PPF Maturity Excel Calculator (2019-20) – FREE Download

by Dev AshishAugust 25, 2017January 23, 2019 3 Comments

(PPF Interest Maturity Calculator – Updated 2019-2020)

Are you looking for a PPF Calculator that uses latest PPF interest rates (2019-20) to calculate the interest earned on PPF investments?

And you also want to know the answer to the big question – what will be PPF maturity amount?

If the answer to above questions is yes, then here is something that you will find useful.

I have created a comprehensive Excel-based PPF calculator that calculates the maturity amount and interest earned depending upon the type of investment you make (fixed or variable) in your PPF account. It also shows you the interest earned every year in the PPF account.

PPF (or Public Provident Fund) needs no introduction.

It is one of the most popular investment-cum-tax saving option among Indian savers.

It’s a tax-deductible investment option that offers reasonable tax-free returns to savers. And it is among the very few risk-free tax saving investment option for us Indian taxpayers (as it provides tax benefits under the Section 80C).

Many people ensure that they utilize the full investment limit of their PPF accounts every year. So naturally, they are concerned about the rate of interest on their PPF accounts and also about estimating the final PPF maturity amount.

I have created this excel based PPF calculator that can be useful if you wish to estimate how much money can be accumulated using your PPF account.

Using this calculator, you will easily find answers to questions like how much you can invest in PPF? How much interest is earned by PPF account? How will the investment grow over the years? The final PPF maturity amount?

And since you can control the investment as well as maturity tenure in the excel sheet, it can be your goto option if you are searching for:

PPF calculator for 15 years, or
PPF calculator for 20 years, or
PPF calculator for 25 years, or even
PPF calculator for 30 years

All you have to do is to provide few inputs and this PPF excel sheet will tell you everything you need to know about your PPF investments.

Decide your PPF investment frequency (Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Annual)

Decide till when you wish to keep investing in PPF (15, 20, 25 or 30 years)

Decide when you finally wish to withdraw money from PPF (end of 15th, 20th, 25th or 30th year)

PPF accounts are opened for an initial term of 15 years and once the lock in period of 15 years is over, the subscriber can withdraw the full amount at the time of maturity.

PPF account withdrawal rules allow for partial withdrawals even before the 15-year lock-in is over. But we will ignore that scenario as we are concerned about estimating the maturity amount of an undisturbed and a fully funded PPF account.

Luckily, PPF rules allow that the account can be extended in blocks of 5 years.

PPF Subscribers can choose whether they want to extend with contributions or without contributions. So if you decide, you can continue investing even after the 15^th year.

So using the two inputs of your investment period and maturity/withdrawal year in the calculator, you can figure out the final maturity amounts for the following combinations:

Invest in PPF for 15 years. Withdraw at end of 15th year
Invest in PPF for 15 years. Withdraw at end of 20th year
Invest in PPF for 15 years. Withdraw at end of 25th year
Invest in PPF for 15 years. Withdraw at end of 30th year
Invest in PPF for 20 years. Withdraw at end of 20th year
Invest in PPF for 20 years. Withdraw at end of 25th year
Invest in PPF for 20 years. Withdraw at end of 30th year
Invest in PPF for 25 years. Withdraw at end of 25th year
Invest in PPF for 25 years. Withdraw at end of 30th year
Invest in PPF for 30 years. Withdraw at end of 30th year

Apart from this, the calculator also gives the option of setting the annual investment limits and interest rates (yellow cells) for each year separately.

Both the PPF account interest rate and annual investment limits can be varied for each financial year.

This is useful as the government is known to increase the maximum annual limit of PPF deposit every few years.

Currently, the maximum PPF investment limit per year is Rs 1.5 lakh. You can try out scenarios where this annual PPF limit is increased by say Rs 50,000 every 3-4 years.

Note – The calculator assumes that you would invest the full amount as prescribed by the limit. But you can play around with the excel sheet and bypass this restriction yourself.

The PPF interest rates too don’t remain same forever.

But the rate of interest in PPF account in post offices, banks or anywhere else is same at a given point of time. The calculator shows it at 8% for all years 1 to 30. In reality, this will not happen.

