Time to exhaust corpus
Hi Mani,
I am 36 year old and have a corpus of 1.4 Cr. I am a full time investor. As of now 31% of the capital has been built up and invested using Mutual funds, ETFs and Hedge SIP’s over the past 2 years. I am allocating 75% to equity, 15% to debt and 10% for hedges.
My question is with regards to time. Say if I have to exhaust my corpus, by what time should I do so through SIP’s, so that I have my corpus fully invested for long term compounding? One year feels too fast, five too slow. I feel stuck in a loop thinking about this. Your insights would be very valuable. Thanks.
PS: I have funds apart from this for my living expenses. So consider the corpus for investment only.
If I were in your place, I would stop searching for the “perfect” time frame and instead choose a comfortable one.
Markets don’t reward precision; they reward staying invested.
One year can feel rushed because you fear bad timing, and five years feels slow because you worry about missing compounding.
That tension is normal and experienced by most serious investors.
A practical middle path that works well in the real world is 18–24 months. It’s long enough to spread market risk and short enough to get most of your money working reasonably soon.
Fix a monthly SIP amount, automate it, and do not keep adjusting it based on news or market levels. Once decided, treat it like a standing instruction, not an ongoing decision.
The real mistake is not choosing the “wrong” duration, but constantly rethinking it. Pick a sensible window, commit to it, and move on. Compounding works best when your mind is calm and your process is boring.
