Reaching a savings goal
Answer either question and this solves for the other, including a starting point for an emergency fund.
2 minutesYou'll need: A target amount and either a deadline or a monthly amountNothing you type leaves your browser
Start here: replace the example figures with yours, read the main result, then change one number at a time to see what matters most.
Which question are you asking?
Building an emergency fund?
Built from the $3,450 a month of living costs and debt minimums in this scenario, at a 2% return — because emergency money belongs somewhere it can't fall on the day you need it.
Adjust assumptions
Keep this low for anything you might need within a few years.
When it lands
- You put in
- $13,500$1,350.00 × 10 months
- Growth adds
- $135at 2.0% a year
- Started with
- $2,000already saved
Balance growing from $2,000 to $15,635 over 10 mo, against a target of $15,000.
What changes the answer
Over a short horizon almost all of this is the monthly amount — the return barely gets time to matter. Over a long one that reverses, and the date you start becomes the biggest lever you have.
Here, your contributions are doing most of the work, which is the comfortable position to be in: the answer barely changes if the return assumption turns out to be wrong.
This calculator does not tell you where to keep the money. That depends on when you need it, and it is worth getting right.
These calculators are educational estimates based on the numbers and assumptions you enter. Real results vary, and projections are not guarantees. Nothing here is personalized investment, tax, or legal advice.
See the assumptions behind this estimate
What the calculator assumes
- Contributions land at the end of each month and start growing the month after.
- Growth compounds monthly at the annual rate you set, divided by twelve, and that rate holds steady.
- The emergency-fund preset deliberately assumes a low return: money you might need at short notice shouldn't be somewhere it can fall.
What it leaves out
- Inflation isn't modeled. A target set today is in today's dollars, and a distant goal will cost more than it says here.
- Tax on any growth isn't modeled.
- A steady rate is a convenient fiction. Real returns arrive unevenly, and for a goal inside about five years that unevenness is the whole risk.
Save this set of numbers
Give these figures a name and you can come back to them, or set up a second version to compare against. One saved set covers every calculator here, and all of it stays in this browser.
Useful next steps
A future number becomes real when it has a near-term transfer and the right place to wait.
Public resources only. Networthy has no financial relationship with these sources.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, opens in a new tabTranslate the monthly target into this weekThe CFPB’s fillable savings plan turns a distant total into a weekly target and a short list of actions.
- Investor.gov · U.S. SEC, opens in a new tabPressure-test the contribution independentlyRun the same target, starting amount, years, and rate through Investor.gov’s savings goal calculator.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, opens in a new tabChoose where the money should waitThis worksheet compares accessibility, fees, security, and other trade-offs among common places to keep savings.
An estimate is a starting point. Test the assumption doing the most work, then take the next question in order.
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