How To Use The Compound Interest Calculator: Example
Say you have an investment account that increased from $30,000 to $33,000 over 30 months. If your local bank offers a savings account with daily compounding , what annual interest rate do you need to get to match the rate of return in your investment account?
In the calculator above select “Calculate Rate “. The calculator will use the equations: r = n1/nt – 1) and R = r*100.
Enter:
- Total P+I : $33,000
- Principal : $30,000
- Time : 2.5 years
Showing the work with the formula r = n1/nt – 1):
Your Answer: R = 3.813% per year
So you’d need to put $30,000 into a savings account that pays arate of 3.813% per year and compounds interest daily in order to get the same return as the investment account.
How Interest Is Compounded
Our calculator compounds interest each time money is added. If the account has a lump-sum initial deposit & does not have any periodic deposit, by default interest is compounded anually. Most bank savings accounts use a daily average balance to compound interest daily and then add the amount to the account’s balance monthly.
If you would like to change the compounding frequency for a one-time deposit then set the “deposit each cycle”& “withdrawal each cycle” variables to $0 and select “transaction frequency” at whatever frequency you wish to compound interest.
What Is The Effective Annual Rate
The effective annual rate is the rate that actually gets paid after all of the compounding. When compounding of interest takes place, the effective annual rate becomes higher than the nominal interest rate. The more times the interest is compounded within the year, the higher the effective annual rate will be. You can learn more about effective annual interest rates in our article here.
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See How Fast Your Money Grows
This compound interest calculator has more features than most. You can vary both the deposit intervals and the compounding intervals from daily to annually …Show Full Instructions
This flexibility allows you to calculate and compare the expected interest earnings on various investment scenarios so that you know if an 8% return, compounded daily is better than a 9% return, compounded annually.
It’s simple to use. Just enter your beginning balance, the regular deposit amount at any specified interval, the interest rate, compounding interval, and the number of years you expect to allow your investment to grow.
$25,0007%monthly$500monthly15 years$230,629$115,000$115,629
Understanding The Results Of The Retirement Withdrawal Calculator

Once you have input all of the requisite fields into the calculator, you can turn your attention to the right of the screen to see the results of your retirement plan.
Total withdrawal amount: This is a simple calculation that demonstrates the cumulative withdrawals you expect to make over your retirement. To verify this calculation, you simply need to multiply your desired monthly withdrawal by 12 to get the withdrawals you will make on an annual basis. Then multiply that number by the number you have entered in years of withdrawals. This number should match what you see under Total withdrawal amount.
Total gain on your investments: The gain on your investments is the total amount that you can expect to make in interest, capital gain and dividends at the end of the projected period, based on the rate of return that you have projected.
Balance remaining at the end of the period: The balance remaining at the end of the period is a number contingent on your monthly withdrawal rates and monthly interest earned. For example, if you started with $150,000 in investments earning a 7% annual return with $800 in annual withdrawals, your balance remaining might look something like this:
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The Compound Interest Formula
This calculator uses the compound interest formula to find principal plus interest. It uses this same formula to solve for principal, rate or time given the other known values. You can also use this formula to set up a compound interest calculator in Excel®1.
A = Pnt
- A = Accrued amount
- P = Principal amount
- r = Annual nominal interest rate as a decimal
- R = Annual nominal interest rate as a percent
- n = number of compounding periods per unit of time
- t = time in decimal years e.g., 6 months is calculated as 0.5 years. Divide your partial year number of months by 12 to get the decimal years.
- I = Interest amount
- ln = natural logarithm, used in formulas below
How Do Compounding Intervals Affect Interest Earned
Consider, for example, compounding intervals. Compounding intervals can easily be overlooked when making investment decisions. Look at these two investments:
Investment A
- Number of Years to Grow: 40
- Future Value: $24,518.56
- Number of Years to Grow: 40
- Future Value: $21,724.52
Notice that the only variable difference here is the compounding interval. Investment A wins over Investment B by $2,794.04. Remember, compounding intervals matter.
