Savings Goal Calculator
What you need to put away each month to reach a target on time — and how far the amount you are actually saving gets you.
The address carries whatever you changed, so anyone opening it sees these numbers. Nothing is saved on our side.
Save each month
$607
To reach $50,000 in 5 years, starting from $8,000 and earning 4%.
- $50,000
- $8,000
- $44,410
- $5,590
Where your current pace lands
The figure above is what the deadline demands. This is what the amount you are actually saving achieves.
- Saving $500 a month
- 5 years 11 months
- Your deadline
- 5 years
That is 11 months later than you wanted. Closing the gap means finding another $107 a month.
What a different deadline costs
Every extra year is a smaller monthly commitment, and the drop is steepest at the short end.
| Deadline | Monthly saving |
|---|---|
| 1 year | $3,410 |
| 2 years | $1,657 |
| 3 years | $1,073 |
| 5 yearsyours | $607 |
| 10 years | $259 |
| 15 years | $144 |
Getting there
The balance at the end of each year, split into what you paid in and what the return added.
Year
Over this period the contributions still outweigh the growth. A longer horizon, or a higher return, is what flips that.
How this calculator works
Solved directly, not by trial and error.
With a per-month growth factor f, a target T, existing savings P and m months, the balance at the deadline is
P·fm + C · (fm − 1) ÷ (f − 1)
so the contribution falls straight out:
C = (T − P·fm) ÷ ((fm − 1) ÷ (f − 1))
A zero return makes the denominator collapse, so that case is handled separately as a flat series — the target minus what you have, divided by the months.
What is assumed
- The same amount every month, at the end of each month.
- A constant return for the whole period.
- Nothing is withdrawn before the deadline.
- No tax on the interest earned.
A worked example
A $50,000 target in five years, starting from $8,000, in an account paying 4%.
| Already saved | Grows on its own to $9,768 |
|---|---|
| Still to find | 50,000 − 9,768 |
| Monthly contribution | 40,232 ÷ 66.30 months of compounding |
| Paid in over five years | $8,000 plus $606.83 × 60 |
| Interest earned | The rest of the target |
Interest covers about 11% of the goal here. Over five years at 4% that is all it can do — which is why, for short goals, the amount you save matters far more than the rate you find.
Questions people ask
For anything inside three years, use a savings account or money-market rate — whatever you can actually get today. Money you need on a date should not be exposed to a market that can fall 20% in the month before you need it. For a house deposit two years out, the return is close to irrelevant next to the amount you save.
Generally not. The point of an emergency fund is that it is there in full on the day something goes wrong, which tends to be exactly when markets are down and your job is least secure. A high-yield savings account gives up some return in exchange for certainty, which is the right trade for that particular pot of money.
Two effects compound. Spreading the same target over more months lowers each one, and the earlier contributions have longer to earn. The first effect is linear, the second is not, so the drop is steepest at the short end — going from one year to two nearly halves it, while going from fourteen years to fifteen barely moves it.
Then one of the other three inputs has to move: a later deadline, a smaller target, or a higher return — and the third is the one you have least control over and should lean on least. The table of deadlines shows exactly what each extra year buys you, which usually makes the trade easier to judge than staring at a single number.
No. The target is treated as a fixed amount of money, which is right for a nominal goal like a $50,000 deposit. If your goal is really a thing rather than a number — a house, a wedding, a car — the price of that thing will probably rise while you save, so consider setting the target above today's price.
Growing what you save
Compound InterestHow capital grows with contributions over timeRelated calculators
A planning estimate. Returns on savings change, and a rate quoted today is not guaranteed for the life of the goal.