Savings Calculator

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See how your savings grow with regular contributions. Set a goal and see whether your plan reaches it, or how far short it falls.

Quick answer: A $10,000 deposit earning a 4.5% nominal annual rate compounded monthly, with $200 added every month, grows to $25,947.07 after 5 years: $22,000 from your own contributions and $3,947 from interest. This calculator takes the nominal rate, not a bank's quoted APY, so convert an APY first for a precise match.

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Future Savings Balance

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Total Deposited$0
Interest Earned$0
Growth0%

📐 Formula

Future Value = P(1+r/12)^n + PMT × [(1+r/12)^n − 1] / (r/12)

P = initial deposit, PMT = monthly contribution, r = nominal annual rate as a decimal (4.5% = 0.045), n = number of months.

How to Use the Savings Calculator

1

Enter your initial deposit

Enter the balance you already have saved in the Initial Deposit field. An existing balance compounds alongside new contributions; $5,000 already saved accelerates the growth curve significantly.

2

Set your monthly contribution

Enter a realistic monthly savings amount. Steady deposits beat sporadic ones of the same total: $200 every month is easier to keep up than an occasional larger sum.

3

Choose an interest rate

Enter the nominal annual rate, which the calculator compounds monthly. For a high-yield savings account, a quoted APY in the 3.5–4.5% range is close enough for a quick estimate; for a precise match, convert it first using the formula in the worked example below. For a diversified equity portfolio over 10+ years, 7% is the commonly cited historical average after inflation. Because the calculator does not adjust for inflation, enter a real (after-inflation) rate such as 7% to keep the result in today's purchasing power.

4

Set the time period and a goal

Choose a time period and compare 20 vs 30 years. The difference is enormous due to compounding; the calculator makes the value of extra time visible in dollar terms. If you have a target, enter it in the Savings Goal field to see whether your plan reaches it or how far short it falls.

Compound Interest: The Core Mechanism

Compound interest means earning returns on your returns. A $10,000 deposit at 7% earns $700 in year one, giving $10,700. Year two earns 7% on $10,700: $749. This snowball effect accelerates exponentially over decades. After 30 years, $10,000 at 7% becomes $76,123 compounded annually, with no additional contributions. This calculator compounds monthly, so the same $10,000 at 7% for 30 years comes to about $81,165. The key insight: the majority of terminal wealth is earned in the final years of the compounding period, which is why withdrawing early dramatically reduces outcomes. See the Compound Interest Calculator to isolate this effect on its own, without the monthly-contribution layer this tool adds.

Where to Keep Your Savings: Matching Account to Time Horizon

Not all savings should be in the same account type. For money needed within 1–3 years (emergency fund, down payment), use a high-yield savings account (HYSA). It is FDIC-insured and liquid within 1–2 business days, and current rates are in the FAQ below. For 3–10 year goals, consider certificates of deposit (CDs) for rate locks or conservative index funds for higher expected returns. For 10+ year goals, equity index funds have historically returned a commonly cited 7–10% a year before inflation, or about 7% a year after inflation. Keeping long-term savings in a savings account can cost significant purchasing power over time, because HYSA rates have often only roughly matched inflation. For a goal that far out, the FIRE Calculator models the same compounding at a full-retirement scale.

How to Calculate Savings Growth by Hand: Worked Example

Here is the full arithmetic behind the calculator for a deposit of $10,000 in an account paying a 4.5% nominal annual rate compounded monthly, with $200 added every month for 5 years.

Step 1: the monthly rate and period count. With r = 0.045 as the annual rate, the monthly rate = r/12 = 0.045 ÷ 12 = 0.00375; n = 5 × 12 = 60 months.

Step 2: grow the lump sum. A = $10,000 × (1.00375)⁶⁰ = $10,000 × 1.25180 = $12,517.96.

Step 3: grow the monthly deposits. Future value of the $200 stream = $200 × [(1.00375⁶⁰ − 1) ÷ 0.00375] = $200 × 67.1456 = $13,429.11.

Step 4: combine. $12,517.96 + $13,429.11 = $25,947.07. You deposited $22,000 in total, so $3,947 is pure interest, earned without any market risk in an insured account.

Why does the advertised APY already include compounding?

