Future Value Calculator
Project what an investment will be worth over time. Grow a lump sum, regular contributions, or both with compound interest, flexible compounding frequencies, and inflation adjustment.
Investment Details
Future Value
Investment Tips
- • Time in market beats timing the market
- • More frequent compounding yields higher returns
- • Regular contributions help dollar-cost average
- • Consider inflation impact on purchasing power
- • Reinvest dividends and interest for compound growth
Future Value Analysis
Future Value
After 10 years at 7%
Total Interest
Compound growth
Real Value
Inflation adjusted
Contributions vs Interest
Growth Breakdown
Scenario Comparison
Investment Milestones
Year-by-Year Growth (First 10 Years)
Investment Strategy
- • Start investing early to maximize compound growth
- • Invest regularly regardless of market conditions
- • Choose investments that match your risk tolerance
- • Diversify across different asset classes
- • Review and rebalance your portfolio periodically
- • Consider tax-advantaged accounts (401k, IRA)
How it works
Future value answers “what will this be worth later?” It grows a present amount — and optionally a stream of regular contributions — forward at a compounding rate. It's the core of every savings, investment, and retirement projection: money has a time value because a dollar today can be invested to become more than a dollar tomorrow.
Future value
FV = PV(1 + r)ⁿ + PMT · [(1 + r)ⁿ − 1] / r
- FV
- future value
- PV
- present value (today's amount)
- PMT
- contribution per period (0 for a lump sum)
- r
- rate per period
- n
- number of periods
Worked example
- Present value PV = $5,000
- Rate = 6% per year
- No contributions, 15 years
- FV = 5,000 × (1.06)¹⁵
- FV = 5,000 × 2.397
Future value ≈ $11,983 — the $5,000 more than doubles over 15 years.
Good to know
- Two levers dominate: the rate and the number of periods. Doubling the horizon does far more than doubling the rate because growth is exponential.
- Future value is nominal — to compare with today's prices, discount it back by inflation to get real value.
- The mirror image is present value (PV = FV ÷ (1+r)ⁿ): what a future sum is worth today.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between simple and compound interest in a future value calculation?
Simple interest is earned only on the original principal, so growth is linear: $10,000 at 7% simple interest earns $700 every year. Compound interest is earned on the principal plus all previously earned interest, so growth accelerates over time. The same $10,000 at 7% compounded annually grows to about $19,672 in 10 years versus $17,000 with simple interest, and the gap widens dramatically over longer horizons.
How does compounding frequency affect future value?
More frequent compounding (monthly, daily, or continuous instead of annual) earns interest on interest sooner, producing a slightly higher effective annual rate. For example, 7% compounded monthly has an effective annual rate of about 7.23%. The effect is real but modest — frequency matters far less than the rate itself and the length of time invested.
Does it matter if I contribute at the beginning or end of each period?
Yes. Contributions made at the beginning of each period (an annuity due) earn interest for one extra period compared with end-of-period contributions (an ordinary annuity). Over long horizons this adds roughly one period's worth of growth to every contribution — for monthly contributions at 7%, beginning-of-month timing increases the final annuity value by about 0.58%.
What rate of return should I assume?
It depends on what you are projecting. Historically, broad US stock indexes have returned roughly 7-10% per year before inflation over long periods, diversified bond portfolios closer to 3-5%, and high-yield savings accounts track prevailing short-term rates. Many planners use 6-7% for a balanced portfolio as a conservative long-term assumption. Try the calculator's scenario comparison to see how sensitive your result is to a rate 2% higher or lower.
Why adjust future value for inflation?
Future value is a nominal number — it tells you how many dollars you will have, not what those dollars will buy. At 2.5% inflation, $100,000 in 20 years buys only about what $61,000 buys today. Enabling the inflation adjustment shows the "real" value of your projection in today's purchasing power, which is the figure that matters for retirement and savings goals.