Savings and Investment Calculators

The Compound Interest Calculator is the best starting point for modeling how a lump sum and optional recurring contributions grow over a chosen number of years at an assumed rate of return. If you already own an investment and want to measure how it has performed, use the Investment Return Calculator instead, which compares your starting and ending value. If you are working toward a specific dollar target, such as a down payment, the Savings Goal Calculator works backward from that target to a required monthly contribution.

There is no single correct rate, since future returns cannot be known in advance. Many long-term investors reference historical broad-market averages as a starting point, but any specific year, or even decade, can vary widely from a long-run average. A common approach is to run each calculator at a conservative rate and again at a more optimistic one, so you see a realistic range of outcomes rather than a single figure that implies more certainty than actually exists.

Yes. The Compound Interest Calculator lets you add an optional contribution amount and frequency alongside your initial balance, and it compounds both the principal and each contribution going forward. The year-by-year breakdown separates how much of your ending balance came from contributions versus interest earned, which makes it easier to see how consistent contributions, not just the starting amount, drive long-term growth.

No. The Dividend Income Calculator projects income based on a yield and share amount you provide, but companies can reduce, suspend, or eliminate dividend payments at any time, and share prices can also decline. Dividend yield reflects past or current declared payments, not a promise of future income. Treat any dividend projection as one possible scenario based on current information, not a guaranteed cash flow, and revisit the numbers periodically as your holdings change.

A nominal return is the raw percentage gain on an investment before accounting for inflation, while a real return subtracts inflation to show growth in actual purchasing power. A 6% nominal return during a year with 3% inflation leaves you with roughly 3% more purchasing power, not 6%. Use the Inflation Calculator alongside a growth projection to translate a future dollar balance into what it would be worth in today’s purchasing power, which is often the more meaningful figure for long-term planning. See How Compound Interest Works for a worked example.

Not automatically. These tools model growth based on the rate, contributions, and time period you enter, but they do not apply account-specific taxes, fund expense ratios, advisory fees, or transaction costs unless you build them into your assumed rate of return. Taxable accounts, tax-advantaged accounts, and different investment products all have different tax treatment, so results here are pre-tax, pre-fee estimates rather than a projection of what you would actually keep after all costs.