The current PPF interest rate is 8% (in 2019-2020). But as per current PPF account rules, the government has the option of changing PPF rates every quarter now.

The PPF interest rates in last 10 years are as follows:

PPF Interest Rate Mar-2003 to Nov-2011 – 8.0%
PPF Interest Rate Dec-2011 to Mar-2012 – 8.6%
PPF Interest Rate 2012-2013 – 8.8%
PPF Interest Rate 2013-2014 – 8.7%
PPF Interest Rate 2014-2015 – 8.7%
PPF Interest Rate 2015-2016 – 8.7%
PPF Interest Rate 2016-17 (April 2016 – September 2016) – 8.1%
PPF Interest Rate 2016-17 (October 2016 – March 2017) – 8.0%
PPF Interest Rate 2017-18 (April 2017 – June 2017) – 7.9%
PPF Interest Rate 2017-18 (July 2017 – December 2017) – 7.8%
PPF Interest Rate 2018-19 (January 2018 – September 2018) – 7.6%
PPF Interest Rate 2018-19 (October 2018 onwards) – 8.0%

For more information, you can have a look at the historical PPF Interest Rates to get an idea about rate fluctuations and changes in PPF rules in the past.

Note – The interest on PPF investments is calculated on a monthly basis. So all your monthly PPF contributions count. However, the total yearly interest is added to the PPF account at the end of the financial year. This should be remembered when doing PPF interest rate calculation or looking how to calculate PF amount at end of the year. The calculator provided in this post has embedded PF calculation formula in excel which you can download freely.

Realistic PPF Investment Scenario Testing

You can test out various PPF interest rate and investment limit related scenario using this tool.

Using a combination of increasing annual limits and falling rates (rates are expected to go down gradually as the Indian economy matures), you can try out various scenarios yourself. One such hypothetical scenario can be:

Year 1-5: PPF annual investment limit Rs 1.5 lakh: PPF rate 8.0%
Year 5-10: PPF annual investment limit Rs 2.0 lakh: PPF rate 7.5%
Year 10-15: PPF annual investment limit Rs 2.5 lakh: PPF rate 7.0%
Year 15-20: PPF annual investment limit Rs 3.0 lakh: PPF rate 6.5%
Year 20-25: PPF annual investment limit Rs 3.5 lakh: PPF rate 6.0%
Year 25-30: PPF annual investment limit Rs 4 lakh: PPF rate 5.5%

It will be interesting to see how these changes play out and impact the final maturity amount.

So finally,

Here is the link to download the PPF calculator excel sheet:

Download PPF Account Excel Calculator (2019-20)

And to get you going, here are some examples of the calculations of maturity amounts. Don’t miss the 3^rd example:

Example – 1

Annual Investment (in April) – Rs 1.5 lakh lumpsum

Rate of Interest – 8.0%

Investment Period – 15 years

Maturity Amount (at the end of 15^th year) ~ Rs 44 lakh

Maturity Amount (at the end of 25^th year) ~ Rs 95 lakh

As you can see, this example illustrates how you can use this tool as a PPF Fixed Annual Investment Calculator.

Example – 2

Monthly Investment – Rs 12,500 per month (Rs 1.5 lakh annually)

Rate of Interest – 8.0%

Investment Period – 20 years

Maturity Amount (at the end of 20^th year) ~ Rs 71 lakh

Maturity Amount (at the end of 30^th year) ~ Rs 1.54 crore

This is an example of using this excel based calculator for estimating maturity amount when monthly investments/contributions are made in your PPF account.

Example – 3 (Realistic)

Annual Investment – Rs 1.5 lakh (years 1-5); Rs 2.0 lakh (yrs 5-10); Rs 2.5 lakh (yrs 10-15)

Rate of Interest – 8% (yrs 1-5); 7% (yrs 5-10); 6% (yrs 10-15); 5% (yrs 15-25)

Investment Period – 15 years

Maturity Amount (at the end of 25th year) ~ Rs 85 lakh

As you see, you can create your own unique scenario basis your views / estimates about the future investment limits and rate of interest on PPF accounts.

So go ahead and play with this calculator to calculate PPF Maturity Value for 15 to 30 years with detailed annual timeline that displays month-wise (or other periodicity-wise) contribution and interest calculation every year in line with applicable PPF interest rates.

