Savings calculator
A projection at a constant rate. Real savings rates move, and the figure in today’s money is the one that tells you what the pot will actually buy.
Savings grow from three things: what you start with, what you add, and the rate compounding on both. Five thousand plus 400 a month at 4.5% for ten years reaches about 68,900: of which 53,000 is money you put in and 15,900 is interest.
How to project your savings
For most savers over most timeframes, the monthly contribution matters more than the rate. Doubling a 400 monthly contribution adds far more over ten years than moving from 4% to 5% does, and it is entirely within your control while the rate is not. Rate only overtakes contribution once the balance is large relative to what you are adding, which for a typical saver happens somewhere past the fifteen-year mark. The practical implication is that time spent rate-chasing early is usually better spent increasing the standing order.
Questions
It depends on the rate, the term and how much you add. The year-by-year table shows the path, not just the endpoint.
Less than people expect. Monthly against yearly compounding at 5% differs by about 0.11 percentage points of effective rate.
Whatever your account actually pays for cash. For invested money, a long-run real return of 4–5% after inflation is a common planning assumption.
Because a pot of 100,000 in twenty years buys what about 61,000 buys today at 2.5% inflation. The today's-money row is the honest one.
For the first decade or so, saving more. Rate only dominates once the balance is large relative to contributions.