SIP of Rs 15,000 for 20 years or SIP of Rs 20,000 for 15 years: Which can generate higher corpus?

If you want to see extraordinary results from your investment, patience and a long investment horizon can be your best partners. It can be quite possible for you to generate a significantly higher corpus from a small but regular contribution in the long duration compared to a large amount in the short duration.

Despite having a lower SIP of Rs 15000 you can accumulate Rs 42 lakh more than what an SIP of Rs 20,000 can build in 15 years but only if you continue your investment for 5 more years i.e. a tenure of 20 years. Let’s see how an Rs 15,000 monthly SIP investment for 20 years can generate a 44% higher corpus compared to the one generated from an Rs 20,000 monthly SIP investment for 15 years at the same annualised return.

Rs 15,000 SIP for 20 years vs Rs 20,000 SIP for 15 years

If you start an Rs 15,000 monthly SIP investment, continue for 20 years and get a 12% annualised return, you get estimated corpus of Rs 1.38 crore.

But when you start an Rs 20,000 monthly SIP investment for 15 years and get a 12% annualised return, you get the estimated corpus of Rs 96 lakh.

The overall investment during entire tenure in either case is Rs 36 lakh, but staying 5 years extra in the investment means a Rs 15,000 monthly SIP helps you generate Rs 42 lakh, or 44% extra corpus.

SIP investment	Duration (years)	Corpus
Rs 15,000	20	Rs 1.38 cr
Rs 20,000	15	Rs 96 lakh
Extra corpus generated from Rs 15,000 SIP		Rs 42 lakh (44%)

Now if someone is 30 years old and starts an Rs 15,000 monthly SIP investment, by 50 years of age, they can generate a 1.44 times larger corpus compared to what they can generate from an Rs 20,000 monthly SIP investment for 15 years.

Here, you can see that a 5-year delay may cost you heavily even if your overall investment is the same.

Why does it happen?

The investment can grow faster with time because of the power of compounding. Staying a few years more can produce surprising results in the long run. Let’s see one more example.

If you invest Rs 5 lakh for 15 years and get a 12% annualised return, you may generate an estimated Rs 28 lakh corpus, but if you stick to the same investment for 5 more years and get the same return, the investment can grow to Rs 49 lakh. The investment value increased by Rs 21 lakh in just five years.

Important things to remember in investment

• If it’s a market-linked investment, it can go through ups and downs. It can also be in negative for some time. But in the long run, short-term market volatility does not matter as equities are known to deliver good returns.

• A 12% return is not easy, but if we look at the 10-year large cap mutual fund category return as on August 26, 2025, it has given a 12.79% annualised return, as per Value Research data. Though past returns don’t guarantee future returns, but it gives a good indication to manage your expectation. Large cap fund being the safest bet among equity funds the historical data shows that returns in that range are possible.

• One should ideally step up their investment amount with their income growth, but even if they don’t, consistency and a long-term horizon can help them generate large returns from small investments.