Savings goal calculator
Pick a target and a deadline to get the monthly deposit, or pick a deposit to see when you get there.
Deposit needed each month
$651.44
to reach 50,000 in 5 years
- Balance at the end
- $50,000
- You deposit
- $44,086
- Interest does
- $5,913.86
| Starting balance | $5,000.00 |
|---|---|
| Your deposits | $39,086 |
| Interest | $5,913.86 |
| Final balance | $50,000 |
Reaching $50,000 in 5 years from $5,000 takes about $660 a month — interest covers roughly $4,400 of it.
How this is calculated
How this is calculated
Solving for the deposit
The deposit is found by bisection rather than the closed-form annuity formula: it handles a 0% rate, a starting balance that already exceeds the target, and rounding to whole cents without three special cases.
FV = P(1+i)^N + PMT · ((1+i)^N − 1) / i, solved for PMTSolving for the time
The balance is stepped month by month and the answer is the first month it reaches the target — so a 4.5% rate gives an answer in whole deposits, not a fractional year that no deposit schedule can produce.
Worked example: $50,000 in five years, starting from $5,000
| Target | $50,000 |
|---|---|
| Already saved | $5,000 |
| Rate | 4.5% p.a. |
| Deadline | 5 years |
| Deposit each month | $660 |
|---|---|
| You deposit | $44,600 |
| Interest adds | $4,400 |
Stretching the deadline to seven years drops the deposit to about $440 — a 33% cut for two more years of patience.
What this assumes
- The rate holds for the whole period.
- Deposits land at the end of each month.
- No tax on the interest earned.
- No withdrawals along the way.
Where this commonly goes wrong
- A savings-account rate is often conditional — deposit a minimum, make no withdrawals — and the base rate can be under 1%.
- Interest is taxable in most countries, so a 4.5% headline rate is nearer 2.9% at a 35% marginal rate.
- For goals under two years, the deposit does nearly all the work; the rate you chase barely matters.
Questions
How much should I save each month for a house deposit?
Work backwards from the purchase price and the date. A $100,000 deposit in four years at 4.5% needs about $1,900 a month from zero. If that is impossible, the honest lever is the deadline, not the rate.
Is it better to save monthly or in lump sums?
Monthly wins on consistency; the timing difference is small. Depositing at the start of each month instead of the end adds roughly one extra month of interest over the whole period — a fraction of a percent.
What rate should I use for a short goal?
Use a rate you can actually get today on a savings account or term deposit, not a market return. Money needed within three years should not be exposed to a fall it has no time to recover from.
Why does the answer change when I add a starting balance?
The existing balance compounds for the full period, so it does more work than a deposit made in the final year. $5,000 today at 4.5% becomes about $6,250 in five years without you adding anything.
What if I cannot hit the required deposit?
Three levers, in order of power: extend the deadline, lower the target, then raise the rate. Extending five years to seven cuts the required deposit by about a third; chasing an extra 1% of interest changes it by a few percent.
Should the goal include inflation?
If the thing you are buying will cost more later, yes. A $50,000 car in five years at 3% inflation costs about $58,000 by then. Set the target at the future price, not the price on the window today.
Related tools
Sources
This calculator does arithmetic on the figures you enter. It does not account for tax, fees, or your personal circumstances.
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