Savings goal calculator

Currency

Your goal

Saved already

Years to get there

Rate on the account

Put away each month

$607

for 5 years, to reach $50,000 from $8,000 at 4.0% a year

You put in$36,410

Interest adds$5,590

Wait a year$782

The monthly amount the same goal needs at every deadline. The curve is steep on the left because a shorter term leaves the contributions to do the work the compounding would have done.

Reaching $50,000 in 5 years from $8,000 already saved, at 4.0% a year, takes $607 a month. You would put in $36,410 and the interest adds $5,590, which is 11% of the target. Starting a year later would raise the monthly figure to $782.

How to use this, and the parts people get wrong

You set the target and the date; the tool solves for the monthly amount, not the other way round.
On short goals the interest rate barely matters. Past ten years it does most of the work.
The cost of waiting line is the same goal started one year later - the difference is the price of the delay.

What the target is made of

Of the $50,000 you are aiming at, $8,000 is already there and $36,410 comes out of your own pocket. The interest does the remaining $5,590, or 11% of the goal.

$607a month, for 5 years

$36,410your own money, in total

$175more a month if you start a year from now

Deadlines of other lengths

The same goal and the same opening balance, at every deadline.

Years	A month	You put in	Interest adds
1	$3,410	$40,916	$1,084
2	$1,657	$39,772	$2,228
3	$1,073	$38,640	$3,360
5	$607	$36,410	$5,590
7	$407	$34,224	$7,776
10	$259	$31,028	$10,972
15	$144	$25,920	$16,080

Questions people ask

How much do I need to save each month to reach my goal?

On these figures, $607 a month reaches $50,000 in 5 years starting from $8,000 at 4.0% a year. The amount depends on all four: change the deadline and it moves more than changing anything else.

How much of the goal does the interest do?

Here $5,590 of the $50,000 target, about 11%. That share grows quickly with the horizon: over five years the contributions do nearly all the work, and over twenty the growth on them can outweigh them.

What does waiting a year cost?

The monthly figure rises from $607 to $782, an extra $175 every month for the rest of the term. The lost year is not one twelfth of the effort; it is the year with the most compounding left in it.

What rate should I use?

Use the rate you can actually get on the account the money will sit in. A goal a few years out belongs somewhere with a known rate, so a savings or deposit rate is the honest input; a market return assumed over three years is a guess, not a plan.

Is the contribution assumed at the start or end of the month?

The end, which is the conservative reading. Money paid in on the first of the month earns one extra month of interest, so a reader who saves at the start of the month arrives slightly ahead of the target rather than behind it.

What if I already have enough?

Then the page says so rather than printing a negative contribution. If the opening balance grows past the target on its own, the required monthly amount is zero and the question becomes when it gets there, not how much to add.

Method and sources

Future value of an annuityClosed-form solve for the contribution, end-of-month convention

The calculation

The opening balance is grown at the monthly rate for the whole term. What is left of the target after that is divided by the future-value factor of a monthly contribution, which gives the payment that lands exactly on the goal. The split is then read straight off: the opening balance, the contributions multiplied by the months, and whatever is left over is interest. The cost of waiting is the same solve run again with one year less.

What these figures do not cover

A constant rate is assumed across the term.
Tax on the interest is not deducted; in a tax-sheltered account there is none, and outside one it varies by country and by band.
Inflation is not removed, so the target is in today's money only if you meant it that way.
Contributions are assumed to arrive monthly and unchanged.

Last updated August 2026.

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