Retirement Corpus

A retirement corpus is the lump sum a person has accumulated by the time they stop working, built from existing savings and regular contributions made before retirement. It is the single balance a retirement projection then draws down through withdrawals.

A projection compounds current savings and a monthly contribution together at an assumed rate of return until retirement age. The closing balance at that point becomes the corpus available to fund retirement.

During retirement, a chosen monthly withdrawal is taken from the corpus at regular intervals while the remaining balance keeps earning an assumed return. A withdrawal expressed in today's money commonly needs to increase in nominal rupee terms over time to keep pace with inflation, so its real purchasing power does not quietly shrink.

Someone who saves and invests from age 30 to 60 builds a projected corpus at age 60. From there, a monthly withdrawal that grows with assumed inflation is drawn from that corpus each year until a chosen life expectancy.