Free Savings Goal Calculator | Reach Your Goals Faster

What Are You Saving For?

Goal Details

Goal Name

Target Amount

Amount Already Saved

Target Date

Savings Account Interest Rate (AER)

Use the AER shown on your own savings account. Leave it at 0 to ignore interest.

Save Monthly

£730.91

with 4.5% interest

£1,000.00 saved£10,000.00 goal

10% complete

Goal Amount

£10,000.00

Interest Earned

£229.12

Time to Goal

12 months

Aug 2027

Now find that amount in your monthly budget

iBudget shows where your money is going so you can free up the monthly figure above and set it aside first.

Plan your saving free

Free plan available · No bank connection required · Export or delete your data any time · Cancel any time

Your Progress: My Savings Goal

Still needed

£9,000.00

Without interest

£750.00/mo

By earning 4.5% interest, you'll earn £229.12 and only need to save £730.91/month instead of £750.00/month

Explore Different Timelines

See how saving more or less per month affects when you'll reach your goal:

Monthly Savings	Months to Goal	Goal Date	Interest Earned
£100.00/mo	76 months	Dec 2032	£1,503.81
£250.00/mo	34 months	Jun 2029	£683.31
£500.00/mo	18 months	Feb 2028	£362.39
£750.00/mo	12 months	Aug 2027	£233.90
£1,000.00/mo	9 months	May 2027	£170.45
£1,500.00/mo	6 months	Feb 2027	£107.51

How this calculator works

It solves a future-value-of-an-annuity equation for the deposit — the same arithmetic a bank uses to price a regular saver, run backwards.

The formula

PMT = (G − P × (1 + i)^n) × i ÷ ((1 + i)^n − 1)

PMT: The headline "save monthly" figure, rounded to the nearest cent or penny.
G: Your target amount.
P: The amount you have already saved.
i: The monthly rate: the annual percentage you type, divided by 100 and then by 12.
n: Whole calendar months between today and your target date, with a floor of 1.

Two supporting figures come from simpler expressions. The 'without interest' number is just (G − P) ÷ n, floored at zero. The 'interest earned' tile is G − P − (PMT × n): the part of the gap your deposits did not have to cover, also floored at zero, and worked out from the unrounded PMT rather than the rounded figure on screen. If you set the rate to 0, the tool skips the annuity maths entirely and both monthly figures are (G − P) ÷ n. And if your existing balance alone compounds past the target before the deadline, PMT is set to 0 rather than going negative.

Start with the shape of the problem. You want G by a date. You already have P, and that balance keeps earning while you save, so it grows to P × (1 + i)^n on its own. Whatever is left is the job your monthly deposits have to do — and those deposits earn interest too, each one for slightly less time than the one before it. Dividing the shortfall by the number of months ignores that, which is why the calculator divides it by the annuity factor ((1 + i)^n − 1) ÷ i instead. That factor is always larger than n when the rate is above zero, which is exactly why the answer lands below the naive figure.

The month count is stricter than most calculators. Rather than dividing the gap between two dates by 30 — a shortcut that stretches a 365-day year to 12.17 months, or to thirteen once that is rounded up, and shaves the monthly amount to match — this one counts whole calendar months and then drops the remainder. If today is the 20th and your target is the 14th of a month, that final partial month does not count. A partial month is not a month you can rely on saving in. There is also a floor of one month, so a target date in the past or later this week returns the entire remaining balance as a single payment instead of an error or an infinity.

Interest is modelled as an ordinary annuity, meaning each deposit lands at the end of its month and the very last one earns nothing at all. That is the conservative convention, and it is the one that matches how a standing order set up a few days after payday actually behaves. The interest figure the page reports is derived rather than simulated: it is the target minus your starting balance minus everything you paid in, so by construction it is exactly the amount the account contributed on your behalf, assuming you land on the target precisely.

