Step 2: Chart the Crore Course

Achieving ₹10 crore isn’t a sprint—it’s a marathon. Much like the endurance shown by the tortoise in the classic fable, the journey is about pacing, persistence, and strategic savings rather than a race to the finish line. Now that you’ve calculated your current net worth in first article of the series 5 Steps to Building ₹10 Crore, you know exactly where you stand. So, let’s look at the gap and map out the journey to reach that ₹10 crore goal.

Knowing your financial “starting point” is only half the equation; the other half is understanding the distance to your goal. It’s like preparing for a hike—you wouldn’t set off without first checking how far you’ll need to travel, how difficult the terrain is, and how much you’ll need to pack. Calculating the distance to ₹10 crore offers this same clarity, helping you determine if your goal is realistic, whether adjustments are needed, or if your resources need a boost. As Confucius said

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.

Knowing the gap to ₹10 crore isn’t about limiting your aspirations but about fine-tuning your plan to make your dream achievable. If the gap feels large, remind yourself that great journeys are conquered one step at a time. With each contribution you make, you’re moving closer to a financially secure future.

The journey to ₹10 crore truly begins when you reach that first crore. This is the foundation that can help accelerate your wealth-building. Why? Because as soon as you achieve that first ₹1 crore, compounding starts working its magic in a big way. Think of it as planting a mango sapling. The first ₹1 crore is like that sapling; it takes time, patience, and care to grow. But once it matures, it rewards you with a bountiful harvest season after season. In the same way, your first crore, once reached, will begin to multiply steadily, helping you achieve your ₹10 crore goal.

Let’s use an old riddle as an analogy. Suppose you have flowers that double in number every minute; if it takes an hour to fill a vase, how long will it take for the vase to be half full? The answer: 59 minutes. At 58 minutes, it would be a quarter full, and at 57 minutes, an eighth full. If the full vase represents ₹10 crore and your money doubles every eight years (assuming a conservative 9% per annum), working backward, a current corpus of ₹1.25 crore would take about 24 years to reach ₹10 crore, even without any additional contributions. That’s the power of compounding.

Compounding is the secret ingredient that can grow your wealth exponentially over time. Once your money starts earning returns, those returns begin to generate returns themselves, creating a snowball effect that accelerates your financial growth. Think of each rupee you save and invest as a little worker dedicated to helping you reach that ₹10 crore target faster.

As shown in the image above, if you save ₹25,000 per month and it grows at an annual rate of 12%, it will take about 14 years to reach the first crore. But here’s where compounding works its magic: if you continue saving the same amount, the second crore comes in just 5 years! That’s a remarkable shift from 14 years down to 5.

And it only gets better. In the next 5 years, your corpus grows by an additional ₹2 crore. The 5 years after that will add over ₹3.5 crore to your wealth, and in the final stretch, the last ₹2 crore comes in just 2 years. This rapid growth in later years demonstrates why compounding is often called the “eighth wonder of the world”—the longer you stay invested, the more your wealth multiplies.

Congratulations on completing this important second step—charting your path toward ₹10 crore! You’ve now identified how much you need to invest to reach this target over 20, 25, 30, or 35 years, at various rates of return. More importantly, you’ve seen how compounding can become your greatest ally, especially once you cross the crucial first crore.

But as we know, life rarely follows a straight line. In the next steps, we’ll explore strategies to help you stay on track, even when life throws challenges your way. For now, give yourself a pat on the back—you’ve taken another big stride toward building a brighter financial future!