Solve for the future value, the starting amount, the contribution, the rate of return, or the time, at a steady rate you choose.
A future value calculator answers five versions of one question: how a starting amount and regular contributions grow at a steady rate over time. Pick the number you want to find, enter the other four, and the calculator solves for it. It is arithmetic under the assumptions you choose, not a forecast, and it says nothing about what markets will do.
The interactive version takes four of the five: a starting amount, a regular contribution (added or taken out, monthly, quarterly, or yearly, at the start or the end of each period), a rate (read as a yearly growth rate, or as a loan rate, APR), a number of years, and a future value. It solves for the fifth, then shows the balance year by year, what was put in, and what the rate earned.
The rate is the yearly rate the balance compounds at. With monthly or quarterly contributions, each period earns its share of that rate, so a full year of growth comes to exactly the yearly rate. A contribution at the end of a period starts earning the next period; one at the start earns in the period it goes in.
The rate is an illustration you choose, not a forecast. The presets are the platform's own long-term planning assumptions for each mix, stated as the rate it compounds at over decades: assumptions, not predictions, and not a recommendation of any mix.
See what a future balance buys in today's dollars: the Inflation Calculator. Why the order of returns matters: What is sequence of returns risk?. The formula, with a worked example of each solve: the future value calculator guide.
Educational only. This calculator shows arithmetic at one steady rate that you choose. It is a hypothetical illustration, not a projection of any investment, and not a forecast. It does not consider your individual circumstances and is not investment advice or a recommendation. Nothing you enter is stored.
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