Savings Goal Calculator

What this calculator does. It works backwards from a savings target — say a house deposit, a wedding, a new car or an emergency fund — and tells you the monthly amount you need to set aside to hit that figure by a chosen date, with interest doing some of the work for you.

How the calculation works. We start by projecting any existing savings forward to your end date using monthly compounding at your chosen interest rate. The result is subtracted from your goal to give the gap your monthly contributions need to fill. We then reverse the standard annuity formula to find the monthly deposit that, after compounding, lands exactly on that figure.

A worked example. Aim for £10,000 in 3 years, with £500 already saved and 4% expected interest. Your existing £500 grows to about £563 in three years, leaving a £9,437 gap. To bridge it you'd need to save around £247 a month. If you stretched the timeline to 4 years, the monthly figure drops to around £180 — the extra year of compounding and contributions does meaningful work.

Why this matters. Most savings goals fail because the target feels vague — "I want to save up" rarely survives a rough month. Translating the goal into a single concrete monthly direct debit makes it real, automatable and easier to defend against everyday spending. Seeing how much interest contributes also makes the case for starting now rather than later.

When to use it / when not to. Use it for any goal with a clear date and amount: house deposit, wedding, holiday fund, child's university fund, replacement car. Avoid it for retirement planning, where inflation, investment volatility and tax wrappers matter far more than this simple model handles.

Common mistakes. Forgetting to include an existing balance (makes the monthly figure look scarier than it needs to); using an investment return as if it were a savings rate for short-term goals (markets can fall in any given year); and not adjusting the goal for inflation over very long timelines — £10,000 in ten years buys less than £10,000 today.