still.
Part 4 · The reality check
What Your Fund Is Really Worth in Today’s College Fees
A big number in 18 years means little until you translate it back into today’s prices. Divide each projected fund by the 5.56x cost multiplier and you get its purchasing power in today’s education money. Then compare that with what courses cost now.
For reference, Careers360’s IIT fee guide puts a four-year B.Tech at about ₹8 lakh to ₹11 lakh in total fees, and its IIM tracker, updated 29 September 2026, lists fees for the 2026-28 batch from about ₹17 lakh at IIM Bodh Gaya to about ₹25.2 lakh at IIM Indore. Private MBBS tuition at Uttar Pradesh’s minority colleges runs about ₹17 lakh to ₹19 lakh a year.
Worked example: the Iyer family’s ₹10,000
The Iyers start a ₹10,000 SIP when their daughter is born. Over 18 years they invest ₹21.6 lakh. At 10%, the fund reaches about ₹57.6 lakh. A course costing ₹10 lakh today will cost about ₹10 lakh multiplied by 5.56, or ₹55.6 lakh, by then. Their fund just covers it. If returns average 8% instead, the fund reaches ₹46.9 lakh and falls about ₹8.7 lakh short. If they had raised the SIP by 10% each year, the fund would reach about ₹1.15 crore, enough for a course costing roughly ₹20.7 lakh today.
Part 5 · Confirmed facts
What We Know
Figures confirmed as of 8 October 2026
- AMFI data shows SIP inflows of ₹32,297 crore in August 2026, up from ₹31,961 crore in July, with SIP assets of about ₹18.62 lakh crore.
- Sukanya Samriddhi pays 8.2% and PPF 7.1% for October to December 2026, unchanged after the Ministry of Finance review on 30 September 2026.
- Both PPF and Sukanya Samriddhi cap deposits at ₹1.5 lakh a year, which equals ₹12,500 a month.
- The Nifty 50’s 20-year rolling return dipped below 10% at the end of FY 2025-26, per Finnovate’s analysis of NSE data, published 7 April 2026.
Part 6 · The multiplier
The Step-Up Trick That Doubles Every Result
A flat SIP assumes your contribution never changes, while your salary almost certainly will. A step-up SIP raises the monthly amount by a fixed percentage every year. A 10% step-up roughly matches typical salary growth for many salaried parents and roughly doubles the final fund over 18 years.
The striking result is that a ₹5,000 SIP stepped up 10% a year ends level with a flat ₹10,000 SIP. Starting small is not a problem. Staying small is.
Part 7 · The cost of waiting
What Starting Five Years Late Does to ₹10,000
The single largest driver of the final number is not the monthly amount or even the return. It is the number of years the money stays invested. Here is the same ₹10,000 SIP started at three different ages, with the fund needed by the time the child turns 18.
The money invested in those first five years is only ₹6 lakh, yet losing it shrinks the final fund by more than ₹26 lakh at 10%. Early rupees work hardest because they compound the longest.
Part 8 · Safe or growth
Does a Guaranteed Scheme Change the Picture?
Many parents prefer certainty and put the monthly amount into PPF or Sukanya Samriddhi instead of a mutual fund. Those schemes carry a sovereign guarantee and tax-free maturity. They also cap deposits at ₹1.5 lakh a year, so ₹10,000 a month fits, but ₹20,000 does not.
At current rates, ₹1.2 lakh a year in PPF for 15 years grows to roughly ₹32.5 lakh at 7.1%, against about ₹40.2 lakh from a 15-year ₹10,000 SIP at 10%. In Sukanya Samriddhi, the same deposits for 15 years, left to mature at 21 years, reach about ₹57.5 lakh if the 8.2% rate held, though rates are reset every quarter. A daughter’s SSY account and a son’s PPF account are both sensible as the safe half of a plan, with equity providing growth.
Choosing between ₹5,000, ₹10,000 and ₹20,000
The right amount is the one you can sustain for 15 to 18 years without stopping, not the largest one you can manage this month. A SIP that is cancelled after three years because the household budget tightened does far less than a smaller one that runs to the end. That makes the choice as much about cash flow as about the goal.
A practical way to decide is to work through the questions below in order. Each one narrows the range, and the answer usually lands between two of the three amounts, which is exactly where a step-up SIP helps.
- Name the likely course. An Indian engineering or commerce degree costing about ₹10 lakh today points to the ₹10,000 path from birth; an MBA-type goal of about ₹20 lakh points to ₹20,000.
- Count the years honestly. If your child is already five, divide each 18-year result in the table by roughly two, because 13 years of investing delivers about half the fund.
- Test the budget. Keep total SIPs for all goals within a level that leaves an emergency fund of six months of expenses untouched.
- Pick the floor, then step up. Start at the amount you are sure you can sustain and add 10% each year as income rises.
- Add a safe layer. Put part of the monthly amount into PPF or Sukanya Samriddhi so a market fall never wipes out the whole plan.