One honest wrinkle. The rate field is labelled AER, but the code divides your number by twelve and compounds monthly rather than converting a true annual equivalent rate into its monthly form. Type 4.5% and the model grows money at about 4.59% a year. Over a twelve-month goal that is worth a couple of dollars; over five years it overstates the interest by a few percent. If you want to be precise, type a figure a touch below your account's advertised AER.

The "explore different timelines" table underneath the result uses a different method again: it simulates month by month — grow the balance, add the fixed deposit, repeat — until the balance clears your target or 360 months elapse, at which point it reports "30+ years". Because it simulates rather than solves, the final month usually overshoots, and the interest column in that table includes the overshoot.

A worked example

A US household saving for a family trip. Every line below is a number the calculator produces internally.

$9,000 in 18 months, starting from $1,500

Worked example

Target amount (G): $9,000.00
Already saved (P): $1,500.00
Whole months to target date (n): 18
Annual rate entered: 4.0%
Monthly rate (i = 4.0 ÷ 100 ÷ 12): 0.333333%
Growth factor (1 + i)^18: 1.0617306
Your $1,500 grows to: $1,592.60
Gap the deposits must cover: $7,407.40
Annuity factor ((1 + i)^18 − 1) ÷ i: 18.51918

Save monthly$399.99

Divide $7,407.40 by 18.51918 and you get $399.9855, which the page rounds to $399.99. The 'without interest' figure alongside it is $7,500 ÷ 18 = $416.67, and the interest tile reads $9,000 − $1,500 − ($399.9855 × 18) = $300.26 — it works from the unrounded deposit, so multiplying the $399.99 on screen by 18 lands a few cents out. The progress bar shows 17%, because $1,500 ÷ $9,000 rounds to 17.

Now change one input at a time, because that is where the tool earns its keep. Push the target date out by six months so n becomes 24, and the monthly figure falls from $399.99 to $295.69 — a 26% cut for six months of patience. Time is by far the strongest lever in this equation, and it is the one people reach for last.

Change the rate instead and the picture is quieter but still real. Run the same $9,000 goal through an account paying the FDIC national average of 0.38% rather than 4.0%, and the required deposit rises to $415.07 a month while the interest earned collapses from $300.26 to under $30. Over eighteen months, choosing the account well is worth roughly $270 — not life-changing, but it is free, and it is the difference between the two figures the calculator shows side by side.

If you are sizing a goal rather than a deposit, a published average is a useful sanity check on the target you enter. Hitched's 2026 industry report, based on 2,020 newlyweds, put the average UK wedding at £21,990 — and found 56% of couples overspent their original budget, which is an argument for entering a target above your quote rather than at it.

How to read your result

The monthly figure is arithmetic. Whether it is a good number depends entirely on what it sits next to.

Compare the figure to your monthly surplus, not to your income. A plan that consumes every spare dollar has no tolerance for a dental bill, and it will be abandoned in month two rather than renegotiated. A useful rule of thumb: if the number is more than about two thirds of what genuinely goes unspent in an average month, extend the deadline until it is not. The calculator makes that a five-second experiment.

Compare it, too, to what people actually manage. Americans saved 2.7% of disposable income in June 2026 across the economy as a whole. That is a national accounts aggregate rather than a survey of households, so it is not a target — but it does mean a plan demanding 15% of your take-home pay is an ambitious plan, and worth labelling as one before you commit to it.

Then check the order of operations. If the money you are about to lock into a goal is also your only buffer, the goal fund will become the emergency fund the first time something breaks. Build the buffer first, then the goal — the emergency fund calculator will size it — and if you are carrying revolving card debt, run the numbers on clearing that before you commit to saving at 4%.

0.38%

US national average savings account rate

July 2026. The average across all FDIC-insured institutions, dragged down by large branch banks — which is why the calculator's 4.5% default is a high-yield-account assumption, not a typical one.

Source: FDIC, National Rates and Rate Caps

1.68%

US national average 12-month CD rate

July 2026. More than four times the savings average, but it locks the money away — a poor fit for a goal you might need to raid.

