- What your risk profile actually is, based on your real financial situation, not a guess
- What a monthly SIP into equity mutual funds could grow to
- What the same money would earn in a fixed deposit instead
- Whether either option actually beats inflation for your specific goal
What you'll figure out
Step preview
1
What's your risk profile?
A 6-question quiz to find out how much risk actually fits your situation
2
What could a growth investment give you?
Model a monthly SIP into equity mutual funds
3
What would the safe option give you instead?
Compare against a fixed deposit over the same period
4
What will your goal actually cost?
Adjust today's target for inflation over the same time period
Start Journey →
Takes about 10 min · Save anytime
Most first-time investors either freeze from too many options or default to whatever their parents used, usually a fixed deposit, without ever comparing it to the alternative. This journey starts with a quick risk-profile quiz, then walks through what a growth investment and a safe investment each deliver over the same time period, and finishes by checking both against what your goal will actually cost after inflation.
Who this is for
- Anyone making their first real investment decision and unsure where to start
- People who've only ever used a fixed deposit and want to see what they might be leaving on the table
- Young earners with a long time horizon who want a data-backed starting point, not general advice
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Frequently Asked Questions
How long does this journey take?
About 10 minutes, including the 6-question quiz. You can pause and resume anytime within the same browser session.
Do I need to know anything about investing to start?
No — this journey is built for someone making their first real investment decision. The quiz doesn't test knowledge, it just asks about your situation and comfort with risk to point you toward the right starting point.
Why does the journey start with a quiz instead of a calculator?
Because the numbers in the next two steps only mean something once you know roughly how much risk fits your situation. A 25-year-old with a stable income and a 55-year-old five years from retirement should not be looking at the same SIP-versus-FD comparison.
Is my quiz answer or my inputs stored anywhere?
No. Everything stays in your browser's session storage and clears when you close the tab. Nothing is sent to thecalcu.com's servers.
Why does the FD step use the same time period as the SIP step?
So the comparison is fair — the fixed deposit's tenure is carried over in months (converted automatically) from the SIP step's years, so you're looking at what each option delivers over the exact same stretch of time.
Can I change my risk profile answers after seeing the SIP or FD results?
Yes. Go back to the quiz step and retake it — the journey doesn't lock your earlier answers, though changing them won't automatically recalculate steps 2 through 4 since they don't pull numeric values from the quiz result.
Is a fixed deposit really the 'safe' choice?
It's safe in the sense that the return is guaranteed and doesn't move with the market, but it carries its own risk: inflation can quietly erode its real value over time, which is exactly what the last step in this journey is built to show.
What if my quiz result says conservative but I want to try the SIP numbers anyway?
Go ahead — the quiz result is a starting point, not a restriction. Every step in this journey is fully editable, so you can model whatever scenario you're actually considering.
How is this different from just using the SIP or FD calculator directly?
Using them separately means comparing numbers you calculated at different times with inconsistent assumptions. This journey carries the same time period across both, then adds the risk-profile context and inflation check that a standalone calculator run usually skips.
What should I do after completing the journey?
Check the summary page for all four results together, then use the inflation-adjusted figure from the last step as the real target to weigh your SIP and FD numbers against — that comparison is the actual point of this journey.
Free calculators used in this journey