What your savings become
Working out what is left each month where you live, and what it becomes.
Your numbers
US dollars. Kept on this page only; Find your place keeps them with your answers.
After tax, as it reaches your account.
What you spend a month, rent included.
Nominal, before tax on gains and fees.
Spending stays flat.
Year by year
Your savings after each period in four scenarios: cash at 0%, and your expected return with three points less and more. Each cell adds, in smaller type, the amount in the other basis and how much of it you paid in. Inflation 2.5% a year.
Amounts in
| After | Cash0% a year | Conservative4% a year | Expected7% a year | Optimistic10% a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | ||||
| 3 years | ||||
| 5 years | ||||
| 10 years | ||||
| 20 years | ||||
| 30 years |
How this is worked out
- Everything is in US dollars, and pay and spending are monthly. Each month, what is left after spending goes into savings; when spending is higher than pay, the difference comes out of savings, and a balance below zero is treated as a debt that grows at the same rate.
- Savings grow at the return you choose, compounded monthly: 7% a year is 0.57% a month. The other columns use 0% (cash) and three points below and above your figure.
- Take-home pay stays the same each year (no pay rise is set). Spending is held flat in dollars, so in today's money it shrinks as prices rise.
- Today's money divides by inflation: at 2.5% a year, a dollar in 10 years buys what $0.78 does today.
- Returns are before tax on gains and before fees, with no currency risk (everything stays in dollars). The presets are long-run assumptions, not predictions: cash 0%, bonds 3%, balanced 5%, stocks 7%. Markets fall as well as rise, often for years.
- Take-home pay is estimated from the income in your answers to Find your place; without one, the page starts from the city's average local take-home pay for one earner. Spending starts from the city's estimated monthly cost for your household, rent included. Any figure you type replaces these.