Source: FDIC, National Rates and Rate Caps

4.30% vs 1.65%

UK: new fixed-term deposits vs existing instant-access balances

June 2026 effective rates. The gap is what leaving a goal pot in an old account quietly costs you.

Source: Bank of England, Money and Credit

2.7%

Share of disposable income Americans actually save

June 2026 personal saving rate, a national accounts aggregate rather than a survey. A plan that needs 15% of your take-home pay is ambitious, not routine.

Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis

55%

US adults with three months of expenses set aside

2025 survey of nearly 13,000 adults. A further 30% of all adults could not cover three months by any means, including borrowing.

Source: Federal Reserve Board, SHED 2025

35%

GB adults who expect to save nothing in the next 12 months

May 2026, self-reported expectation rather than recorded behaviour. If your figure looks impossible, you are in a large and unremarkable group.

Source: Office for National Statistics

Finally, act on the number the day you get it. The single behaviour that separates people who hit savings targets from people who calculate them is automation: a standing order or transfer dated the day after payday, into an account that is not the one your card is attached to. That is the whole of the pay-yourself-first idea, and it converts a monthly decision into a one-off one.

What this calculator does not do

Every model leaves things out. Here is the full list for this one, so you can decide whether the gaps matter for your goal.

Assumptions and blind spots

It ignores inflation entirely: Your target is treated as a fixed number in today's money. Save for a $9,000 trip three years out and you will arrive with $9,000 and a trip that now costs more. For anything more than about two years away, size the goal generously or revisit it annually.
Interest is shown before tax: There is no tax field. US savings interest is generally taxable as ordinary income, so a 4% account nets you less than 4%. UK interest may fall inside an ISA or a personal allowance and be untouched. Either way the 'interest earned' tile is a gross figure.
The rate is fixed for the whole term: Real savings rates move. The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75% at its July 2026 meeting with the next decision due 17 September 2026, and variable accounts reprice when it changes. The calculator assumes the rate you typed applies unchanged from month one to the last.
Your annual rate is divided by 12, not converted: The field is labelled AER, but the code does rate ÷ 100 ÷ 12 and compounds monthly, which treats it as a nominal rate. Typing 4.5 produces about 4.59% effective annual growth. It nudges the monthly figure very slightly low.
Deposits are assumed at the end of every month, without fail: It models an ordinary annuity: one identical deposit, at each month end, never missed and never varied. If you pay on the 1st you will do marginally better than the model; if you skip December you will do worse.
It knows nothing about account rules: Introductory bonus rates that expire after twelve months, regular-saver accounts with a monthly deposit cap, notice periods, withdrawal penalties and minimum balances are all invisible to it. So are account fees.
There is no place to put a lump sum: A bonus, tax refund or gift part-way through cannot be modelled as a future event. The workaround is to come back on the day it lands, add it to 'amount already saved', and re-read the new monthly figure against the same target date.
Partial months are discarded and one month is the floor: A date 40 days away counts as one month. A date earlier this month, or in the past, is also clamped to one month, which reports your entire remaining balance as a single payment rather than an error.
Two figures can disagree at the edges: If your existing balance alone compounds past the target before the deadline, the headline figure drops to zero while the 'without interest' figure still shows a positive number. They are answering different questions, not contradicting each other.
It assumes the money is safe and liquid: No volatility, no losses, no lock-ups. It is a savings-account model. It also does not check deposit protection — that is $250,000 per depositor per FDIC-insured bank in the US, and £120,000 per person per firm under the FSCS in the UK since 1 December 2025.
It does not ask whether you can afford it, or what you owe: The monthly figure is arithmetic, not advice. It has no view on your income, your rent or your credit card balance, and it will happily tell you to save at 4% while you are being charged far more on debt. It also handles one goal at a time, in one currency, with no exchange rate for a target priced abroad.

