Savings Calculator

Use this calculator to find out how much to save per month and how long it will take you to reach your saving goal.

This is a UK savings calculator; for help planning your savings in dollars, use our US savings calculator on our partner site, savings.com.

Savings Calculator FAQs

What is the savings calculator for?

Use this money saving calculator to project how much you will save between one and thirty years in the future.

Ever found yourself wondering, how long will it take to reach my savings goal? Or do you want to know how much you should save each month to hit your savings goal? If you’ve not got a goal, how about finding out how much you can save by investing at the recommended 50/30/20^ rate? Use this calculator to get smart with your savings, now!

What can I learn from the savings calculator?

The savings calculator will tell you how much money your savings will have accumulated by your goal year. This information takes into account a number of factors, including tax on savings and interest on savings, making it a relatively accurate way to predict the health of your finances by retirement, the year of your final mortgage payment, and other significant financial milestones.

You can use the calculator as a savings goal calculator and a retirement savings calculator. You can also use it to calculate interest on savings using the “Savings @ X%" column on the “Detailed Data Table". However, this is a general overview and we recommend using an inflation calculator or a monthly savings interest calculator for more detailed insights.

How do you calculate how much you should save?

The most basic calculation you can do using a regular savings calculator is to figure out how much you will save monthly or annually, and then multiply that number by the number of years you wish to save for. However, this saving calculator is more complex since it also takes into account interest rates, compound interest^, and your taxable income bracket.

Where can I get more help to plan my savings?

• Speak to a financial advisor. Finance calculators should only be used as guidance, as investments of all kinds carry risk.
• Use the UK Government’s information page about tax interest on savings to learn what your personal allowance for tax-free savings is.
• Go to the Bank of England website and use their Bank Rate history page for up-to-date information about the UK rate of return^.
• Check out our How to Save Money article.

How to use the savings calculator

1. Enter how much you are starting your savings with (GBP)
2. Figure out how much additional money you will save each year (Hint: you can use the 50/30/20 rule to help)
3. Find out how much interest you are gaining annually on your savings account or investment
4. Decide how many years you'd like to be saving for (1-30)
5. In the "Assumptions" section, add the percentage of tax you pay on your savings (Hint: use the Tax Interest on Savings resource above to figure out what this number is if you aren't sure)
6. Click "Calculate"
7. Scroll down to view your Results and Growth of Savings Graph
8. For more information, scroll down again and click "Detailed Results" to get your Detailed Data Table

Definitions:

Initial balance: The lump sum of money you will begin your savings with.

Annual savings amount: How much money you will add to your total savings annually.

Annual increase in contributions: The interest rate at which your savings will increase (as a percentage).

Number of years for the analysis: How long you plan to save for.

“Assumptions": The variable factors in this calculation. While your annual savings amount might be fixed, there is no saying whether your “Before-tax return on savings" and “Marginal tax bracket" will remain the same throughout your target years.

Before-tax return on savings* (AKA Annual Percentage Yield or APY): The amount of interest you earn on your savings annually, including compound interest. Note: APY is different to the well-known APR (Annual Percentage Rate). APY and APR differ, because the former refers to interest you earn on savings, and the latter is the interest you pay against a loan.

Marginal tax bracket: The percentage of tax you pay on your taxable income above your personal allowance.

Detailed results: This chart is a year-by-year breakdown of your savings growth graph above.

^Rate of return (RoR): The amount gained on a financial investment, expressed as a percentage of the original investment. As a formula, that looks like the following:

((A – B) / B) x 100 = interest rate %

Where A is the final total value of the investment, and B is the starting investment value

^50/30/20: A financial rule founded by US Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2005. She theorised a sensible way to spend your after-tax income should be split into the following percentages:

• 50% on must-pay transactions, like rent
• 30% on things that you want, like holidays
• The remaining 20% should be saved or used to clear debt

^Compound interest: The rate of interest that factors in both your lump sum saved, as well as interest gain on that lump sum from previous years. Compound interest creates exponential growth in your savings: regardless of whether you have a fixed savings rate.

“Compound interest multiplies money at an accelerated rate." - Investopedia