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Investment Calculator

Project compound growth with regular contributions over time.

  • compound
  • interest
  • savings
  • returns

About Investment Calculator

Compound growth is the single most powerful force in personal finance: contributions you make in your twenties have decades to grow, and what looks like a modest monthly habit can turn into a meaningful sum by retirement. The catch is that the curve is invisible day-to-day — you have to project it out to see what saving a little more, or starting a little earlier, actually does to the end result.

This calculator projects an investment forward with an initial deposit, regular contributions, and a fixed assumed return. It tracks how much of the final balance came from your own contributions versus market growth, lets you simulate raising your contribution by a percentage every year (to match raises or inflation), and shows the trajectory year by year so you can see when compounding really starts to pull away from contributions.

How to use

Set the initial deposit, recurring contribution amount, expected annual return, and time horizon using the sliders or the number inputs beside them. Switch the contribution frequency between monthly, quarterly, or annually depending on how you actually save, and toggle the timing between start-of-period and end-of-period to match your real cash flow.

"Contribution growth / year" lets you bump the contribution amount each year by a fixed percentage — useful for modelling salary growth or inflation-adjusted savings. Currency defaults to Canadian dollars; switch to USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, or NZD as needed. Summary cards show the final balance, total contributed, total growth, and money multiple. The chart and the year-by-year table below visualise the trajectory; click "Show every period" to see each individual contribution. Use the "Copy share link" button to send the same scenario to someone else.

Frequently asked questions

  • What annual return should I assume?

    There's no single correct answer — but a common reference is the long-run average return of a diversified equity index, which has been roughly 7% real (after inflation) for North American markets historically. Bonds are typically lower, all-cash is much lower, and a balanced portfolio sits somewhere in between. Pick a figure conservative enough that you won't be surprised.

  • Does the calculator account for inflation?

    Not directly. The figures shown are nominal — i.e. in today's dollars only if you enter a return rate that already subtracts inflation. To model inflation explicitly, use a "real" return rate (nominal minus expected inflation, e.g. 4–5%) and the final balance becomes a rough estimate of today's purchasing power.

  • What does "Contribution growth / year" do?

    It increases your regular contribution by a fixed percentage every year — useful for modelling raises ("I'll save more as my salary grows") or maintaining real contribution power against inflation. A 3% contribution growth roughly matches typical wage inflation.

  • What is the "Money multiple"?

    It's the final balance divided by your total contributions — a single number that tells you how much each dollar grew. A money multiple of 3× means the portfolio ended up at three times the total amount you put in. It depends heavily on time horizon: long horizons compound much harder.

  • Why does start-of-period timing give a higher final balance?

    Because each contribution gets one extra period of compounding before the next return is applied. The effect is small per period but adds up over decades. Choose "Start" if you fund your retirement account at the beginning of each month, "End" if you fund it after each paycheque has cleared.

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