SIP Happens - Designing a better SIP planning experience
Rethinking the SIP calculator as an honest planning tool - one that helps people think, not just simulate.
I started exploring SIPs when I began earning during my internship. Like most first-time investors, I turned to SIP calculators to understand what I could achieve with small monthly investments. But the experience felt oddly mechanical.
Calculators expected exact return percentages, ignored realities like inflation or increasing contributions over time, and mostly pushed users toward investing instead of helping them think. What I really wanted was a way to plan, not just simulate numbers.
Duration: 1 month · Self-initiated · MVP phase
↗ Try the live productA young professional in the first few years of earning who wants to start investing through SIPs but needs clarity on what's realistically achievable with their current income.
A self-directed investor who understands SIP basics and wants realistic projections - including inflation and step-up scenarios - to make deliberate long-term decisions.
I asked a few friends to use the Groww SIP calculator and noticed a clear pattern. Users approached it with one of three intents: they either wanted to experiment without a clear goal, had a specific target in mind, or wanted to know how long it would take to reach a goal.
Beginners often froze when presented with multiple parameters at once. To address this, I introduced a step-by-step input flow that reduces cognitive load and lets users think through one decision at a time before seeing the full report.
The dashboard is divided into two sections to clearly separate inputs from outcomes. Both sections remain independently scrollable so users can adjust investment parameters while simultaneously exploring results, visualizations, and insights without losing context.
Inputs (left): All investment parameters, advanced options, and modes.
Outputs (right): Primary and secondary amounts, tenure, data visualizations, and a dynamic text window.
Users don't know the exact expected return and may overestimate (e.g., 15-18% long-term). The typical flow is clunky: browse funds, get a rough sense of returns, open calculator, get asked for a precise %, then guess or go back to check.
Instead of forcing exact inputs, returns are grouped into three broad behaviors - Conservative, Moderate, Aggressive. This reduces friction, helps beginners simulate faster, and still reflects realistic ranges. There is always an option to enter a return manually.
User sees a large nominal future value, then enables inflation adjustment and the real value drops significantly. Most calculators show returns in isolation - users overestimate outcomes because they see nominal growth, not purchasing power, and assume a flat SIP when in reality they invest more each year.
Two simple toggles - Inflation Adjustment (shows real value of money) and Step-Up SIP (simulates yearly increments). Together, these make projections more realistic and relatable.
Line Graph (default) - Shows how money grows over time: what was invested, what it becomes, and what it's worth after inflation. It tells the full story of compounding, not just the final number.
Waffle Chart - Shows how much of the outcome is actual gain versus the user's own contribution. The two visualizations can be switched.
This is still a WIP. A few areas I'm working on:
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