Frequently asked questions

How do I work out how much to save each month for a goal?

Take the target amount, subtract what you have already put aside, and divide the rest by the number of whole months until your deadline. That is the honest floor, and this calculator shows it as the 'without interest' figure. The headline 'save monthly' figure is slightly lower because it credits you with the interest your balance earns along the way.

Why is the headline monthly figure lower than the goal divided by the months?

Because interest does part of the work. The calculator grows your existing balance forward at the rate you enter, then solves for the deposit that fills whatever gap is left, treating each deposit as compounding from the end of the month it is paid in. On a $9,000 goal over 18 months at 4.0%, that is $399.99 a month instead of $416.67 — about $300 of the target covered by interest rather than by you.

What interest rate should I type in?

The rate on the account you will actually use, not a best-buy headline you have not opened yet. The calculator defaults to 4.5%, which is optimistic for a typical account: the FDIC put the national average US savings rate at 0.38% in July 2026, and the Bank of England's effective rate on the existing stock of UK instant-access balances was 1.65% in June 2026. If you are not sure, type 0 and plan on your own deposits alone.

Does the calculator use APY or a monthly rate?

It takes the annual figure you type and divides it by 12 to get a monthly rate, then compounds monthly. That treats your number as a nominal annual rate rather than a true APY or AER, so it is very slightly generous — type 4.5% and the effective annual growth works out at about 4.59%. Over a one-year goal the difference is a rounding error; over five years it is a few percent of the interest figure.

How does it count the months to my target date?

It counts whole calendar months between today and the date you pick, and it drops the partial month rather than rounding it up. A target date 40 days away counts as one month, not 1.3. There is also a floor of one month, so a date in the past or later this month will show the entire remaining balance as a single payment.

Should I build an emergency fund before saving for a goal?

For most households, yes. The Federal Reserve found 55% of US adults had three months of expenses set aside in 2025, and 30% could not cover three months by any means at all. A goal fund with no emergency fund behind it usually ends up being the emergency fund, spent on a boiler or a car repair, and the goal restarts from zero.

Should I clear debt first instead?

Compare the rates. If you are paying the average rate US banks charged on card accounts assessed interest in the second quarter of 2026 — 22.15% — then every dollar aimed at a savings account earning 4% is losing you roughly 18% a year. Bankrate found 29% of Americans carry more card debt than emergency savings, and for them the debt calculators on this site will move the needle faster than this one.

What if I cannot afford the monthly figure it gives me?

You have exactly three levers and the calculator will price all of them in seconds: push the target date out, cut the target amount, or raise the monthly amount by freeing money elsewhere. Pushing the date is usually the cheapest. On the same $9,000 goal, moving the deadline from 18 months to 24 drops the monthly figure from $399.99 to $295.69.

What happens if I miss a month?

Nothing breaks, but the plan gets more expensive. Come back, put your real current balance into 'amount already saved' and leave the target date where it is: you will see the new, higher monthly figure straight away. That is more useful than pretending the miss did not happen and discovering the shortfall in the final month.

Does it account for inflation or tax on the interest?

Neither. The target you type is treated as a fixed amount in today's money, so if the thing you are saving for gets more expensive, your goal is now too small. Interest is shown gross — in the US savings interest is generally taxable as ordinary income, and in the UK it can be sheltered in an ISA, but the calculator has no tax field at all.

Can I use it for an investment account rather than savings?

Only loosely. The maths assumes a fixed, guaranteed rate every single month, which is how a savings account behaves and is not how a stock market behaves. For anything with volatility, use the compound interest calculator instead and treat the output as one scenario rather than a plan you can bank on.

Is anything I type stored or sent anywhere?

No. Every figure on this page is calculated in your browser as you type. Nothing is submitted, saved to an account, or sent to a server, and closing the tab discards it — which also means you will need to re-enter your numbers next time.

Where to go next

Track all your savings goals in one place

Get Started Free See Investment Growth

Savings Goal Calculator