How this is worked out
Yearly spending and the retirees’ medical policy, less your yearly pension or annuity, gives the gap your savings must fill. The retirement number is 25 to 30 times that gap. It is the planning rule in Chapter 18 of The Banker’s Money Book: a rule of thumb, not advice.
If you have used the retirement planner on this device, its pension estimate is filled in, and you can see how much of the number its lump sums cover.
Questions bankers ask
What is a retirement number?
The savings you need at 60 to cover what your pension does not: (yearly household spending + medical policy − yearly pension) × 25 to 30. At 25 times you can draw about 4% a year; at 30 times about 3.3%.
Should I use today’s spending?
Use what the household will spend at 60, without EMIs you will have cleared. Add your age to see the number in today’s money.
Does it matter if I am in NPS?
Yes. A bank pension rises with dearness relief; an NPS annuity usually stays flat, so NPS members should aim nearer 30 times.
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Indicative figures for planning. They follow the 12th Bipartite Settlement and 9th Joint Note (8 March 2024), IBA’s DA circular of 2 November 2026 and the Income-tax Act, 2025, as on 12 November 2026. Your bank’s payslip, service regulations, circulars and Form 16 prevail. Bankers Pioneer Academy is independent; not affiliated with IBA, IIBF, the Reserve Bank of India or any bank. Nothing you type here leaves your device.