Savings Goal Calculator
How long until you reach your target? Months and the calendar date, from what you have, what you save and what it earns.
- Goal reached
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- You will deposit
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- Interest adds
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- Per week
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- Per day
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- Interest adds
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Free forever, no sign-up and no limits, and this tool installs on its own so you can keep it on your home screen.
A target, what you already have, what you can put aside monthly and what it earns, and out comes the answer that matters: how long, and the month you get there. Flip the switch and it works the other way, too: give it a deadline and it tells you the monthly amount that meets it. Interest is counted, so the estimate is honest rather than pessimistic.
How to use it
- Pick the questionWhen will I get there, from a monthly amount, or how much per month, from a target date. Then set the goal and anything already put aside.
- Set the paceThe monthly saving or the target date, plus the yearly rate it earns, zero is a valid rate.
- Read the answerEither the time to goal and the calendar month it lands, or the required monthly amount, restated per week and per day.
From wish to date
A savings goal without a date is a mood. The arithmetic that converts one into the other is mechanical, balance grows by the rate, deposits land monthly, repeat until the target falls, but doing it by hand means a spreadsheet, so mostly it never gets done and the goal stays vague. This tool runs that simulation in the time it takes to type four numbers, and answers in the only unit that changes behaviour: a month you can put in a calendar.
Two ways to ask the same question
Some people know what they can spare and want the date; others have the date fixed, a wedding, a move, a tax bill, and need the amount. The mode switch at the top serves both without changing the model underneath. The second mode's per-week and per-day figures are the same money on other calendars, and they matter because a daily figure is the one that argues with a coffee.
The lever ranking
Playing with the inputs teaches the honest hierarchy. The monthly amount dominates: doubling it roughly halves the time, every time. The starting balance matters proportionally. The interest rate, over short horizons, is almost cosmetic, a point of extra rate on a two-year goal saves days, not months. That ranking is worth knowing because it is the reverse of where savers put their attention: hunting rate offers feels productive, but on goal-length timescales, the transfer amount is the whole game. Watch the interest column as you stretch the timeline, though, patience is where rate finally earns its reputation.
Questions people ask
How long to save 10,000?
Depends entirely on pace: at 300 a month from a 2,000 start it is about 26 months; at 150 it is roughly twice that, minus a little for interest. The point of the calculator is turning that vague 'a couple of years' into a month on the calendar.
Does interest really change the answer?
At today's modest deposit rates, less than people hope but more than nothing, on a two-year goal it typically trims a month or so. Its real effect appears on long goals: toward a distant target, the interest column quietly becomes a meaningful contributor. The breakdown shows its exact share for your numbers.
What assumptions does it make?
The same as our compound interest tool, stated under the result: the rate compounds monthly, and your deposit lands at each month's end. Real accounts differ in the details; the answer is a faithful model, not a bank statement.
How does the how much per month mode work?
Backwards from a date. Give it the target, what you already have and the date you need it by, and it solves for the monthly deposit that lands exactly on the goal, using the same monthly-compounding model as the other mode. The answer is also restated per week and per day: saving 10,000 from a 2,000 start in 24 months at 2% needs 323.66 a month, which reads very differently as 10.64 a day.
What if I can only save irregularly?
Enter your realistic monthly average. The maths cannot predict windfalls, but an average captures the trend, and rerunning with actual balances every few months keeps the date honest.
Why does it refuse some inputs?
Two honest refusals: with no monthly saving and no growth, the goal never arrives, and the tool says so rather than displaying infinity. And a combination taking over a century gets called what it is, a signal to change the plan, not the calculator.
What moves the finish date most, the starting balance or the monthly deposit?
The monthly deposit, by a wide margin, on any goal short enough to plan around. A lump sum you already hold moves the date once; the deposit moves it every month it lands. Change each of them by a tenth and watch which one shifts the answer further.