SIP Goal Calculator: Turn a Client Goal into a Monthly Number

A client names something they want and roughly when. The adviser's job is to turn that into a monthly figure the client can actually commit to, along with the assumptions the figure depends on. Projections are illustrative; markets do not deliver a fixed rate, and any plan should say so plainly.

How it is done today

Most advisers use an online calculator during the meeting, read out a number, and move on. The arithmetic is fine. What is missing is the record: the inputs used disappear when the browser tab closes, so next year's review starts from a blank screen and a different set of assumptions.

The second version is a spreadsheet per client, which is a genuine improvement because the inputs survive. It still leaves the adviser to remember who is due for review, whose contribution has stopped, and which goals were deferred rather than abandoned.

• Client and family member the goal belongs to.
• Goal name and type — education, retirement, property, vehicle, emergency reserve.
• Priority — essential, important, aspirational — which decides what gets cut when income tightens.
• Cost in today's terms, stated as a number the client recognises.
• Target year and years remaining.
• Inflation assumption used, recorded per goal because education and vehicles behave differently.
• Inflated target — the calculated future cost.
• Existing corpus earmarked for this goal, and its expected growth.
• Expected return assumption, tied to the intended allocation.
• Step-up percentage and the month it applies.
• Required monthly contribution, and the amount actually being contributed.
• Funding status — on track, short, paused, achieved.
• Assumption version and date, plus the next review date.

An illustrative example using assumed rates for demonstration. These are inputs chosen to show the method, not recommendations or expectations. Actual returns vary and are not fixed.

The bottom three rows are the useful part of any planning conversation, because they are the same goal with one input changed. Bringing the goal five years closer raises the monthly requirement more than most clients expect. Earmarking an existing corpus and committing to a step-up both reduce the starting figure, but they do so in very different ways: one uses money that already exists, the other borrows from a future income increase that has to actually arrive.

Reviews stop depending on memory

With a review date on every goal, the adviser works from a due list rather than a mental note about which clients have not been contacted recently.

Stopped contributions become visible

Comparing required contribution against what is actually being funded produces a short list of goals quietly falling behind, which is a far better prompt for a call than a general check-in.

Conversations stay attached to the client

Goal discussions happen across calls and WhatsApp. Holding them on the client record means the reasoning behind a decision is retrievable at the next review instead of being reconstructed.

Planning to today's cost

A goal costed in today's money and funded to that number will fall short by exactly the inflation nobody applied.

Not netting existing investments

If money already exists for a goal, it belongs in the calculation, or the client is being asked to fund the same target twice.

Presenting a projection as an outcome

Every figure produced here depends on assumptions. Say which ones were used, and revisit them rather than defending them.

Never recording priority

When income tightens, something stops. Deciding in advance which goal that is makes the decision a plan rather than an accident.

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