Public Provident Fund Calculator: A Tool to Manage Your Pension Investment

Public Provident Fund is a popular means of retirement planning. It helps individuals mobilize their savings and safeguard one’s financial future, especially after retirement. 

Working employees who wish to build a long-term corpus or generate a stream of income for their life after retirement. However, one can make the most of a public provident fund only if they plan their investment in the same smarty.

This is where a tool like a public provident fund comes in handy and helps individuals understand how much they should invest towards a PPF scheme and how they plan the same. This is why it is crucial to know how to use the tool and plan it for better returns.

That said, here’s what one should know about the PPF calculator and more.

What is a PPF Calculator?

The Public Provident Fund calculator is a tool that helps individuals to determine how much money they could generate on their PPF investment and whether the maturity amount will be enough to ace their financial goals. 

The financial tool essentially works on a complex formula that is inbuilt into its system and is designed to produce instant outcomes. The said formula weighs in the combination of tenure, principal amount, and interest rate to determine the maturity amount and returns on the investment.

PPF calculator allows multiple adjustments to the variables, which helps users understand how much they should invest to build a corpus or achieve their long-term goals. 

Here’s How a PPF Calculator Helps You

A public provident fund is essentially an investor-friendly investment instrument that is touted as an efficient long-term savings instrument. It is perks like safety, returns, and tax benefits that make PPF a popular savings plan among working individuals. Individuals can further make the most of its perks and scale their financial goals better with the help of an efficient online PPF calculator.

A PPF calculator is ideal for planning savings towards a public provident fund account. Being  a financial tool it helps simplify the process of investment in these ways –

• Helps determine maturity amount on PPF investments
• Helps ascertain returns on investments toward PPF
• Allows to determine which principal amount would be enough to meet your goals
• Offers an idea about how long you should stay invested in the PPF scheme to achieve your goals
• Facilitates comparison of different combinations of tenure and principal amount to make a better pick
• Helps track capital growth to offer an idea if the investment tool is working for you

Hence, a PPF offers a better idea of the key specifications of an individual’s PPF account. However, one should note that the interest rate of PPF tends to change frequently, and that could be a hassle when tracking an investment in a public provident fund. However, with a tool like the PPF calculator tracking the same could be easier, as the calculator comes with an automated feature that enters prevailing rates every time you use the tool.

Public Provident Fund Calculation Formula

A PPF calculator does the hard work of computing the returns and ascertaining the maturity amount. To do so, the financial tool uses a formula that’s fed into its system. Every time, a calculation is initiated, the tool uses this formula to offer the results:

F = P [({(1+i) ^n}-1)/i]

Here, 

I = rate of interest

F = maturity amount

N = total number of years

P = annual installments

Example of PPF Calculation

Nidhi wishes to build a corpus to support her retired life, so she decides to park Rs. 2,00,000 into a PPF for 15 years, which will generate returns at the rate of 7%.

Based on the PPF formula, 

F = P [({(1+i) ^n}-1)/i]

   = 2,00,000 [({(1+7) ^15}-1)/7]

   = 5763698

As per the formula and calculation, Nidhi will get Rs. 5763698 after the completion of 15 years.

However, if the same is computed manually, the calculation would involve multiple steps and take a lot of time to arrive at the results. Additionally, manual computation of PPF maturity amount is also prone to errors and incorrect outcomes. However, these errors and inconveniences can be easily avoided by using a PPF calculator online.

How to Use Public Provident Fund Calculator?

To ensure PPF calculation is quick and hassle-free, it is important to know how to use a PPF calculator. Notably, the financial tool is quite user-friendly and offers results instantly after these investment variables are entered into it:

• Principal amount
• PPF tenure
• Interest rate
• Compounding frequency

However, one should note that the rate of interest tends to change frequently and factors like government policies, and the prevailing rate of inflation often affect it significantly. Hence it is important to crosscheck the rate of interest before computing the PPF amount. 

How to Use a PPF Calculator?

Some latest PPF calculators feature different modes which enable users to customize their computation based on their needs. The most common PPF modes include –

• Fixed annual amount
• Fixed monthly amount
• Variable annual amount
• Variable monthly amount

Based on your needs and financial standing you should pick an investment mode and streamline your finances accordingly. Notably, weighing in one’s financial capability is crucial while picking a mode, so that if one opts for the monthly route they do not end up straining their budget. This way the financial tool can help individuals to streamline their savings and help them make the most of their investment portfolio without straining their current finances. 

However, the best thing about the financial calculator is that it allows multiple adjustments and allows users to change the variables to arrive at the desired combination. Typically, PPF calculators can be accessed and used for free, and its easily available online. This further makes it a useful tool for financial planning. 

Once users find out which combination works out best for them, they should proceed to check the overall scope and limitations of public provident fund schemes. This will allow them to plan their investment in PPF and mobilize savings toward the same with more confidence.