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Investment Goal Calculator

Enter the target, years, expected return, and current savings to find the required monthly investment.

How it is calculated

With monthly rate r = annual return ÷ 100 ÷ 12 and n = years × 12 months, the tool first grows your existing savings: FV = savings × (1 + r)n. The gap is target − FV, and the monthly deposit that fills it is gap × r ÷ ((1 + r)n − 1). At a 0% return it is gap ÷ n.

Deposits are assumed to be made at the end of each month and the return is a nominal annual rate compounded monthly. Total invested is savings plus all deposits, and growth is the target minus that total. If your current savings alone would already reach the target, the monthly amount is shown as zero and growth is just the savings' own gain. The result is a pre-tax, pre-inflation figure in dollars; the target is not adjusted for rising prices.

Worked example

Goal: $100,000 in 10 years, starting with $10,000, at an expected 6% a year. The monthly rate is 0.005 and n = 120. Your $10,000 grows to 10,000 × 1.005120 = $18,193.97, leaving a gap of $81,806.03. The deposit is 81,806.03 × 0.005 ÷ (1.8194 − 1), giving $499.18 a month. Total invested is 10,000 + 120 × 499.18 = $69,902.14, so $30,097.86 of the goal comes from growth.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Entering the return as a decimal (0.06). The field expects percent, so 6.
  • Using an optimistic return as if it were guaranteed. The monthly figure is very sensitive to the rate, and real returns vary year to year.
  • Setting the target in tomorrow's money without adjusting for inflation: $100,000 in 10 years buys less than $100,000 today.
  • Entering the term in months. The field is in years, and the tool multiplies by 12 itself.
  • Forgetting that taxes, fund fees and the possibility that you deposit at the start rather than the end of the month are not modelled, so the real result will differ a little.

Sources

About this calculator

This calculator works backward from a target: given a future dollar goal, a number of years, an expected annual return, and any savings you already have, it solves for the monthly contribution needed to close the gap. It first projects how much your current savings will grow on their own by the target date, then uses the future value of an annuity formula to determine what monthly deposit — compounding alongside that growth — is required to make up the rest.

This is the reverse of a standard compound interest projection, which starts from a contribution and asks what it will become; here you start from the destination and ask what habit gets you there. It is the core calculation behind retirement planning, college savings targets, and any goal-based investing plan where the question is not "what will I have" but "what do I need to do every month." This calculator takes your target amount, timeframe, expected return, and current savings to find the required monthly investment.

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Comments (1)

  • Editorial team

    Try the same goal at a 0 percent return to see how much the assumed return is doing. With the default 100,000 target over ten years and 10,000 already saved, 6 percent needs 499.18 a month, while 0 percent needs 750.00. The target is a plain future amount, so if you mean today's purchasing power, raise it for inflation first. Which return rate do you plan with, and why that one?

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