See what regular contributions turn into over time — and what charges and inflation quietly take back out. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is stored or sent anywhere.
Starting with €5,000 and adding €200 a month for 20 years at 6%, you reach €103,974 — of which €53,000 is money you paid in and €50,974 is growth. Charges of 0.2% a year take €1,816 out of that. In today's money it is worth €69,972.
This is arithmetic, not a forecast. Each scenario assumes the same return every single year, which markets do not deliver — returns vary, and the order they arrive in changes the outcome, especially once you are drawing money out. The spread between the cautious and favourable cases is the useful part: it shows how much the result depends on an assumption nobody can pin down.
Compounding is simply growth on growth. Money you earn stays invested and earns in its turn, so the balance grows by a larger amount each year even when the rate never changes. Over a few years the effect is modest; over decades it is usually the largest single factor in the result.
Two things blunt it, and both are in the calculator above because leaving them out is how these tools flatter themselves. Charges are deducted from the balance, so they also remove the growth that money would have gone on to produce — a small annual percentage becomes a large cumulative sum. Inflation leaves the number alone but reduces what it buys, which is why the projection is also shown in today's money.
The thing worth taking from any projection is not the final figure. It is the shape: how much of the total is money you paid in versus growth, and how that ratio shifts the longer the money is left alone.
Each period's growth is added to the balance, so the next period grows on the larger amount. This calculator steps month by month: it applies one month of growth, deducts a month of charges, then adds your contribution. The annual rate you enter is an effective rate, so 7% means the balance is multiplied by 1.07 over a year — the monthly rate used is the twelfth root of that, not the rate divided by twelve.
Because monthly growth compounds. Applying 7%/12 twelve times produces about 7.23% over the year, not 7%. Over long periods that gap is significant, and it always overstates the result. This calculator converts properly so the figure you enter is the figure applied.
Paying at the start gives each contribution one extra month of growth, so the final balance is higher by exactly one period's return — the same money, invested slightly earlier. The calculator lets you compare both.
More than most people expect, because the charge compounds against you. It is deducted from the balance every month, so it also removes the growth that money would have produced. Enter a fund's ongoing charge to see the cumulative cost over your time horizon.
It never changes the projected balance. It restates that balance in today's money, so you can see what the amount would actually buy. The nominal figure and the real figure are both shown.
No. It assumes an identical return every year, which markets do not deliver. Real returns vary, and the order in which they arrive changes the outcome — particularly once you start withdrawing. Use it to compare assumptions against each other, not to forecast a balance.
This calculator is a tool for exploring arithmetic on assumptions you choose. It is not investment advice, not a recommendation, and not a prediction. allocations.pro is an independent analysis tool, not a bank, broker, or investment platform.
Same arithmetic, applied to what you actually hold — with the drift, the charges and the trades that fix it.
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