Saving toward a goal, not just a habit
Most savings calculators ask how much you put away and tell you what you’ll have. This one flips the question: you name the finish line — a house down payment, a college fund, a $1M nest egg — and it tells you the monthly contribution that gets you there in the time you have.
That turns an abstract goal into a concrete number you can budget around.
How the math works
Your existing balance keeps compounding on its own, so the calculator first grows your starting amount forward to the target date, then works out the monthly deposit needed to fill the remaining gap. Because each deposit also earns returns until the end, the longer your horizon and the higher your return, the smaller the monthly amount has to be — much of the heavy lifting is done by compound growth, not by you.
Time is the biggest lever
Stretching a goal over more years sharply lowers the monthly figure, because compounding has more time to work. If the number looks out of reach, try extending the timeline, raising the return assumption only cautiously, or adding to your starting balance. To see the mirror image — what a fixed monthly amount grows into — use the compound interest calculator, or project a full retirement with the retirement calculator and 401(k) calculator.