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What If I Need To Withdraw Early
Of course, if a situation were to arise in which you needed to withdraw the money before the termination time for the investment was finally over, you would be able to under most standard investment contracts but only after paying quite a hefty fee or penalty for early termination. This option should really only be considered in absolute emergency situations such as unexpected medical bills, as those who withdraw early risk losing nearly all of their interest or sometimes even more than their interest earned. Ensure that you do not have to take this route by having a good emergency fund already in place in an account that is accessible to you.
Saving
An Average Annual Return In A Conservative Portfolio With 50 Bonds And 50 Stocks Might Be 5
. 110 10 1. Investment Regular Withdrawals Calculator. Display cash flow.
Consistent investing over a long period of time can be an effective strategy to accumulate wealth. To count it we need to plug in. The monthly interest rate I and annual rate A are related by.
While it is most frequently used to calculate how long an investment will last assuming some. Regular Withdrawals on Compound Interest. First enter the amount of your original investment the annual interest attached to the investment and the number of years you plan to let the investment grow.
We want to calculate the amount of money you will receive from this investment that is we want to find the future value FV of your investment. Use this calculator to quickly figure out how much money you will have saved up during a set investment period. First enter your initial amount you have set aside then enter.
Thus the interest of the second year would come out to. Compound Interest is calculated on the initial payment and also on the interest of previous periods. To calculate compound interest we use this formula.
Initial Investment Amount. Even small deposits to a. The formula in algebraic notation is P x 1 in – W x 1 in – 1 i.
Press CALCULATE and youll see. After withdrawal the amount. Amount that you plan to add to the principal every month or a negative number for the amount that you plan to withdraw every month.
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Compound Interest And The Rule Of 72
A final thought. If you want to roughly calculate compound interest on a savings figure, without using a calculator, you can use a formula called the rule of 72. The rule of 72 helps you estimate the number of years it will take to double your money. The method is simple – just divide the number 72 by your annual interest rate.
For example, let’s say you’re earning 3% per annum. Divide 72 by 3, which will give you 24. So, in about 24 years, your initial investment will have doubled. If you’re receiving 6% then your money will double in about 12 years, using the power of interest compounding.
How To Calculate Your Savings Growth
Our simple savings calculator helps you project the growth and future value of your money over time. It uses the compound interest formula, giving options for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, half yearly and yearly compounding. If you want to know the compound interval for your savings account or investment, you should be able to find out by speaking to your financial institution. The standard interval for compounding savings with most banks appears to be either monthly or yearly compounding. Our savings calculator also allows you to enter negative interest rates.
In addition to this savings calculator, we have a useful calculator for compound interest, should you wish to use it.
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How Much Can You Spend From Your Savings
The goal of a retirement withdrawal calculator is to figure out how much you withdraw from savings without running out of money before you run out of life. Not an easy task! This is a very tricky calculation, since you don’t know what you’ll earn in any given year, nor what the rate of inflation will be, nor how long you’ll live.
Conventional wisdom in retirement planning claims a conservative withdrawal rate should be 4% annually adjusted for inflation. Reputable sources argue this is too aggressive during periods of low interest rates and/or high market valuations, thus advocating a more conservative 3% annually adjusted for inflation.
You can decrease the risk of spending more than your assets can support by recalculating your withdrawals annually based on your current savings and investments balances. By implementing this strategy, your spending levels will vary annually introducing some uncertainty, but you will also dramatically increase the chances that your savings will last at least 30 years.
What Is A Savings Account

A savings account is a bank account where you can keep your money securely and earn someinterest in the meantime. While banks typically offer a lower return on savings accounts than what you may earn on an investment, keeping your savings in banks usually minimizes your risk as most of the savings accounts are federally insured up to 250,000 dollars in the event of bankruptcy.
On the other hand, compared to a classic money box, your savings are less accessible than cash since banks tend to discourage you from withdrawing money by setting limits, penalties, or fees. Therefore, collecting your money in a savings account can be a safe way to save money that you don’t intend tospendright away.
How Can A Compound Interest Calculator Help Me
The biggest benefit of using a compound interest calculator is being able to tell exactly how much your money will grow in real, tangible dollars. After all, its easy enough to understand that a higher rate is betterbut what does that rate actually mean over time?
