Child Education Fund Calculator India
Plan early — education costs in India double every 7–9 years
This calculator helps you estimate the total cost of your child's higher education — whether in India (government or private college) or abroad (UK, Canada, Australia, USA) — and tells you exactly how much to save each month starting today.
Enter the type of degree, the likely institution category, and how many years you have before your child starts college. The calculator applies 8% annual education inflation to give you the future cost, then shows the monthly SIP and lump-sum amount needed.
Other Goal Calculators
How this calculator works
The calculator applies two key financial concepts: inflation adjustment and compound interest. First, it takes your goal's cost in today's money and inflates it to the future year using the inflation rate you specify (or a sensible default for your goal type). This gives you the "future rupees" target — the actual amount you'll need to pay in the future.
Then it uses the PMT formula (standard financial planning math) to calculate the monthly SIP needed to accumulate that future target, assuming your investments grow at the expected return rate. It also shows the lump-sum amount you'd need to invest today (the present value at that same return rate) as an alternative to SIP.
All calculations are in nominal (future) rupees, not real (today's) rupees. This is the correct way to plan — you need to save enough future rupees to pay the future price, not today's price.
Frequently Asked Questions
Government/IIT: ₹4–8 lakh total (4 years). Private colleges: ₹10–20 lakh total. Top private like VIT, Manipal, SRM: ₹12–18 lakh. Remember to add hostel and living expenses of ₹1–1.5 lakh/year for outstation students.
USA: ₹60–1.2 crore for a 4-year undergraduate degree (tuition + living). UK: ₹50–80 lakh for a 3-year degree. Canada/Australia: ₹40–70 lakh. These figures are in today's rupees — with 8% education inflation, the cost in 15 years could be 3× higher.
Starting when a child is born (18-year horizon), a SIP of ₹3,000–8,000/month in equity mutual funds can build ₹30–80 lakh corpus — enough for a private Indian college education. For study abroad, you'd need ₹15,000–25,000/month starting from birth. The earlier you start, the lower the monthly burden.
Saving is always preferable to borrowing if you have the time horizon. Education loans in India carry 8.5–12% interest, while equity SIPs have historically returned 12–14% CAGR. However, for study abroad, a combination of savings + partial education loan is practical. Aim to fund at least 50% through savings to keep loan burden manageable.
Equity mutual funds via SIP are the most effective for a 10+ year horizon. For medium-term (5–10 years), balanced/hybrid funds work well. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) offers 8.2% tax-free returns for daughters and is a good supplement. Avoid endowment plans and ULIPs — their returns after charges rarely beat inflation.
The day your child is born — or even before. Starting at birth with a 18-year horizon gives compounding maximum time to work. Starting at age 5 instead of birth means you need nearly 2× the monthly SIP for the same corpus. Every year of delay significantly increases the monthly burden.