The quest for crores

On my company's website as well as on the news channels where I answer investment questions, I'm facing a deluge of investors wanting to know how to build their investments to one crore rupees. The questions take a familiar form. Someone writes or emails a message asking, "For how many years, would I have to invest X amount of money in a mutual fund so that my investment can grow to Rs one crore." Or, the questioner will ask, "I need Rs one crore after X years. How much should I invest every month to reach this goal." The value of X varies, but the question is the same. It's a question that is easy to answer if one makes an assumption about the returns that a typical equity mutual fund will provide. Once you've made that assumption, anyone who is handy with any spreadsheet software can use the NPER or PPMT functions and calculate the an