Savings Goal Calculator

This calculator helps you plan a realistic path to a target balance. Choose between two approaches: Monthly needed works backward from your deadline and tells you how much to deposit each month; Time to goal starts from a fixed monthly amount and projects how long it will take. Enter your current balance, a sensible annual return (APR), and we’ll apply monthly compounding to keep the math consistent with most savings products. The result area is tuned for mobile: a big headline answer appears first, followed by a clean summary and a compact snapshot of key months. You can also download the full monthly schedule as CSV for spreadsheets.

Good inputs make the plan trustworthy. Use your real current savings and a conservative APR; if your account lists an APY, it will be close to the APR at low rates. For short-term cash, try 0–3%. For multi-year goals, test a range—say 4–7%—and plan using the lower result. The start month label is optional but handy for matching the schedule to your calendar. If the calculator says your goal is already reachable with growth alone, you’ll see a gentle warning and a zero monthly deposit.

• Currency: auto-detected but fully overrideable.
• Rate band: clamp APR between 0–20% to avoid unrealistic projections.
• Timeline: combine years and extra months; the tool totals them for you.

At the top, you’ll see either the monthly deposit needed or the estimated time to goal. The summary block shows total contributed, total interest, and the projected final balance. The snapshot highlights Month 1, Month 6, Month 12, Month 24 (when applicable), a midpoint, and the final month, including this month’s contribution and interest as well as the cumulative tallies. These touchpoints make it easy to sanity-check progress without scrolling a long table.

Treat the numbers as planning tools rather than promises. Rates change, deposits slip, and emergencies happen. Update the inputs when life shifts, and use the new plan to nudge your habits back on track.

Small changes compound. Automating transfers right after payday improves adherence; adding a fixed top-up (for example, rounding up by 25–100 in your currency) builds momentum. Windfalls—tax refunds, bonuses—can be logged as one-off extras by temporarily increasing the monthly deposit and re-running the plan. This tool keeps scope tight: it focuses on principal growth under a steady APR with monthly compounding. It does not model taxes, fees, penalties, or variable returns. If your product has tiered rates or withdrawal limits, use the conservative end of your assumptions so your plan remains resilient.

When a plan looks unrealistic, don’t give up—adjust levers. Extend the timeline, trim the target, or raise the monthly amount. Even modest improvements, started sooner, usually beat heroic last-minute deposits.

We use monthly compounding. Let r be APR÷12, n months, PV current savings, FV goal, PMT monthly deposit. For monthly needed: PMT = r·(FV − PV·(1+r)^n) / ((1+r)^n − 1); if r=0, PMT = (FV − PV)/n. For time to goal with r>0: n = ln((PMT + r·FV)/(PMT + r·PV)) / ln(1+r); if r=0, n = (FV − PV)/PMT. We round money to cents and build a monthly schedule from the computed plan.