See how much your savings can grow to over time with compound interest, based on starting amount, monthly savings and expected return.
The calculator finds the future value of both the starting amount and the monthly deposits, with compound interest:
The compound interest effect means your returns themselves start earning returns over time — the longer the time horizon, the bigger this effect becomes relative to what you've actually contributed.
Compound interest is when the return you earn also starts earning its own return, on top of the original amount. Over a long time this creates exponential growth in your savings.
For a savings account, the interest rate is often 3–5%. For funds and stock investing, a historical average return is often used as a reference (around 6–8% for global stock funds over the long run), but this isn't guaranteed going forward.
Because each deposit gets its own time to grow with compound interest. Deposits you make early in the savings period have much more time to grow than deposits made near the end.