Banks quote APY (annual percentage yield, called AER in the UK) precisely so you don't have to do the compounding math when comparing accounts: a 4.5% APY delivers 4.5% growth over one year regardless of whether the bank compounds daily or monthly. This calculator works the other way round. It takes a nominal annual rate and compounds it monthly, so it does not convert an APY for you. To match a bank's quoted APY, convert it first: nominal rate = 12 × ((1 + APY)^(1/12) − 1). A 4.5% APY works out to about 4.41%. Entering 4.5% directly as the rate overstates growth slightly, because monthly compounding at a nominal 4.5% yields about 4.59% over a year.

How Much Should You Keep in Savings vs Investments?

Three questions decide most of this:

How big should an emergency fund be before investing?

Most planners recommend three to six months of essential expenses in a high-yield savings account before directing new money to markets. On $3,500 of monthly essentials, that is $10,500–$21,000. Single-income households, commission earners and the self-employed carry more concentrated income risk and should aim above this range. The FAQ below covers sizing when income varies.

Is a high-yield savings account worth switching for?

Almost always, and the calculator quantifies it. $15,000 sitting at a traditional bank's 0.01% rate earns about $1.50 a year; the same balance at 4.5% APY earns roughly $675. Over five years the gap is about $3,700, a large return for the effort of filling in one online application. Rate-chasing between accounts that differ by a tenth of a percent, on the other hand, rarely justifies the effort.

When does saving more beat earning more interest?

On modest balances, the contribution rate dominates. Doubling the monthly deposit in the worked example above (from $200 to $400) adds about $13,400 to the five-year balance; doubling the interest rate adds only about $4,800. Until a balance reaches roughly six figures, your savings rate, not the account's yield, is the primary growth engine.

Using This Calculator in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada

The compound-interest formula works the same in US dollars, British pounds, Australian dollars, and Canadian dollars, so the currency selector above changes only the symbol shown, not the math. Local savings terminology and deposit protection differ, though. In the US, the FDIC and NCUA protection, the HYSA terminology and the 3.5–4.5% APY range quoted on this page are all specific to the US market.

United Kingdom

Banks quote AER (Annual Equivalent Rate) instead of APY, the same concept under a different name, so the APY-to-nominal conversion above works for AER too. FSCS protects deposits up to £120,000 per person, per institution (raised from £85,000 in December 2025).

Australia

Banks typically quote a savings account or term deposit rate per year (p.a.) rather than using an APY/AER-style label, so you can enter the quoted rate directly as the nominal annual rate. Accounts differ in how often they credit interest, so expect small differences from the calculator. The Financial Claims Scheme (FCS) guarantees deposits up to A$250,000 per person, per authorised deposit-taking institution.

Canada

The equivalent product is often called a high-interest savings account (HISA). CDIC insures eligible deposits up to C$100,000 per separately-insured category (individual, joint, RRSP, TFSA and others), so a saver can have more than C$100,000 covered in total by spreading funds across categories.

⚠️ Disclaimer Savings projections assume a fixed nominal annual rate, compounded monthly, for the full term; real bank rates change with central bank policy (the Fed in the US) and can rise or fall at any time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pay yourself first: set up an automatic transfer to savings on payday, before the money reaches your everyday spending. Keep it in a separate account so it is harder to dip into, and raise the amount whenever your pay rises. Then use the calculator above to see what that monthly amount grows to.
Yes, as long as the bank is FDIC-insured (or NCUA-insured for credit unions); deposits are protected up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, the same protection a traditional brick-and-mortar bank offers. Online banks can pay higher rates specifically because they skip the overhead of physical branches, not because they take on more risk. Always confirm FDIC or NCUA insurance before opening an account.
A common rule is 20% of take-home pay (50/30/20 rule). At minimum, save enough to get your full employer 401k match, then build an emergency fund, then invest for long-term goals.
Online banks and credit unions are currently offering roughly 3.5–4.5% APY on high-yield savings accounts (HYSA). Traditional big bank savings rates remain near 0.01% at many of the largest banks, though the FDIC's national average across all banks is closer to 0.4%. Compare current offers from several online banks, since the best rates change often and follow Fed policy.
Size the fund on essential monthly costs (housing, utilities, food, insurance and minimum debt payments), not on your full income. If your income varies, whether from self-employment or a cyclical industry, plan on 6–12 months of those costs instead of the usual 3–6. On $3,500 of essentials, that is $21,000 at six months and $42,000 at twelve. Build it in stages, starting with one month, so a first shortfall does not push you onto a credit card.

Sources & Methodology

The projection is the standard compound-interest formula shown above. The deposit protection limits quoted on this page come from each scheme's own site, and the Australian rate-quoting note follows Moneysmart's compound interest guide: