Savings Goal Calculator
Turn any savings goal into one clear monthly number. Enter the goal, what you have now, your deadline, and your account's rate - the calculator finds the monthly deposit that gets you there, with interest doing part of the work. Free, instant, and private - nothing you type leaves your browser.
The total you want to have by the deadline - a car, a wedding, a down payment, a bigger emergency fund.
What you already have set aside for this goal. Use $0 to start from scratch.
Top high-yield savings accounts pay about 4.0-4.2% APY as of July 2026; the national average is just 0.38%. Use your own account's rate - rates are variable and can change.
Monthly deposit to reach$20,000 in5 years
$0
$0 of deposits +$0 in growth on top of your head start
- Your current savings
- $0
- Total you deposit
- $0
- Growth earned
- $0
- Your current savings grows to
- $0
- Balance at the deadline
- $0
Year-by-year path (watch the balance close in on the goal)
| Year | Total deposited | Growth so far | Balance |
|---|
"Total deposited" counts only your monthly deposits; "Growth so far" is the interest earned on those plus your starting savings.
Estimate only - not financial advice. Savings rates are variable and can change after you set your plan, and interest earned is generally taxable. See notes below.
How this calculator works
A savings goal only becomes real when it has a monthly number attached. "Save $20,000 for a car" is a wish; "move a fixed amount into savings every month" is a plan. This tool computes that fixed amount - the inverse of a compound interest calculator: instead of asking what your money will grow into, it asks what deposit makes it grow into exactly the number you chose, by the date you chose.
- 1. Your current savings gets a head start. Whatever you already have grows untouched for the whole horizon using the standard formulafuture value = P (1 + i)n, where P is your current savings, i is the monthly rate (your yearly rate divided by 12), and n is the number of months.
- 2. The goal shrinks by that head start. The calculator subtracts what your current savings grows into from the goal. Only the remainder has to come from new deposits - which is why starting with even a small amount saved lowers the monthly number more than you would guess.
- 3. The remainder is split with the annuity formula. In plain English: your monthly deposit is the remaining gap multiplied by the monthly rate, divided by how much a dollar-a-month stream grows over the horizon - deposit = gap × i / ((1 + i)n - 1). Because every deposit earns interest from the month after it lands, this is less than simply dividing the gap by the number of months. At a 0% rate it collapses to exactly that simple division.
- 4. Deposits land at the end of each month. The model assumes you deposit at month-end (an "ordinary annuity" in finance terms), which matches how most people save - moving money after the paycheck clears. If you deposit at the start of each month instead, every deposit gets one extra month of growth and you finish slightly ahead of the goal. The conservative assumption is on purpose.
- 5. Already covered? The answer is $0. If your current savings alone grows past the goal at your rate, the calculator tells you that you are on track and no monthly deposit is mathematically required.
Choosing a rate: high-yield savings vs checking
The rate you enter matters more than most people expect, and it should reflect where the money actually sits. As of early July 2026, top US high-yield savings accounts - online savings accounts that pay far above the branch average - offer about 4.0% to 4.2% APY (annual percentage yield, the yearly rate with compounding - interest earning interest - counted in). Bankrate's July list tops out around 4.15% APY, while Yahoo Finance and Fortune's surveys show about 4.10% at the top. Meanwhile the FDIC-tracked national average savings rate is just 0.38%, and typical checking accounts pay essentially 0%.
That is why this calculator defaults to 4.0%: it is what a saver who parks goal money in a high-yield account can realistically earn today - a mid-pack top-tier rate, not a best case. If your money sits in checking or a low-rate branch account, enter your real rate (or 0%) and compare: the difference in the required monthly deposit is the concrete cost of leaving goal money in the wrong account. One caveat cuts the other way - savings APYs are variable, and banks move them when the Federal Reserve moves, so re-check your rate now and then and rerun the number.
What this estimate does not include
It assumes a steady rate and a deposit you never skip. Real APYs drift with the Federal Reserve, and real life sometimes misses a month - build in slack rather than planning to the exact dollar. It also shows pre-tax growth: interest from a regular savings account is taxable income (reported on Form 1099-INT), so your spendable balance will land slightly under the on-screen number unless the money is in a tax-advantaged account. And it does not model inflation - a goal set in today's dollars buys a little less by the deadline. Treat the result as a clear, honest planning number, not a promise of a specific balance.
Frequently asked questions
How does the calculator find the monthly amount?
