How much SIP for a child’s college in 12 years?
College does not wait for a recovery year. Twelve years is enough time to SIP and enough time to panic twice.
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Fee circulars inflate faster than your aunt’s advice
A 12-year college SIP is not “too early.” Age 6 is when the fee circulars start sounding expensive on purpose.
Private Indian undergrad can already look like ₹20–25 lakh all-in. Twelve years of 8% fee inflation turns ₹20 lakh into something closer to ₹50 lakh.
Hold that tension. The pretty version comes later, if it survives.
In Indore this debate still shows up at dinners as if character, not cash flow, is the variable.
Numbers first. Feelings after the numbers get a chair.
A ₹2,000 “education SIP” is a sweet ritual. It is not a college. Rituals belong in a puja. Fees belong in a calculator.
If the pair already pinches, do not dress it up with a braver rate.
Nobody hands out a medal for pretending your Excel is braver than your salary.
Flat SIP sketch. Step-up can start lower.
Start from the fee, not the cute SIP floor
Pick a plausible college type: state college, private Indian, or overseas. The SIP changes by a factor of two, not by a mood.
Use 10–12% for the SIP sketch and 7–8% for fee inflation. Fighting 15% returns against 4% inflation is fan fiction.
Open a calculator and type the ugly version first—₹50 lakh target, 12 years, 12% sketch → about ₹15,000–₹16,000 a month, or a smaller start plus 10% yearly step-up.
Round, optimistic inputs are how people sleep until the third bounce.
Open a folio you will not raid for a car. Separate account, or at least a separate goal name.
The last 3 years of this SIP should get sleepy—hybrid then debt—so one crash does not collide with an admission email.
If you cannot explain the result to a slightly impatient parent, you do not understand it yet.
Mistakes unique to education SIPs
Counting on a grandfather’s “we will sell a plot.” Plots grow opinions faster than they grow sale deeds.
100% small-cap because the child is young. Young children still apply in a specific year.
Stopping the SIP at class 10 “to see.” Class 10 is exactly when fees accelerate.
Reels compress this into a punchline. Your salary does not compress.
Your cousin’s 2017 small-cap luck is not a policy.
Re-run the numbers when salary, rate, or the goal date moves. That is the whole maintenance.
Miss two annual check-ins in Indore and you will still blame rates. Rates were the smaller leak.
Planning only. Fees will argue upward.
A 12-year mix that does not show off
Can spare ₹15,000: start there toward a ₹40–50 lakh working target.
Can spare ₹8,000: start, plus 10% step-up, plus an honest talk about loan as a backstop.
Target is overseas ₹1 crore-plus: SIP plus later education loan, not a fantasy ₹5,000 folio.
If a card is revolving, this page is homework, not a green flag to invest more.
Investing while revolving a 36% card is theatre.
Small and dated beats heroic and cancelled.
A smaller SIP or a shorter loan goal beats a heroic screenshot you cancel in six weeks.
₹40 lakh in 144 months
₹40 lakh in 12 years at ~12% wants about ₹13,000 a month flat. ₹50 lakh wants about ₹16,000.
Start ₹10,000 and raise 10% each year and you land near the ₹40 lakh path if returns behave—and if you actually raise it.
From year 10, shifting ₹5 lakh a year into debt/hybrid is the unsexy move that saves admissions week.
Treat every rupee here as a sketch. Lenders and markets get a vote later.
If the plan only works at 18% returns or a 6% home loan forever, it is not a plan.
Good years are a bonus. Plans that need good years are costumes.
Keep a 10% haircut for tax, fees, or the extra month the builder delays.
If the folio is still mixed with vacation money, separate it.
Name the folio after the child, not after a fund
Name a number this Sunday. The child is already aging in real time.
A named education folio beats a “we’ll figure it out” said at every birthday.
Quiet deposits look dull until they are the only thing that showed up.
Calendar reminder beats a quote about discipline.
If a friend in Indore asks the same thing next month, send them the calculator link, not a lecture.
And please date your spreadsheet. Future you will not remember which fantasy version this was.
Use this to think. Use a human with a licence before you transfer.
Change the numbers in the calculator above and see the result on this page.
Estimates only—not personalised financial, tax, or investment advice. Markets, loan rates, and tax rules change. Confirm numbers with your lender, CA, or advisor before acting.