Tell us your target balance, how long you have, and your expected return — we’ll show you exactly how much to save each month.
To reach $50,000 in 5 years at 5% return.
A tailored PDF showing the exact monthly contribution to hit your target, plus a year-by-year path to your goal.
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Define the dollar amount and the deadline. Everything else flows from those two inputs.
At higher assumed returns, you need to contribute less per month to hit the same target.
Money you've already saved keeps compounding too — it shrinks the gap you have to close.
This calculator solves the future-value-of-annuity formula for the monthly payment:
Where FV is your goal, P is current savings, r is the monthly rate (annual / 12), and n is the number of months. If your existing savings will already grow past the goal at the assumed return, the required contribution drops to $0.
High-yield savings: 4–5%. Diversified bonds: 3–5%. Stock-index ETFs: ~7% nominal long-run. For short horizons (< 3 years), prefer conservative assumptions.
For short horizons (< 5 yrs), inflation matters less. For longer goals, subtract your expected inflation rate from the assumed return to get a "real" return.
The monthly figure is a constant baseline. If you can save more later, you'll reach your goal early. If income drops, recalculate with a longer time horizon.
No — this is a pre-tax calculator. For tax-advantaged accounts (Roth IRA, 529, 530A) results are accurate. For taxable accounts, subtract your marginal cap-gains rate from the assumed return.
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