Future Value Calculator

Start with the balance you already have, add a recurring deposit or withdrawal, and choose how long the money stays invested. The calculator converts your annual rate to the effective periodic rate for the selected compounding frequency before it projects each balance.

The result table updates immediately and shows three editable assumptions side by side. You can compare a lower bond-like return, a middle long-term market estimate, and a higher historical range without creating an account or leaving the page.

Monthly deposits, inflation, and withdrawals are calculator controls here rather than separate low-volume destinations. The related annuity calculator adds growing-payment support without competing for the head term.

The starting amount is the balance today. A positive recurring contribution adds money each period; a negative recurring amount models withdrawals. Contribution frequency can be annual, monthly, or biweekly, and payment timing controls whether each cash flow occurs at the beginning or end of a period.

Compounding frequency determines how the annual nominal rate is converted: annual, semiannual, quarterly, monthly, or daily. The calculator keeps full precision internally and rounds only the displayed USD values.

Every default rate identifies its benchmark, source, observation date, and methodology. Treasury and CPI values come from FRED; long-term S&P inputs come from documented historical ranges. Each rate remains editable and is an assumption, not a forecast or recommendation.

Nominal future value is the projected account balance in future dollars. Real future value divides that balance by the inflation factor for the same horizon, so it expresses the result in current purchasing power.

The Lower, Middle, and Higher columns are sensitivity estimates, not best, expected, and guaranteed outcomes. Use them to see how the time horizon, contribution size, and rate assumption interact.

When recurring withdrawals exhaust an account, the projection stops at $0 instead of compounding a negative balance. That exhaustion point is a stress-test signal, not a safe-withdrawal recommendation.

For a lump sum, FV = PV * (1 + r/m)^(mt), where r is the nominal annual rate, m is the number of compounding periods per year, and t is years.

Recurring payments use the equivalent contribution-period rate and explicit beginning- or end-of-period timing. In Excel, verify the result with FV(rate, nper, pmt, pv, type), reversing cash-flow signs as needed.

Real future value divides nominal future value by (1 + inflation rate)^years. The formula and Excel pages show worked examples and the exact argument mapping.