Savings Goal Calculator
Savings Goal Calculator
Work out the deposit you need each week, fortnight or month to reach a savings goal by a set time, how long a regular deposit takes to get there, or what a savings plan will grow to, with interest quoted as an APY or a compounded rate.
Balance over time
Rate per deposit i = (1 + APY) to the power 1 ÷ k − 1, with k = 52, 26 or 12 deposits a year; an APR compounded m times a year is first turned into APY = (1 + APR ÷ m) to the power m − 1. Balance = start × (1 + i) to the power n + deposit × ((1 + i) to the power n − 1) ÷ i, times (1 + i) for deposits at the start of each period. The rate is held fixed and tax is not taken off. The CSV, image and printed report contain only the values you entered.
How to use this tool
Pick what you want to know. "Deposit needed for a goal" takes the goal, anything already saved and the time you have, as months, years or a target month. "Time to reach a goal" swaps the time for the deposit you can afford and returns the number of deposits and a likely date. "What my savings grow to" shows where a plan ends up. The rate, frequency and timing are shared, so you can switch between them without retyping.
The input people most often get wrong is the kind of rate. US banks quote savings accounts as an APY, which already includes compounding, so enter that with "APY" selected; choose "APR" only for a rate described as compounded daily or monthly. Next is the timing: "end of each period" means the first deposit goes in a week or a month from now, "start" means today. Match the frequency to your paydays; the hourly to salary calculator turns an hourly wage into a weekly or monthly figure to budget from.
What the calculation is doing
First the rate becomes a rate per deposit. An APY of 4% with monthly deposits gives i = 1.04 to the power 1 ÷ 12 − 1 = 0.327% a month; weekly it is 0.0755% a week. An APR is converted to an APY first, so 4% compounded daily becomes (1 + 0.04 ÷ 365) to the power 365 − 1 = 4.081%. That way a full year of deposits earns exactly the stated yield at any frequency.
The balance after n deposits is B = P × (1 + i) to the power n + D × ((1 + i) to the power n − 1) ÷ i, where P is what you already have and D the deposit. The second term is the future value of an ordinary annuity; deposits at the start of each period earn one more period of interest, so it is multiplied by (1 + i), an annuity due. The deposit needed solves this for D, and the time to the goal solves it for n: n = ln((goal × i + D) ÷ (P × i + D)) ÷ ln(1 + i), rounded up to a whole deposit. At 0% the time is simply (goal − P) ÷ D.
Banks usually accrue interest daily and credit it monthly, which is not quite a rate per deposit. Modelled day by day, $357.80 a month for two years at 4% compounded daily ends 4 cents lower than this method, and $1,000 every two weeks for five years ends 35 cents lower on $147,550: far less than any change in the rate.
Why the deadline matters more than the rate
Take $5,000 in 12 months. At 0% you need $416.67 a month, at 4% APY $409.22 and at 5% $407.41: a good rate saves $7 to $9 a month. Moving the deadline to 18 months cuts the deposit to $270.13. On a short goal the average dollar sits in the account for only about half the time, so interest has little to work on and the deposit decides the outcome.
Time changes that. For a $10,000 goal, a 5% rate cuts the monthly deposit by 1% over six months, 2.2% over one year, 11.5% over five years and 22.3% over ten, when interest pays for almost a fifth of the goal. That is why a goal years away is worth starting even with a small deposit.
The rate is also the input you control least. Most savings accounts pay a variable rate, and Regulation DD requires US banks to disclose "the fact that the interest rate and annual percentage yield may change". The FDIC national average savings rate sat at 0.06% from 2021 to spring 2022, climbed to 0.47% in January 2024 and was 0.37% in September 2026. Online banks often pay several times the average, but their rates move too.
So plan with a rate you would be comfortable seeing for the whole period, and rerun the numbers when your bank changes it. For $10,000 in five years, planning at 4% gives $151.11 a month; at 2% throughout you would need $158.68. A certificate of deposit, or a GIC in Canada, fixes the rate for its term if certainty matters more than access.
Monthly deposit needed to save $10,000
Starting from nothing, with deposits at the end of each month and rates as APY. Read down a column to see what time does and across a row to see what the rate does; the last column shows how much 5% lowers the deposit compared with 0%.
| Time to goal | 0% APY | 1% APY | 2% APY | 3% APY | 4% APY | 5% APY | 5% cuts it by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 months | $1,666.67 | $1,663.21 | $1,659.80 | $1,656.42 | $1,653.08 | $1,649.77 | 1% |
| 1 year | $833.33 | $829.54 | $825.79 | $822.09 | $818.43 | $814.82 | 2.2% |
| 18 months | $555.56 | $551.65 | $547.80 | $544.00 | $540.26 | $536.56 | 3.4% |
| 2 years | $416.67 | $412.71 | $408.81 | $404.97 | $401.19 | $397.48 | 4.6% |
| 3 years | $277.78 | $273.77 | $269.83 | $265.97 | $262.18 | $258.47 | 7% |
| 4 years | $208.33 | $204.30 | $200.36 | $196.50 | $192.73 | $189.05 | 9.3% |
| 5 years | $166.67 | $162.62 | $158.68 | $154.84 | $151.11 | $147.46 | 11.5% |
| 7 years | $119.05 | $115.00 | $111.08 | $107.29 | $103.62 | $100.08 | 15.9% |
| 10 years | $83.33 | $79.29 | $75.42 | $71.71 | $68.17 | $64.78 | 22.3% |
A worked example you can check on paper
The calculator opens with a $10,000 goal in two years, $1,000 already saved, 4% APY and deposits at the end of each month. The monthly rate is 1.04 to the power 1 ÷ 12 − 1 = 0.00327374, there are 24 deposits, and because 24 months is exactly two years at an APY the growth factor is simply 1.04 × 1.04 = 1.0816.
