Cost of Delay Calculator
What does "I'll start investing next year" actually cost?
Both paths run to the same end date — the delayed start simply invests for fewer years. The gap isn't the skipped instalments (those are small); it's the compounding those instalments never get to do. SEBI's investor site has a version of this calculator; this one adds what it leaves out: the delayed investor would need a visibly larger SIP to catch up, shown in the banner.
Tax: both corpuses are shown pre-tax and are taxed identically on redemption (equity funds: 12.5% LTCG beyond ₹1.25L of gains a financial year), so tax doesn't change the comparison — but note the delayed corpus has a *higher share of principal*, so the gap after tax is slightly smaller than the headline. The lesson survives any tax regime: time in the market is the one input you can't buy back.