Here is the link again:

Download FREE PPF Excel Calculator 2019-20

I hope you find this Excel PPF interest and maturity calculator useful.

Once you use this PPF Calculator, you will know how to calculate interest on your PPF investment and get an idea about the estimated PPF maturity amount.

You can use it as a PPF maturity calculator for 15 years, 20 years, 25 years or even 30 years.

Using an online or excel based PPF interest calculator to estimate your maturity amount is fine. But if you are investing for long term financial goals, PPF or other debt instruments might not be enough. You need to have more exposure to equity (why?).

So go on… use this PPF calculator excel xlsx xls sheet and see if you are actually using your provident fund investments (PPF or others) to create wealth or not.

PPF calculator is a very easy way to calculate PPF interest and PPF maturity amount.

And PPF is a solid debt-based savings product that can be used to save some serious money. Don’t ignore it and use it judiciously.

Even after Rate Cuts, PPF is good for your Long Term Goals

by Dev AshishApril 15, 2017 11 Comments

PPF rates have been cut from 8.0% to 7.9% (in April 2017).

And as far as historical PPF rates are concerned, this is the first time that rates have dipped below 8% – sadly, the psychological risk-free rate barrier for many.

Many people are now questioning the suitability of PPF as an investment product. Doubts over PPF are further fueled by good returns given by equity in recent past. Many equity funds have given 20-30% returns in last one year. So people are bound to ask questions.

But really… is it time to write off the PPF?

No. Ofcourse not!

Those who think that – are the ones who don’t understand a lot of things.

PPF remains a great choice in debt space for most people.

Even if you were to plainly see the 0.1% cut in PPF rates, it only translates into a difference of just Rs 150 on a full Rs 1.5 lac annual limit. 🙂 So its not that world of PPF is crashing with this 0.1% cut.

PPF – Still a Good Option

A tax-free return of 7.9% is quite reasonable in falling interest rate scenario where inflation too is within control.

Also, it makes sense to compare PPF returns with returns offered by comparable debt investments today. Only comparing it with its own past high returns won’t help you make investment decisions today.

The safety it offers and the EEE taxation status (where investments, interest income and maturity amounts are tax-free), it’s no doubt a beautiful product.

But like any other financial product, even PPF should be relevant for your financial goals. (read about goal based investing to better understand relevancy of different products for different financial goals)

PPF can easily form the bedrock* of a long-term (goal) portfolio’s debt part. And retirement is one such long-term goal. Though for young people, an intelligent asset allocation would be skewed more towards equity (for growth) than debt (for stability), PPF can still be the stabilizing factor of an equity-heavy portfolio.

*PPF’s role may be lesser if you are already investing in EPF or VPF.

And since we are talking about the recent rate cuts, its also true that no one can be sure that rates will never rise again. The possibility of rate falling more in future is no doubt high. But when rate cycle turns around, products like PPF will stand to benefit.

Download Excel based PPF Calculator here

Don’t Compare PPF with Equity. Both are Necessary.

As I said earlier, many people are having doubts about PPF when equity MFs and ELSS schemes are giving good returns.

Infact, when tax season comes, you can find truckloads of people getting into PPF vs ELSS kind of debates. And honestly, such debates are useless.

Equity has given higher returns than PPF in recent past. But does it mean you should be in equity 100%? The answer is ‘No’.

Equity returns are volatile. It can give stellar returns one year and bury you underground the very next year. Many people make the mistake of assuming that good returns of recent past will continue forever. It has never happened. It will never happen. At times, equity will perform better than debt products like PPF. And at times, PPF will do better than equity. You can see it for yourself. Here is the historical comparison of last 10 years:

A product like PPF, which offers guaranteed steady returns – can be a good hedge for fluctuations in the other parts of your portfolio.

But every goal requires proper asset allocation between equity and debt. Its not Equity Vs PPF kind of question. Rather, its ‘how much equity’ and ‘how much debt’ question (popularly referred to as – deciding the asset allocation).

Both assets have their own purpose in the portfolio. Equity is for growth and debt (PPF kinds) is for providing stability.

Balance is necessary. And the exact balance might be different for different goals and different people.

