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Investment Growth Calculator

Adjust the sliders and the illustration updates as you go — an educational illustration, not a projection.

Runs only in this tab. Nothing entered here is stored or sent.

5.0%

Historical returns vary year to year and are never guaranteed — this is a flat, constant assumption for illustration only. The 5% shown is a sample assumption, not a prediction or typical result — try different rates.

20 years
Assumptions & fine-tuning

Beginning-of-period contributions start growing one period sooner, so they end slightly higher.

How often growth is credited. The same rate compounded more often ends slightly higher.

Adjusts the illustration for inflation so amounts reflect today's purchasing power.

The illustration appears here as soon as you adjust a value, and updates as you go.

How this works / assumptions

This tool uses a simplified, standard compound-growth formula so you can see how starting savings and steady contributions might combine over time. It's meant for learning, not for planning a specific financial decision.

  • Contributions can be weekly, every two weeks, monthly, or yearly, and can be made at the beginning or end of each period. Beginning-of-period contributions start growing one period sooner, so they produce a slightly higher illustrated value.
  • The assumed annual return is treated as a nominal annual rate credited at the compounding frequency you choose — for example, 5% compounded monthly applies 5% ÷ 12 each month. The same rate compounded more often produces a slightly higher illustrated value.
  • When contributions happen more often than growth is credited, growth between crediting dates is spread evenly across periods — the same convention most online compound-interest calculators use. A year is treated as exactly 52 weeks, 26 fortnights, or 12 months, and daily compounding uses 365 days per year.
  • The expected annual return is treated as a single, constant rate for the entire time horizon. Real investments fluctuate year to year — there is no volatility, no down years, and no sequence-of-returns risk modelled here.
  • Fees, taxes, and account-specific rules (like contribution limits or withdrawal rules) are not included.
  • The optional "today's dollars" view deflates the final amounts by a single assumed inflation rate over the full horizon — a simplified treatment (contributions are deflated at the end of the horizon, not at the moment each one is made). In the yearly breakdown, each year's values are deflated by that year's factor. Actual inflation varies over time.
  • Historical or "expected" returns are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results can be higher or lower — including negative in some years.