How long your savings will take
This calculator works the other way round from a goal planner. Instead of telling you what to save for a fixed deadline, it takes the amount you can genuinely spare each month and tells you when the target will arrive.
Formula
Each month: balance = (balance + monthly saving) × (1 + monthly return)
- Repeated until the balance reaches the target
- monthly return = expected annual return ÷ 12 ÷ 100
- Any existing balance is included from month one
A worked timeline
Saving ₹15,000 a month at an expected 10% with ₹50,000 already set aside reaches a ₹10 lakh target in about 50 months — four years and two months. You contribute ₹8 lakh of that; returns supply the remaining ₹2 lakh.
The figure is a month-by-month simulation rather than a formula shortcut, so a partial final month is not glossed over.
The amount matters more than the return
Raising the monthly saving from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 pulls the same goal in from 50 months to 33. Raising the assumed return from 10% to 12% while keeping ₹15,000 saves only about two months.
This is the most useful thing the calculator shows. Chasing returns feels productive but changes little over short horizons; saving more changes everything.
Where to keep money with a deadline
For a goal within three years, use a recurring deposit, liquid fund, or short-duration debt fund. The lower expected return is the price of knowing the money will be there.
Only stretch to equity if the timeline is genuinely flexible. A goal that must be met on a date is not the place to accept a 20% drawdown risk.
Making it happen automatically
Set a standing instruction or SIP for the day after your salary arrives. Saving what is left at month end reliably produces a smaller number than saving first and spending the rest.
When income rises, raise the monthly amount rather than the lifestyle. Recomputing the timeline after every increase is the fastest way to bring a distant goal closer.
Example: ₹10 lakh target
- Monthly saving
- ₹15,000
- Existing balance
- ₹50,000
- Expected return
- 10% p.a.
- Time to reach target
- ≈ 4 yr 2 mo
- Total contributed
- ≈ ₹8,00,000
- At ₹25,000 a month instead
- ≈ 2 yr 9 mo
Increasing the monthly amount by ₹10,000 removes seventeen months from the timeline — far more than any realistic change in expected return would achieve.