The sample plan, line by line
The calculator opens on one plan. A 30-year-old has $10,000 invested, adds $1,000 a month, and earns 7% a year. Here is the story the numbers above tell about this person.
Two thirds of the million is growth. Almost none of the growth shows up early.
After 10 years the balance reads $193,181. Deposits make up $130,000 of the total. Ten years of investing has produced $63,181 in growth, less than half the deposits.
Year 10 is also the crossover. The account earns $12,580 in growth during the year, more than the $12,000 deposited. From there, compounding outpaces the paycheck every single year.
Year 20 ends at $561,314. The final $440,000 or so arrives in 6 years 9 months.
Got a statement handy? Put your real balance and monthly transfer in the form. The sample is only a reference point.
Each $250,000 arrives faster than the last
| Balance | Age | From today | Gap from the stop before |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000 | 35 | 5 yr 10 mo | first stop |
| $250,000 | 42 | 12 yr 1 mo | 6 yr 3 mo |
| $500,000 | 48 | 18 yr 9 mo | 6 yr 8 mo |
| $750,000 | 53 | 23 yr 4 mo | 4 yr 7 mo |
| $1,000,000 | 56 | 26 yr 9 mo | 3 yr 5 mo |
The first quarter of a million takes 12 years 1 month. The last quarter takes 3 years 5 months, on the same $1,000 a month.
The slow years are where plans break. A statement in year 4 looks flat, a raise goes to a bigger car payment, and the monthly transfer gets cut in half. Drop the sample deposit from $1,000 to $500 at year 5 and the million arrives at 61 instead of 56. Early dollars get the most years to grow, so cutting them costs the most.
Your million, priced 27 years from now
At 3% inflation, $1,000,000 in 26 years 9 months buys what $453,528 buys today. The sample plan makes you a millionaire on paper and a half-millionaire at the grocery store.
Tick Target in today's money and the target rises with prices. Same plan, same 7%: the statement now has to read $3.63 million, and the 30-year-old gets there at 73.
Before you tick the box, decide what your return figure means.
A real return, such as the 6% to 7% often quoted for a stock-heavy portfolio over long periods. Leave the box off. The answer is in today's money already.
A nominal return, such as a fund's 10% average. Tick the box, or the million you see is a smaller million than you think.
Ticking the box with a real return counts inflation twice and pushes the date out by decades for no reason. Pick one method per plan.
One percentage point, measured in years
Return is the input people guess with the least care. Here is the sample plan across seven rates.
| Yearly return | Time to $1M | Age | You deposit | From growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4% | 35 yr 11 mo | 65 | $441,000 | 56% |
| 5% | 32 yr 2 mo | 62 | $396,000 | 61% |
| 6% | 29 yr 2 mo | 59 | $360,000 | 64% |
| 7% | 26 yr 9 mo | 56 | $331,000 | 67% |
| 8% | 24 yr 9 mo | 54 | $307,000 | 69% |
| 9% | 23 yr 1 mo | 53 | $287,000 | 71% |
| 10% | 21 yr 8 mo | 51 | $270,000 | 73% |
Fund fees live inside this table. A 1% yearly fee turns a 7% market into a 6% account. On the sample plan the fee costs 2 years 5 months. On the day the 7% version crosses a million, the 6% version holds $841,178, a gap of $161,100.
Check the expense ratio before you squeeze the budget for a bigger deposit. The fee is the cheaper fix.
Waiting ten years more than doubles the monthly bill
Same goal for everyone below: $1 million by 65, starting from zero, at 7% a year.
| Start at | Monthly deposit | Total put in by 65 |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | $381 | about $183,000 |
| 30 | $555 | about $233,000 |
| 35 | $820 | about $295,000 |
| 40 | $1,234 | about $370,000 |
| 45 | $1,920 | about $461,000 |
| 50 | $3,155 | about $568,000 |
| 55 | $5,778 | about $693,000 |
The 25-year-old funds the million with $183,000. The 45-year-old needs $461,000 of their own money for the same balance.
A late start with savings in place looks different. A 45-year-old with $150,000 already in a 401(k) needs $757 a month to reach $1 million by 65, less than half the from-zero figure. Enter your current balance before you decide the goal is out of reach.
Inputs, in plain terms
- Invested now
- Money already in brokerage, retirement, or index fund accounts for this goal. Leave out home equity, cars, and the emergency fund.
- Added each month
- Everything going in monthly, including an employer 401(k) match.
- Yearly return
- Average growth per year after fund fees. Pick a real return or a nominal one, never a mix of both.
- Raise deposits each year
- The yearly bump to the monthly amount. 3% roughly matches pay raises keeping pace with inflation.
- Inflation
- Feeds the buying-power line under the result and the today's-money target. 3% sits near the long-run US average.
Where this projection flatters you
- Every year pays the same return. Real markets swing. A 30% drop two years before the target pushes the date out by years, and this page never shows a bad year.
- No taxes. A taxable brokerage account loses part of each year's dividends and gains to tax. Lower the return to account for drag, or treat the result as a pre-tax balance in a traditional 401(k) or IRA.
- No missed months. A layoff, a parental leave, or a house down payment all pause deposits. The math assumes decades of uninterrupted transfers.
- Monthly compounding, deposits at month end. Brokers who model daily growth or deposits at the start of the month land a few months earlier on long plans, not years.
- Net worth is a different number. A paid-off house counts toward net worth. The house neither compounds at stock-market rates nor pays you an income. Enter invested money only.
- 100-year horizon. Plans needing longer than a century show as out of range.