Sidenote About EPF and VPF

The basic idea behind any provident fund (be it PPF, EPF or VPF) is to help individuals save money for their retirements. In that respect, EPF (+VPF) too is a decent option but only available for salaried individuals. So if the interest rate offered by VPF is higher than PPF, then it makes sense to invest more in VPF rather than PPF. As for those outside EPF coverage, PPF is the only option.

But there are few other things to make note of here.

PPF has a lock-in of 15 years (though partial withdrawals are allowed), whereas VPF (alongwith EPF) can be withdrawn when you switch or quit jobs (though taxable if 5 years not completed). Liquidity wise, EPF wins. But this flexibility comes in way of real wealth creation. People withdraw money from EPF+VPF while switching jobs and use it for non-essential expenses. This breaks compounding and eventually, that hurts the final corpus size. So you don’t get as rich as you could have. 🙂

What to do Then?

Now what I say next is very important.

Given its 15 year lock-in and restrictions on partial withdrawals, PPF is obviously best suited for long term goals. And you also know that PPF is a pure debt product.

But there is another thing that we know – that for long term goals, equity is the best option. Isn’t it? After all, historical records clearly prove that equity has beaten all other asset classes when it comes to long-term returns.

So what to do then?

The answer is that you need to be clear about your financial goals first. Really. This might sound too text-bookish or unimportant, but you really need to be clear about your financial goals. Also, you need to know how far away the goals are in future.

If it’s a long-term goal like retirement and atleast 15-20 years away, then you need to be intelligent about your asset allocation.

100% equity or 100% debt is a big no-no. Maybe, investing 70-80% in equity and 20-30% in debt is the way to go for such goals. And for debt, your PPF (and EPF) can be a good choice. You can also go for debt funds but remember that returns are not guaranteed there (though still reliable enough).

For shorter-term goals, investments should be more in debt. For example – a goal that is 3 to 5 years away might demand 20-40% in equity and 60-80% in debt. The exact percentage might differ depending on individual’s risk appetite, goal criticality and other factors. But PPF is not suitable for such short-term goals due to its restrictions. RD / FD / Debt funds might be better choices for such goals.

Debt funds can also be considered when someone is nearing retirement and wants to slowly reduce equity exposure. This is when a long-term goal is turning into a short term one.

Final Words

Now everyone’s financial situation is different and hence, advice might differ. But generally speaking, one should have higher equity exposure for long-term goals and higher debt exposure for short-term goals.

Talking specifically of long-term goals, PPF is a good choice* for debt component of your goal portfolio. People don’t like its liquidity restrictions but that is exactly what helps bring in necessary discipline when saving for such goals. But having said that, debt (or PPF) alone will not be enough for long term goals like retirement. These are best served by higher equity allocation.

*Ofcourse only upto Rs 1.5 lac (for investing more in debt, you need to look at debt funds / bonds / deposits / etc.).

So don’t worry too much about the recent rate cuts of PPF. It might go down even lower in near future. Focus instead on – identifying your goals, finding the correct asset allocation for each goal(s) and then, investing as per each goal’s requirement. As for PPF, it still is an excellent debt investment for your long-term goals.

PPF Interest Rate History & What You Should Really Know

by Dev AshishAugust 24, 2016January 23, 2019 6 Comments

Updated (January 2019) – Currently, PPF rates are 8.0% (from Oct-2018 onwards)

History of PPF interest rates is not very exciting. The changes have been very rare till recently (before the government decided to go in for quarterly revisions of PPF rates).

But in spite of all the noise about other assets, Provident Funds remain the preferred mode of investments for most Indians.

PPF (Public Provident Fund) continues to be looked at as a solid product to create a large corpus over time, with the added benefit of tax savings. As of now, PPF falls under Exempt-Exempt-Exempt (EEE) tax regime. This means that:

1^st E – Investment in PPF account up to Rs 1.5 lac per year is eligible for deduction.
2^nd E – Interest earned is tax exempted.
3^rd E – Maturity amount is also exempt from tax.

Though this EEE treatment of PPF might change in near future. We will discuss that later in the post.

As of now (since Oct 2018), the rate of interest on PPF is 8.0% per annum. Read about whether investing in PPF after recent rate cuts make sense or not.

