Watch savings snowball: starting amount, monthly contributions and your rate — charted year by year so you can see the compounding.
| Year | Contributed | Interest | Balance |
|---|
Compare 10 vs 30 years and watch interest overtake contributions — the strongest argument for starting now.
Estimate what a high-yield account or CD actually pays over its term at daily or monthly compounding.
"Double your money in 5 years" implies ~15% a year — type it in and see how unrealistic that usually is.
No — results are nominal, pre-tax. A common approach: subtract expected inflation (~2-3%) from your rate to estimate real purchasing power.
Long-run broad-market averages are often quoted around 7% after inflation, but past performance guarantees nothing — try a range (5%, 7%, 9%) and plan with the lower bound.
At the end of each month, which is the conservative convention. Real-world differences from contributing at the start of the month are small.