It works backwards from your goal in three steps. First it grows what you already have: your current savings compounds monthly at the rate you enter for the whole time horizon. Second, it subtracts that grown amount from the goal - the remainder is what your deposits have to cover. Third, it splits that remainder across your months using the annuity formula, which accounts for the fact that every deposit itself earns interest from the month after it lands. That is why the answer is smaller than simply dividing the goal by the number of months - interest covers part of the distance for you. By construction, saving the suggested amount lands exactly on the goal at the deadline.
What rate should I enter - and what counts as a good one right now?
Use the APY (annual percentage yield - the advertised yearly rate with compounding counted in) of the account where this money actually sits. As of early July 2026, top high-yield savings accounts pay about 4.0% to 4.2% APY - Bankrate's list tops out around 4.15%, and Yahoo Finance and Fortune both show about 4.10% at the top. The FDIC-tracked national average savings rate is just 0.38%, and a typical checking account pays essentially nothing. If your goal money is in a regular checking or branch savings account, enter your real (low) rate and note how much larger the monthly number gets - that gap is the argument for moving goal money to a high-yield account.
Is the rate here the same as APY?
Almost, and the difference is small enough to ignore for savings goals. This tool compounds monthly on the rate divided by 12 - the same convention as our compound interest calculator, so the two tools always agree with each other. A bank's APY already includes a year of compounding, so a 4.00% rate entered here behaves like roughly a 4.07% APY. At savings-account rates that gap moves the monthly deposit by well under a dollar on typical goals. If you want to be exact, enter your account's nominal rate (the APY's underlying rate, listed in your account disclosures); otherwise entering the APY is fine.
What does "you are already on track" mean?
It means your current savings alone, growing at the rate you entered, reaches or passes the goal by the deadline - so the mathematically required monthly deposit is $0. Treat that as a green light, not a stop sign: savings rates are variable, and if your bank cuts its APY next year the projection changes. A small monthly cushion keeps you ahead of a rate drop, and finishing early or over the goal is never a problem.
Do I pay taxes on the interest I earn along the way?
Usually yes. Interest earned in a regular savings account is taxable income in the year you earn it - your bank reports it to the IRS on Form 1099-INT once it passes $10, and it is taxed at your ordinary income rate even if you never withdraw a cent. This calculator shows pre-tax growth, so your real spendable balance will land a little under the on-screen number unless the money sits in a tax-advantaged account. Over a few years at savings-account rates the effect is modest, but it is real - worth knowing before you plan to the last dollar.
Should this money be in a savings account or invested?
It depends on the deadline. Money you need within about five years generally belongs in cash - an FDIC-insured high-yield savings account (insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank) cannot have a down year right before you need it. For goals a decade or more away, many savers accept market swings for potentially higher growth; you can model that by entering a higher rate here, or flip the question around with our compound interest calculator to see what a fixed monthly amount could grow into at different rates. The shorter the runway, the more certainty beats yield.
Go deeper: saving guides
Short, plain-English guides behind every number in this calculator.
High-yield savings accounts
Where to park goal money so it earns roughly ten times the average rate - and how APY works.
Emergency fund: how much you need
The 3-6 month rule, a worked example to find your number, and where to keep it.
The 50/30/20 budget
A simple paycheck split that tells you how much you can point at goals each month.
Compound interest, explained
The snowball effect in plain English, with the formula and worked examples.
Sources & last reviewed
Method last reviewed July 3, 2026 by Shivam Rai. The annuity math is a fixed formula; the moving part is your account's APY - banks change rates without asking, so re-check yours and rerun the number now and then.
- Bankrate - Best high-yield savings accounts (top APYs around 4.15% as of early July 2026): https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/best-high-yield-interests-savings-accounts/ (rates verified 2026-07-03)
- Fortune - Best savings account rates today, July 2, 2026: https://fortune.com/article/best-savings-account-rates-7-2-2026/ (rates verified 2026-07-03)
- Yahoo Finance - 10 best high-yield savings accounts for July 2026, up to 4.10% APY: https://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/banking/article/10-best-high-yield-savings-accounts-for-july-2026-earn-up-to-410-apy-171334072.html (rates verified 2026-07-03)
- FDIC - national deposit rates: the average US savings account paid about 0.38% APY (FDIC monthly national rates, mid-2026) - the ~4% gap to high-yield accounts is why where you park goal money matters
- Standard formulas: lump-sum future value FV = P(1 + i)^n and future value of an ordinary annuity FV = D[((1 + i)^n - 1) / i], solved for the deposit D - college-level finance references