The $1,000 grows to $1,081.60, so the deposits must supply 10,000 − 1,081.60 = $8,918.40. Each dollar deposited monthly grows to (1.0816 − 1) ÷ 0.00327374 = 24.925622, so the deposit is 8,918.40 ÷ 24.925622 = $357.80.
Check: 24 × $357.80 = $8,587.20, plus $1,000 makes $9,587.20 of your own money, and the other $412.80 is interest. Enter $357.80 in "time to reach a goal" and it returns 24 months. Paying in at the start of each month lowers the deposit to $356.63.
Mistakes that catch people out
Typing an APR as an APY. 4% compounded monthly is an APY of 4.074%. Use the figure your bank quotes and set the box to match.
Planning with a teaser rate. Introductory rates end and variable rates move. Plan with a rate you expect to last and treat anything above it as a bonus.
Forgetting that prices rise. A $20,000 car three years away costs about $21,855 if prices climb 3% a year. Raise a distant goal for inflation first.
Mixing up biweekly and twice a month. Every two weeks is 26 deposits a year, twice a month is 24, so $200 every two weeks is $5,200 a year, not $4,800.
Ignoring tax on interest. The IRS treats interest on bank accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit as taxable income, so you keep less than the interest shown.
Popular calculations
Each link opens the calculator with those figures filled in at the rate shown, 4% APY unless stated, and everything can be changed once it is open.
Emergency funds and short term goals
Cars, weddings and down payments
How long it takes to reach a goal
What regular saving grows to
How this was checked
The formulas were checked against a separate period by period simulation for 20,000 random plans across every frequency, timing, rate type and compounding choice, with rates from 0% to 15% and times up to 50 years; the largest relative difference was 3 × 10 to the power −13. Round trips between the three modes returned the starting goal, deposit and number of deposits, also with the deposit rounded to the cent, except where deposits of a few cents over decades let rounding alone move the end date.
Published examples were reproduced to the cent, in the engine and on the calculator itself. From Olivier's Business Math: A Step by Step Handbook: $10,000 plus $250 a month at 9% compounded semiannually for 20 years grows to $221,693.59; $1,000 at the start of each week at 5% compounded annually for 25 years grows to $2,544,543.22; a $1.7 million goal in 43 years from $10,000 at 9% compounded annually needs $233.24 a month from today. The OpenStax Principles of Finance annuity examples, $16,248.97 ordinary and $16,898.93 due, also match.
Lippman's Math in Society gives $134.09 a month for $200,000 in 30 years at 8% compounded monthly; the calculator gives $134.20, and repeating the book's rounding of the monthly rate to 0.00667 reproduces $134.09. The APY rule and the variable rate disclosure are from Regulation DD, the rate history from the FDIC national rate series on FRED, and the goal and emergency fund guidance from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.
Common questions
How much should I save each month to reach a goal?
Take the goal, subtract what your current savings will grow to, and divide by what each dollar of monthly deposit grows to by the deadline. With no interest that is the goal divided by the months: $5,000 in 12 months is $416.67 a month, or $409.22 at 4% APY.
How long does it take to save $10,000?
It depends mostly on the deposit. At $500 a month and 4% APY it takes 20 months. At $250 a month it takes 38 months, against 40 with no interest at all. Choose "time to reach a goal" to get the date for your own figures.
Does the interest rate matter for short term savings?
Not much. Over one year a 5% rate cuts the monthly deposit for a $10,000 goal by 2.2% compared with 0%; over ten years it cuts it by 22.3%. For a goal a year or two away, the deposit and the deadline matter far more.
Should I enter the APY or the APR?
Enter the APY if the bank quotes one. US banks must state the annual percentage yield on deposit accounts, and it already includes compounding. If you only have a rate described as compounded daily or monthly, choose APR and pick the compounding; 4% compounded monthly is an APY of 4.074%.
Is it better to save weekly or monthly?
Slightly better weekly, because money reaches the account sooner. To save $10,000 in two years at 4%, $92.47 a week puts in $9,616.88, while $401.19 a month puts in $9,628.56: the weekly saver pays in $11.68 less. The bigger benefit is habit, so match deposits to your paydays.
How big should an emergency fund be?
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada suggests three to six months of regular expenses, kept in a savings account that is separate from your everyday account, has low or no fees and lets you withdraw without penalty. If your expenses are $2,500 a month, that is $7,500 to $15,000; starting small and automating the transfer beats waiting.
Related Calculators and Reference
- Compound Interest Calculator: follow a balance year by year with regular contributions and no fixed goal.
- APY Calculator: turn a rate compounded daily or monthly into the APY to enter here.
- Inflation Calculator: see what a goal several years away is likely to cost by then.
- Debt Payoff Calculator: clear high interest debt first, since it usually costs more than savings earn.
- Retirement Calculator: the same idea over decades, with investment returns in place of a savings rate.
- Rule of 72 Calculator: how long the pot takes to double at your rate.
- CD Calculator: model a certificate of deposit or a CD ladder for money you are setting aside.
- Emergency Fund Calculator: the target in months of expenses and the time to build it.
- Net Worth Calculator: see savings beside everything owned and owed.
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: Setting savings and investment goals: how to set an amount and a timeframe, and where to keep short, medium and long term savings.