PPF Interest Rate History (Last 33+ years)

This history of PPF interest rate in the last 30 years has been as follows:

PPF Interest Rate 1986 to Jan-2000 – 12.0%
PPF Interest Rate Jan-2000 to Feb-2001 – 11.0%
PPF Interest Rate Mar-2001 to Feb-2002 – 9.5%
PPF Interest Rate Mar-2002 to Feb-2003 – 9.0%
PPF Interest Rate Mar-2003 to Nov-2011 – 8.0%
PPF Interest Rate Dec-2011 to Mar-2012 – 8.6%
PPF Interest Rate 2012-13 – 8.8%
PPF Interest Rate 2013-14 – 8.7%
PPF Interest Rate 2014-15 – 8.7%
PPF Interest Rate 2015-16 – 8.7%
PPF Interest Rate 2016-17 (1st April 2016 – 30th September 2016) – 8.1%
PPF Interest Rate 2016-17 (1st October 2016 – 31st March 2017) – 8.0%
PPF Interest Rate 2017-18 (1st April 2017 – 30th June 2017) – 7.9%
PPF Interest Rate 2017-18 (1st July 2017 – 31st Dec 2017) – 7.8%
PPF Interest Rate 2017-18 (1st Jan 2018 – 30th September 2018) – 7.6%
PPF Interest Rate 2017-18 (Currently – 1st Oct 2018 onwards) – 8.0%

Or, graphically speaking:

As evident from the graph above, the change in rates have been rare:

Rates were fixed at 12% between 1986 and 2000 (sounds like heaven) 🙂
Then between 2000 and 2003, the rates slid down to 8%
The rates then remained stable at 8% till 2011
Rates were then revised to 8.6%, 8.8%, and 8.7%.
Last few years saw rates come down to 8.1%, 8.0%, 7.9%, 7.8% and then a historic low of 7.6%.
Rates finally saw an uptick of 8.0%.

Now the quarterly revision of rates is allowed.

The PPF interest calculation continues to be done on a monthly basis – on the lowest balance between the 5th day and end of the month. But the interest is credited only at the end of the year. So as far as compounding is concerned, it takes place on an annual basis.

By the way, a little too much importance is given to investing in PPF before the 5th of the month instead of after 5th. But it hardly matters… so relax.

How will PPF Interest Rates be changed now?

PPF is part of government’s small saving schemes portfolio. So the question who decides PPF interest rate has an obvious answer. 🙂

Earlier, the rates were considered for revision once every year.

But with effect from 1st April 2016, the rates for schemes like PPF, etc. are to be considered for revision every quarter, based on previous quarter’s yield on benchmark government securities (or bonds of corresponding maturities) with a small markup (around 0.25%).

So if yields go down, the PPF rates should go down few months after that. (and there will be a hue and cry about why the government is not investor-friendly)

If yields go up, the PPF rates should go up few months after that (and people will cheer as they will benefit from a turnaround in the rate cycle).

But why is it that the government decided to switch from annual to the quarterly revision of rates? Is the government worried about something? Why is it that it wants to bring the rates as close to that of benchmark government securities?

The answer is and I quote from this article:

…according to a report in 2011 by Shyamala Gopinath committee (which was set up to review National Small Savings Fund, or NSSF), such a fixed rate regime caused a lot of volatility in collections.

When market rates declined, small savings collections went up as their rates remained unchanged. The opposite happened when market rates went up. This leads to a situation where when market rates are low, states are loaded with high-cost NSSF loans, and when market rates are high, NSSF loans as a source of financing fixed deposits dries up completely. It is therefore, very essential to align these rates with market rates.

In December 2011, acting on the recommendations of the report, the government made returns on small savings schemes market-linked. Rates on these products were benchmarked to government securities (G-secs) of similar maturity periods with a positive spread of 25 basis points.

Now interestingly, banks are affected by changes in the interest rates of these small savings products.

Why?

Because the banks’ own saving products compete with government’s small savings products.

So having a positive markup on PPF, etc. made these products more suitable for customers looking for higher rates and in turn, put a lot of pressure on banks. So banks have good reason to push for the reduction in rates offered by government products. This is the reason why banks have been lobbying (for years) to get this done. They cannot reduce rates on deposits as that would mean losing out to competition from schemes like PPF (and other short-duration government products)

The New Risk?

