Goals

Savings goal calculator

Two questions, one page. Either you know what you can save and want the date, or you know the date and want the monthly figure.

Your goal

Currency

Changes the symbol on your figures. It does not convert them — there is no exchange rate here.

What are you solving for

Goal amount

Already saved

Saving each month

Used when solving for how long.

Months available

Used when solving for how much a month.

Interest rate (APY)

Leave at zero to ignore interest. A high-yield savings account often pays a few per cent.

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You contribute

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Interest earned

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Ending balance

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This calculator needs JavaScript to recalculate. The figures above are a worked example, and every assumption behind them is written out below.

What this assumes

Interest is entered as an APY — an annual yield that already contains its own compounding — and converted to a monthly rate as its twelfth root, not by dividing by twelve. Dividing overstates a 5% account by about six basis points a year.

Contributions are assumed to arrive at the end of each month, and the balance is not reduced by tax on the interest.

Both directions matter

Most savings calculators only answer the first question, and the second is the one people usually arrive with. A wedding in eighteen months or a deposit needed by spring is a fixed date, and the useful output is the monthly figure that gets there — including the answer “that is not possible at this income”, which is worth knowing early.

Interest barely matters over two years, and matters enormously over twenty

On a two-year goal at 4%, interest contributes a rounding error. That is why the rate here defaults to zero: for the short goals this calculator is usually used for, ignoring it produces a number that is easier to trust and almost identical.

Over ten years or more the opposite is true, and at that horizon you are no longer saving, you are investing — a different account, a different risk, and a different calculator.

Common questions

How much should I save each month?

Switch the mode above to solve for it. The arithmetic is your remaining goal divided across the months you have, adjusted for any interest — but the real constraint is what is left after your needs and existing commitments, which is what the 50/30/20 calculator is for.

Should this money be invested?

For anything under about three years, no. The market can be down 20% on the exact month you need a house deposit, and there is no recovery time. Short goals belong in cash, even though cash loses to inflation — that loss is small over two years and certain, which is preferable to a large loss that is merely likely not to happen.

What is APY?

Annual percentage yield: the actual return over a year including the effect of compounding. It is what savings accounts advertise, and it is directly comparable between accounts, which is why this calculator asks for it rather than a nominal rate.

The app this comes from

A goal competes with everything else you spend on

The monthly figure this page produces has to come from somewhere, and for most people it comes out of the wants bucket without anyone deciding that it should. Seeing both in one place is the point of tracking at all.

Not out yet. TLDR Money International is in build for the United States and the United Kingdom first, on iPhone and Android. There is nothing to download and nothing to sign up to — when there is, this page will say so.

Last reviewed 20 August 2026. The arithmetic behind this page is covered by automated tests that run on every deploy.