Savings goal calculator
Find the deposit you need to hit a savings target by a date, or how long your current deposit will take, with a full year-by-year plan.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing you enter is sent
- Free, no account
Goal
$50,000.00
Already saved
$5,000.00
Total you deposit
$44,724.61
including what you have now
Interest does the rest
$5,275.39
- Already saved10.0%$5,000.00
- Future deposits79.4%$39,724.61
- Interest10.6%$5,275.39
How the goal gets funded.
- Projected balance
- Goal$50,000
Formula and working
Deposit needed each period
PMT = (FV − P(1 + i)ⁿ) × i / ((1 + i)ⁿ − 1) i = 4% ÷ 12 = 0.00333333 n = 60 deposits PMT = (50,000 − 5,000 × 1.00333333^60) × 0.00333333 ÷ ((1 + 0.00333333)^60 − 1) = $662.08
Growth of what you already have
FV₀ = P × (1 + i)ⁿ FV₀ = 5,000 × (1 + 0.00333333)^60 = $6,104.98
Deposits are treated as arriving at the end of each period (an ordinary annuity) and interest is compounded at the same frequency.
| Year | Start balance | Deposits | Interest | End balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000.00 | $7,944.92 | $351.00 | $13,295.92 |
| 2 | $13,295.92 | $7,944.92 | $688.98 | $21,929.82 |
| 3 | $21,929.82 | $7,944.92 | $1,040.74 | $30,915.49 |
| 4 | $30,915.49 | $7,944.92 | $1,406.83 | $40,267.24 |
| 5 | $40,267.24 | $7,944.92 | $1,787.84 | $50,000.00 |
Assumptions
- Deposits are made at the end of every period and never missed.
- The return is constant and compounded at the deposit frequency. A real savings account rate changes; an investment return varies far more.
- Tax on interest, account fees and inflation are ignored. A goal five years out will buy less than the same amount today.
- The final year is rounded up to a whole year in the table, so the last row usually overshoots the goal slightly.
How to use the savings goal calculator
- Pick the direction. Deposit needed answers "how much a month to hit this number by then"; time needed answers "when do I get there saving what I can actually spare".
- Enter the goal and how much you have already saved — the existing balance keeps earning, so it reduces the deposit more than its face value suggests.
- Set a realistic annual return. Use your account's actual rate for short goals, and zero if the money is sitting in a current account.
- Choose your deposit frequency so the answer matches how you actually move money — weekly, fortnightly, monthly or annually.
- Read the year-by-year plan to see the point where interest starts doing meaningful work, and export it as CSV if you want to track against it.
Monthly deposit needed to reach 10,000
Starting from zero, with deposits at the end of each month. Scale linearly for other targets: a 25,000 goal needs 2.5 times these figures.
| Timeframe | 0% return | 2% | 4% | 6% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 833.33 | 825.72 | 818.17 | 810.66 |
| 2 years | 416.67 | 408.74 | 400.92 | 393.21 |
| 3 years | 277.78 | 269.76 | 261.91 | 254.22 |
| 5 years | 166.67 | 158.61 | 150.83 | 143.33 |
| 10 years | 83.33 | 75.35 | 67.91 | 61.02 |
Notice how little the return matters over one year — 23 a month between 0% and 6% — and how much it matters over ten, where 6% cuts the required deposit by more than a quarter. Short goals are won by the deposit; long goals are won by the return.
The two formulas behind the answers
To find the deposit, the calculator rearranges the future value of an annuity:
PMT = (FV − P(1 + i)^n) × i / ((1 + i)^n − 1). The first term removes the part of
the goal that your existing balance will grow into by itself; the rest is what the deposits
have to cover.
To find the time, it solves the same equation for n:
n = ln((FV·i + PMT) / (P·i + PMT)) / ln(1 + i). When the return is zero this
collapses to the obvious (FV − P) / PMT. The number of periods is rounded up,
because you cannot make most of a deposit.
Choosing where to keep the money
- Under two years — an instant-access or notice savings account, or a term deposit that matures before you need it. Capital certainty matters more than return.
- Two to five years — still cash-like for most people. A market fall in the year you need the money is not recoverable on that timescale.
- Over five years — this is where a diversified investment starts to make sense for many savers, and where the return assumption in this calculator begins to carry real weight.
Two adjustments worth making
Inflate the goal. If you are saving for something whose price rises — a house deposit, a car, a wedding — the target itself is a moving number. Run today's price through the inflation calculator for your timeframe and use that figure as the goal.
Account for tax. Interest is taxable in most places unless the account is wrapped. Reducing the assumed return by your marginal tax rate gives a more honest plan than using the headline rate.
Questions
Which direction should I solve in?
Use “deposit needed” when the date is fixed — a wedding, a house deposit, a car. Use “time needed” when the amount you can spare each month is fixed and you want to know when you get there.
What return should I assume?
For a goal under three years, use the rate on an actual savings account or term deposit. For longer horizons people often assume a market-like return, but that comes with the risk the balance is down in the year you need the money.
Why does the answer change so much with the return?
Interest earns interest, so a higher rate compounds over every remaining period. For short goals the deposits dominate and the rate barely matters; for a ten-year goal the return can supply a third of the total.
Does it account for inflation?
No. If your goal is a real-world purchase several years out, inflate the target first — the inflation calculator will tell you what today’s price is likely to become.