Earlier, rates were revised once every year. But now, the revision will take place every quarter.

So there is obviously an increase in interest rate risk as far as PPF is concerned. So in a falling rate scenario and for someone who has a large PPF balance, it can hurt a lot.

But when you compare the current rate with inflation numbers (around 5% to 6%), it still seems to be satisfactory. Isn’t it? After all, inflation of 6% and PPF with a tax-free rate of 7.8% will offer you a real rate of about 2% if not more. And that should work.

But we are missing one very important point – inflation rates published by government and RBI are not exactly equal to our own inflation. 😉

You spend on products that are facing higher price hikes. So your personal inflation might be 10% and not what RBI tells you.

So it’s possible that even with about 8% given by PPF, you are not getting any real returns.

You might feel that if that is the case, why not go for products that are known to given higher average returns (ofcourse with short-term volatility) like equity mutual funds and invest regularly via SIP.

But simply comparing returns of PPF and Equity Mutual Funds (or ELSS) is not correct. PPF is a part of your debt portfolio and equity MFs that of the equity portion of your portfolio. Both parts have their own significance. I will come to this point in a bit…

Now there is another (future) risk in products like PPF.

Future of PPF?

No. I am not questioning the safety of PPF in the future. It is run by the Government of India and hence it is (default) risk-free and extremely safe to invest in – no doubt.

But what about other kinds of risks? What if in future, the PPF is taxed? It almost happened this year for EPF before it was rolled back. But EEE status turning into EET is possible (eventually).

Another risk can be that withdrawal might have certain riders. Say you can’t withdraw full amount on maturity. Or something similar. After all, the government is getting this large amount of money every year at a relatively low cost (currently 8.0%). So the government will want to reduce this rate and ‘try’ to keep money from going out. That is common sense and that is a future risk for young people like us.

So when you think that the PPF is risk-free, remember that primarily, it is the default risk that you are talking about. Other risks (known and unknown) still remain.

Now don’t think that I am against PPF as a product. It is an awesome product! It should definitely be part of one’s portfolio. But…

PPF is good. But not enough.

Previous generation’s automatic choice of investment was Provident Fund (PPF/EPF/VPF).

Why?

The contributions were (and is) eligible for deduction.
The returns were decent (12% till the year 2000 – imagine that 🙂 ).
And even the maturity amount is tax-free!

What else do you want in this world? 😉

But let us for a moment think about one thing:

PPF account has a maturity period of 15 years. So it is ideally created for goals that are atleast 15 years away.

Now due to the risk-free nature of the product, the returns given by PPF would ideally be less than those given by riskier assets. Isn’t it?

Also, you and I understand that when investing for long-term goals, we can and should invest more in assets that give higher returns in spite of being volatile?

Why? Because average returns are higher when longer periods are considered.

So if we are investing for goals that are due in long-term (i.e. 15 years) like say retirement, etc., shouldn’t we be investing in an asset that gives better returns?

I think we should. If not fully then atleast a major chunk of our investments. Short-term volatility should not be an excuse for avoiding an asset, which gives higher long-term returns.

PPF is a wonderful instrument. It gives me peace of mind as returns don’t fluctuate like stocks or equity MFs. Use this Excel-based PPF calculator to see how much you can accumulate using PPF alone.

But if you and I are able to stomach some of these short-term fluctuations, then we should have a higher exposure to equity as it provides higher long-term returns – which is necessary to build a healthy corpus. And also because in the long run, equity has a better potential of beating inflation and creating wealth.

I know when the topic of PPF comes up, it also brings up the topic of tax savings. And with that, comes the PPF vs. ELSS debate and questions like whether to invest in PPF or ELSS or both? But that is a detailed discussion in itself. So let’s leave it for some other day.

I personally invest a lot more in equity MFs, direct equities than in PPF. So you can take that as a disclosure. 🙂

PPF (or EPF) should definitely be a part of your portfolio and you are right in regularly keeping track of PPF interest rates. 🙂 But investments should be made as per the goal requirements, suitability of asset allocation and not just because of tax considerations.