Enter your starting deposit, monthly contribution, rate, and compounding frequency to project your balance over time.
More frequent compounding means interest gets added to your balance sooner, so it starts earning interest on itself sooner too. At the same nominal annual rate, monthly compounding will always produce a slightly higher balance than quarterly, and quarterly slightly higher than annual — though for typical savings-account rates the difference between frequencies is usually small in dollar terms over a few years, growing more noticeable the longer the money sits and the higher the rate.
Traditional brick-and-mortar bank savings accounts have often paid well under 1% APY regardless of broader rate conditions, while online-only high-yield savings accounts have historically paid several percentage points more since they carry lower overhead. Rates on both move with the broader interest-rate environment, so it's worth checking current offers rather than assuming any single number holds indefinitely.
Savings accounts are the right tool for money you need to keep safe, liquid, and stable in value — an emergency fund, or savings for a purchase in the next year or two — since the balance doesn't fluctuate with markets. Investing tends to suit longer time horizons (retirement, a goal 10+ years out) where you can ride out short-term market swings in exchange for a higher expected long-run return. See the Investment Calculator to model that side of the equation separately.
Yes. If your savings account's rate is lower than the inflation rate — which has often been the case for standard savings accounts — your balance still grows in dollar terms, but it loses purchasing power in real terms, meaning it buys less than it would have today. Use the Inflation Calculator, a companion tool, to see concretely how a given inflation rate erodes value over time.
Worked example: starting with a $2,000 deposit, adding $150 every month, at a 4% annual rate compounded monthly for 10 years, the balance grows to roughly $25,069.14. Total deposited over that period is $2,000 + ($150 × 120 months) = $20,000.00, so interest earned comes to about $5,069.14 — a meaningful boost, though far less dramatic than what the same monthly amount could earn in a higher-return, longer-horizon investment account instead.