Financial Calculators
Cost of Delay Calculator
Waiting feels free. It is the most expensive thing most investors ever do. Here is the bill.
Cost of waiting 5 years
₹49,45,719
- Corpus if you start today
- ₹99,91,479
- Corpus if you delay
- ₹50,45,760
Same SIP, same return; the only difference is when you begin. The lost years are the earliest ones, whose instalments would have compounded the longest.
The years you lose are the best ones
When you delay a SIP by five years, you do not lose the last five years of investing; you lose the first five, whose instalments would have compounded the longest. That is why the cost of delay is always shockingly larger than the instalments skipped.
Nothing in this calculator is exotic: same SIP, same return, shorter runway. The gap is pure compounding.
The comparison
Corpus (start now) = SIP annuity-due FV over full years\nCorpus (delayed) = same, over (years - delay)\nCost of delay = the differenceWorked example: a Rs 10,000 SIP at 12% for 20 years builds about Rs 99,91,479; delayed by 5 years it builds Rs 50,45,760. The five-year delay costs Rs 49,45,719, though only Rs 6,00,000 of instalments were skipped.
Frequently asked questions
How can skipping Rs 6 lakh of SIPs cost Rs 49 lakh?
Because those earliest instalments had 15-20 years to compound. The cost of delay is the lost growth on them, not the instalments themselves.
I cannot afford the full SIP yet. Should I still start?
Absolutely. Starting small today beats starting big later; you can step up with every increment. Time in the market is the asset you cannot buy back.
Does this apply to lumpsums too?
Yes, even more directly: a delayed lumpsum simply loses (1 + return)^delay of growth. The principle is identical.
Markets look high right now. Is waiting not prudent?
For a 15-20 year SIP, entry timing washes out through rupee-cost averaging. Historically, waiting for the perfect entry has cost far more than any correction it avoided.
The best day was yesterday. The second best is today.
Start with any amount; discipline does the rest.