See how your savings could grow by retirement
💡 Why This Matters Small, regular contributions grow enormously over decades thanks to compound interest. This calculator shows how your current savings and monthly contributions could grow by the time you retire.
Starting to save just 10 years earlier can nearly double your retirement balance at the same contribution rate — compound growth does more work in the early years than most people expect.
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This calculator uses the standard future value formula for regular contributions with compound interest, applied monthly. It grows your current savings at the given annual return rate, then adds the future value of your monthly contributions compounding over the same period.
The total shown is your projected balance at retirement. The breakdown separates how much of that total came from your own contributions versus how much came from investment growth — a useful way to see compound interest actually working.
The default 7% return rate is a commonly cited long-term average based on historical S&P 500 performance, but real returns vary significantly year to year and aren't guaranteed. This calculator also doesn't account for taxes, fees, inflation, or changes to your contribution amount over time — all of which affect your real-world outcome.
Try adjusting the return rate to see a range of outcomes — a more conservative 4-5% alongside the 7% default gives you a realistic best-case/worst-case picture. Use this as a planning tool to see how increasing contributions or starting earlier changes your projected balance.
Example: Starting with $20,000 saved, contributing $500/month for 30 years at a 7% annual return grows to roughly $772,000 — with $200,000 of that from your own contributions and about $572,000 from compound growth.
7% is a commonly used long-term average based on historical S&P 500 returns after inflation, and is the default here. Your real returns will vary year to year — this is a planning estimate, not a guarantee.
Not directly. The 7% default is often cited as an inflation-adjusted average, but if you want a more conservative estimate, you can lower the rate to reflect your own assumptions.
Not automatically — if your employer matches contributions, add that amount to your monthly contribution figure to include it in the projection.