What will it take
to reach your goal?
Start with your target number and work backwards. Enter a savings goal, a time horizon, and an expected annual return, and this calculator tells you exactly how much you need to set aside each month to get there. Useful for Canadians planning a down payment, an early retirement date, or a specific TFSA or RRSP balance milestone.
Frequently asked questions
At a 7% annual return, reaching $500,000 in 20 years requires saving roughly $1,220 per month. At a 10% return, that drops to about $870 per month. Enter your own target amount and time horizon using the inputs on this page and the calculator will solve for the exact monthly amount in real time.
Standard compound interest calculators take a monthly savings amount and show you the outcome. This calculator flips that: you enter the amount you want to end up with, set your time horizon and expected return, and it solves the PMT formula to tell you the exact monthly savings required. Adjusting the return or time horizon sliders updates the required monthly amount instantly.
A common first milestone is $100,000 — sometimes called the first $100k — because compounding accelerates noticeably once a portfolio reaches that size. At $500 per month and a 7% return, reaching $100,000 takes about 10 years. At $750 per month it takes roughly 8 years. Enter $100,000 as your target to see what your required monthly contribution looks like.
Enter your target down payment as the goal amount, the number of years until you plan to buy, and an expected return appropriate for your investment horizon. The FHSA allows $8,000 per year in contributions toward a $40,000 lifetime maximum, so a realistic target for a fully maxed FHSA is $40,000 plus whatever growth it earns. The calculator tells you whether your timeline and return assumption are achievable given that contribution ceiling.
The monthly savings figure shown on this page is computed directly from your inputs and is not capped. If your goal, timeline, or return assumption implies a required monthly contribution above $3,000, the calculator will display that number even though it exceeds the slider range used on the visualizer page. This is intentional: the goal calculator is meant to show you the real math, not a bounded approximation.