How to Calculate Your EPF Savings? An EPF Calculator That Helps You Manage Your Retirement

Once you retire from active employment, your regular income stops immediately. But most of your expenses that are of fixed nature, like rent, utility bills, groceries, etc., continue to remain. In fact, the expenses may even shoot up in the future. An Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is a retirement corpus that you build over 30-35 years of your working life. If you want to know how much money you can accumulate in this fund, you have to use the EPF calculator.

The provident fund or PF is meant to support your post-retirement life. So it is essential that you know the money you will have at your disposal at the time of retirement. Employees contribute about 12% of the basic salary to their provident funds every month, and the employers also make a matching contribution. This fund earns regular interest over the period. The PF calculator shows the total amount that you can get at the time of retirement.

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme

The EPF is a saving-cum-retirement scheme meant for employees in the private sector. Every company with 20 or more employees is covered under this scheme which is managed by the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). The interest rate is decided by the central government, and the current EPF interest rate is 8.10% p.a.

The retirement corpus (PF) consists of the employee’s & employer’s contribution and the interest earned on them. Of the employer’s 12% contribution, about 8.33% goes to the Employees’ Pension Scheme Account, and the balance of 3.67% is to the credit of the EPF account. This information will be helpful when you use the provident fund calculator.

What is an EPF Calculator? How Does it Work?

The retirement planning exercise is greatly simplified by the use of an EPF calculator. It is a simple tool that can be used to know the amount of funds that you can accumulate in your PF account at the time of your retirement. 

An EPF calculator requires the following input variables to make the calculation:

1. The current age of the employee
2. Basic monthly salary & dearness allowance (D.A)
3. The employee & employer’s contribution
4. Retirement age of the employee
5. The expected annual increase in salary (%)
6. Current EPF interest rate
7. Current EPF account balance (if any)

Once you enter all these details, an EPF calculator online will display a figure showing the funds at the time of retirement.

Steps Showing the Working of an EPF Calculator

The working of an EPF calculator is easy to understand with the help of a simple example.

Assume that an employee joins a private firm in April 2022, and his basic salary plus D.A is equal to Rs.20,000

Employee’s contribution to PF = 20,000 * 12% = 2,400

Employer’s contribution to PF = 20,000 * 3.67% = 734

Total contribution to PF = 2,400 + 734 = 3,134 (for April 2022)

The current PF interest rate is 8.1% p.a. The monthly interest rate is calculated as 8.1%/12 = 0.675% by the PF interest calculator.

The employee joined in April 2022, and thus there will be no interest for this month. After May 2022, the PF account balance is 3,134 + 3,134 = Rs.6,268

The interest earned on this balance = 6,268 * 0.675% = Rs.42.31

The computation is done in a similar manner for all the subsequent months.

Advantages of Using the EPF Calculator

• You can avoid cumbersome manual calculations by using the PF calculator. As the results are accurate, there is no scope for errors.

• The EPF calculator is a perfect tool for your retirement planning. It shows the corpus that you can accumulate by the time you retire.

• If you find the retirement corpus to be insufficient to meet your post-retirement lifestyle, you can increase the contribution through the Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF)

• You can easily calculate the corpus at various ages. This is very helpful for those planning for early retirement.

• The PF calculator formula automatically takes into account the changes in contributions & interest rates over the period.

Important Pointers on EPF Account

• The contribution to the EPF account is made by both the employee and the employer (up to 12% of basic salary + D.A)
• The employee can invest more than 12% under the voluntary provident fund (VPF). But the employer will contribute only 12%
• The Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) assigns a Universal Account Number (UAN) which is linked to the employee’s PF account.
• The UAN facilitates portability as the employee need not apply for PF transfer every time on changing the job.
• The employee’s Aadhaar number and bank account must be linked with the UAN.
• A nomination has to be given by the employee for the PF account. The money is paid to the nominee in the event of the employee’s unfortunate death. The nomination can be changed at any time.
• A portion of the employer’s contribution (8.33% of basic salary plus D.A) goes to the Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) Account. This amount is used to provide a monthly pension to the employee after retirement. Note this while using the EPF Calculator 2022
• Partial withdrawal from the PF account is allowed only under specified conditions like medical care, education, marriage, buying a house, etc.
• Complete withdrawal (100%) can be made from the PF account only when the employee retires or remains unemployed continuously for more than two months.
• The EPFO invests the PF money primarily in government securities and other fixed-income instruments. Only about 5-15% is invested in the equity market.

Conclusion

Many people put off retirement planning until their 50s. But it is a significant activity that must be undertaken at the early stages of your career. An early start gives an excellent tailwind for efficient management of your personal finances. It is also easy to undertake major course corrections while you are still young. The EPF is one of the best investment avenues for your retirement. It provides a fixed return and is 100% safe. The EPF calculator instantly shows you the nest egg that you can get to enjoy your golden years.

---