Part 9 · The gaps
What Is Still Unclear
Assumptions you should not take on trust
- Future equity returns are unknown. The Nifty 50’s 20-year return has recently dipped below 10%, so the 12% case should be treated as optimistic rather than typical.
- Education inflation of 10% to 12% is a planning estimate drawn from fund-house and media analysis. There is no official index of college fees.
- Small savings rates for January to March 2027 have not been announced; the 7.1% and 8.2% rates apply only to the current quarter.
- Tax on equity gains at redemption will depend on the rules in force when your child turns 18, which may differ from today’s.
Part 10 · The traps
Where Parents Misread SIP Calculators
The most common misreading is treating the final projection as spending power. A calculator that shows ₹71 lakh at 12% invites a parent to think the problem is solved. Adjusted for education inflation, that fund buys about ₹12.8 lakh of today’s fees.
The second is stopping or pausing SIPs in a falling market. A market fall is when each instalment buys the most units, so a pause does the most damage at exactly the wrong time. The third is leaving the whole fund in equity until the year of admission. A sharp fall in that final year cannot be recovered before the fee falls due.
The final three years need a different plan
Start moving money out of equity about three to five years before the first fee. Shifting a fifth of the equity portion each year into deposits or debt funds means a crash at 17 cannot wipe out a plan built since birth.
Six rules for sizing your child’s SIP
- Price the course today. Then multiply by 5.56 for an 18-year horizon at 10%.
- Plan at 10%, hope for 12%. Never size a plan on the optimistic case.
- Step up by 10% a year. It roughly doubles an 18-year fund.
- Start before age 5. Five years of delay can halve the final fund.
- Use PPF or SSY for the safe half. Up to ₹12,500 a month fits the cap.
- De-risk from age 13 to 15. Hold the first two years of fees in deposits.
Part 11 · Your questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much will ₹5,000 a month grow to in 18 years?
At an assumed 10% annual return, ₹5,000 a month for 18 years grows to about ₹28.8 lakh from ₹10.8 lakh invested. At 8% it is about ₹23.4 lakh and at 12% about ₹35.6 lakh. After 10% education inflation, ₹28.8 lakh buys roughly what ₹5.2 lakh buys today.
How much will a ₹10,000 SIP be worth after 15 years?
About ₹40.2 lakh at a 10% annual return, from ₹18 lakh invested. The range is roughly ₹34 lakh at 8% to ₹47.6 lakh at 12%. These are projections, not guarantees.
Is ₹10,000 a month enough for my child’s higher education?
For a course costing about ₹10 lakh today, such as an IIT B.Tech, a ₹10,000 SIP from birth at 10% roughly covers the cost at 18. For an MBA, private MBBS or overseas degree, it falls well short unless you step it up each year or combine it with other savings.
How much will ₹20,000 a month grow in 18 years?
About ₹1.15 crore at a 10% return, from ₹43.2 lakh invested, with a range of roughly ₹93.7 lakh at 8% to ₹1.42 crore at 12%. In today’s money, that equals about ₹20.7 lakh of education spending.
What return should I assume for a child education SIP?
A planning rate of about 10% for an equity-heavy portfolio is more cautious than the 12% many calculators use. The Nifty 50 has grown about 10.59% a year since 1995, and its 20-year return recently dipped below 10%. Plan at 10% and treat anything higher as a bonus.
What is a step-up SIP and how much difference does it make?
A step-up SIP increases your monthly amount by a fixed percentage each year. With a 10% step-up over 18 years at 10%, ₹5,000 grows to about ₹57.5 lakh, ₹10,000 to about ₹1.15 crore and ₹20,000 to about ₹2.30 crore, roughly double the flat SIP results.
Should I choose a SIP or PPF for my child’s education?
Many families use both. PPF pays a guaranteed 7.1% this quarter but caps deposits at ₹1.5 lakh a year. An equity SIP has no guarantee but higher expected long-term growth. A common approach uses PPF or Sukanya Samriddhi for safety and a SIP for growth.
Is it too late to start a SIP when my child is 10?
No, but expectations must change. A ₹10,000 SIP for eight years reaches about ₹14.5 lakh at 10%. Late starters usually invest more each month, step up faster, and plan for a partial education loan or scholarship.
Part 12 · In one paragraph
The Short Version
Over 18 years at an assumed 10% return, ₹5,000, ₹10,000 and ₹20,000 a month grow to about ₹28.8 lakh, ₹57.6 lakh and ₹1.15 crore. Because education costs are commonly expected to rise 10% a year, those funds match roughly ₹5.2 lakh, ₹10.4 lakh and ₹20.7 lakh of today’s fees: enough for an IIT-type degree at ₹10,000 and an IIM-type programme at ₹20,000, but not for private medicine or study abroad. Start early, plan at 10% rather than 12%, raise the SIP 10% each year, and move money to safety in the last three to five years.
