How much should I save each month?

A common guideline is to save 20% of your income. But any consistent amount helps - even $50/week adds up to $2,600/year plus interest.

Where should I keep my savings?

High-interest savings accounts offer flexibility and better rates than transaction accounts. Term deposits lock in rates but restrict access.

Can I adjust my goal over time?

Yes. Life circumstances change. Re-run the calculator whenever your income, expenses or target amount changes.

Savings Goal Calculator

Calculate how long it takes to reach your savings goal

Enter your savings goal, current balance and monthly contributions to see when you'll reach your target. This calculator accounts for compound interest to give you an accurate timeline.

Savings Goal Details

Enter your savings goal and current situation

Target Amount ($)

Current Savings ($)

Monthly Contribution ($)

How much you can save each month

Annual Interest Rate (%)

Expected annual return on your savings

Goal Timeline

How long until you reach your goal

Time to Goal

3.0 years

(36 months)

Final Balance

$50,053

Shown in future dollars. At 2.5% inflation, $50,053 in 3 years buys about $46,479 of today's goods.

Total Contributions

$46,000

Interest Earned

$4,053

Progress Breakdown

Month 12

Contributions: $22,000

$22,756

+$756 interest

Month 24

Contributions: $34,000

$36,098

+$2,098 interest

Goal Reached!

Contributions: $46,000

$50,053

+$4,053 interest

How to Use This Calculator

1Enter your savings target amount
2Enter your current savings balance
3Set your planned monthly contribution
4Enter the interest rate you expect to earn
5See how long until you reach your goal

How Does This Calculator Work?

This calculator projects when you'll reach your savings goal based on your current balance, monthly contributions and expected interest rate.

It uses compound interest to show how your savings grow over time. The timeline accounts for interest earned on both your deposits and accumulated interest.

What Affects Your Timeline?

Target amount: A larger goal takes longer to reach, but compound interest helps.
Current savings: Starting with more means less time to your goal.
Monthly contribution: Higher contributions dramatically shorten the timeline.
Interest rate: Better rates accelerate growth, especially over longer periods.

What changes how long a goal takes

•The contribution amount moves the date far more than the rate does over short horizons, because there has been little time for interest to compound. The calculator above shows both effects separately.
•Bonus saver accounts pay a headline rate only in months where their conditions are met — typically a minimum deposit, a minimum number of card purchases and no withdrawals. In a month the conditions are missed, the base rate applies instead, and the base rate is usually much lower.
•A term deposit fixes the rate for the term and generally charges an interest penalty and requires notice for early withdrawal. An at-call savings account keeps access, but the rate can move at any time.
•Interest on savings is assessable income and is taxed at your marginal rate, so the after-tax return is lower than the advertised rate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official Sources

Moneysmart savings goals

Estimates only. Not financial or tax advice. Full disclaimer for your rights and our limitations of liability.

About this calculator

This calculator exists to show you the arithmetic. It applies published Australian rates, thresholds and formulas to the numbers you enter and shows the working, so you can check it. That is all it does — it produces a number and describes what the number is. It does not recommend anything and it holds no opinion about any financial product.

What can move this result

It only knows the figures you type in. Offsets, deductions, prior-year losses, other income, your partner's position and anything you have not entered are not in the result, and any of them can move it a long way.
Rates and thresholds change, sometimes mid-year and occasionally with retrospective effect. Each calculator shows the financial year and the verification date it is working from — outside that year the result is wrong rather than approximate.
Assumptions are set to a reasonable default and every non-statutory one can be changed. Defaults are not predictions, and a small change to a growth or inflation assumption compounds into a large change in a long projection.
Where a result reaches two or more years into the future it is shown in today's dollars as well as future dollars, because a future-dollar figure overstates what the money will actually buy.
It is a generic calculator. It is not built around any particular product, it does not compare the market, and it cannot tell you whether a product is suitable for you.

Why these default assumptions are reasonable

Interest rate — 4.5% a year. The same sourced savings rate as the compound interest calculator — half a point under the best big-four conditional bonus rate in the site's Consumer Data Right feed, because missed bonus conditions are normal and overstating the rate makes the goal date arrive on the page before it arrives in the account. Replace it with the rate your account actually pays. Source · You can change this input.

This calculator is not intended to be relied on for the purposes of making a decision in relation to a financial product. Before you make a financial decision, consider obtaining advice from someone who holds an Australian Financial Services Licence. We do not, and we cannot advise you.

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About this calculator

What can move this result

It only knows the figures you type in. Offsets, deductions, prior-year losses, other income, your partner's position and anything you have not entered are not in the result, and any of them can move it a long way.
Rates and thresholds change, sometimes mid-year and occasionally with retrospective effect. Each calculator shows the financial year and the verification date it is working from — outside that year the result is wrong rather than approximate.
Assumptions are set to a reasonable default and every non-statutory one can be changed. Defaults are not predictions, and a small change to a growth or inflation assumption compounds into a large change in a long projection.
Where a result reaches two or more years into the future it is shown in today's dollars as well as future dollars, because a future-dollar figure overstates what the money will actually buy.
It is a generic calculator. It is not built around any particular product, it does not compare the market, and it cannot tell you whether a product is suitable for you.

Why these default assumptions are reasonable

Interest rate — 4.5% a year. The same sourced savings rate as the compound interest calculator — half a point under the best big-four conditional bonus rate in the site's Consumer Data Right feed, because missed bonus conditions are normal and overstating the rate makes the goal date arrive on the page before it arrives in the account. Replace it with the rate your account actually pays. Source · You can change this input.