The compound interest calculator can tell you exactly how much money youll have in the future. You can use that number to see whether a particular investment is really worth your effort, and to plan for how you might eventually use that money.
For example, if a particular investment will only reward you with an extra $1.50 but takes an hour of your time to set up, is it really worth it? Or, if you set aside an extra $100 toward your IRA from each paycheck, how many extra dollars would that grow into by the time you retire? You can use that number as motivation to save even more.
When Contributions Are Made
In the above calculator when recurring account contributions are made, money is added or subtracted at the beginning of each year. If you would like to end money at the end of each year then you would subtract the regular contribution amount from the initial savings to calculate interest at the end of the week.
Enter Your Estimated Rate Of Return
Enter the interest rate on your current bank account or one you are considering. Once you enter a deposit amount, the calculator will display some featured bank offers. You can click on one of these so the calculator will automatically show how their interest rate will grow your money, or you can enter a rate yourself.
What’s The Difference Between Compound Interest And Simple Interest
Compound interest takes into account both interest on the principal balance and interest on previously-earned interest. Simple interest refers only to interest earned on the principal balance interest earned on interest is not taken into account. To see how compound interest differs from simple interest, use our simple interest vs compound interest calculator.
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How To Use The Hardbacon Retirement Withdrawal Calculator
The Hardbacon Retirement Withdrawal Calculator was designed to help impending retirees determine how much they can withdraw from their accounts each month without depleting the amounts they had saved up. At its core though, the calculator is available to all users regardless of age to make the right decisions now that will ultimately facilitate a comfortable retirement.
To use the calculator, you need to enter the following:
Value of your investments: Think of this as the value of your investment portfolio on Day 1 of your retirement. This number should reflect the total value of the funds in your investment account right before you make your first-ever withdrawal in retirement.
Desired monthly withdrawal: The desired monthly withdrawal is the amount that you plan to take out from your investment account on a monthly basis in retirement.
Expected rate of return: This is the rate of return that you can reasonably expect your portfolio to earn on the markets per year on average over the specified number of years that you have input for your retirement.
Years of withdrawals: Put simply, this is the length that you envision needing to draw down on your retirement fund.
Why Reinvestment Is The Best Option For Your Finances
Let the details of this theoretical scenario tempt you away from immediately withdrawing your interest and sway you over to the side of reinvestment. A wise saver who decided to initially invest a sum of $10,000 at a nice 4% interest rate over three years would wind up with a monthly interest withdrawal potential of $33.33. While this might sound like a mere drop in the bucket, just wait until you get a glimpse of the end result and make your judgment then.
The total of these interest withdrawals on the initial deposit after ten years equals out to a decent $1,200. But, if our savvy investor were to reinvest all of their interest as it is earned, the potential savings profit on this alone would be a whopping $11,272.72. And all this just for letting your money sit quietly in a separate account untouched by you. As you can see, interest reinvestment, if you can spare the money, has the potential to increase your original interest profits by a significant amount, sometimes even doubling or tripling your base earnings depending on how long you can afford to leave it alone.
Retirement Spending Calculator Required Assumption

The second most important assumption to your retirement spending calculation is your budget requirement. Your budget determines how much you will spend each month and also determines how much money you must save to support that spending.
Conventional wisdom claims you should plan to save enough money to replace 60 percent to 80 percent of your working income in retirement. Again, this assumption is fraught with controversy.
Early retirees frequently increase spending to support an active lifestyle of travel, hobbies, and personal interests. Other retirees have much less expensive retirement interests and require less spending.
In short, rules-of-thumb are just rough guidelines. Instead, look closely at your plans for retirement before placing a spending assumption based on your actual plans in the retirement withdrawal calculator. Try to make it as accurate as possible .
Finally, don’t forget to take into consideration inflation on spending and distributions because inflation can have a dramatic, long-term, compound effect. With that said, research shows the average retiree spends roughly 25% less with each progressive decade of retirement following age 65, thus largely offsetting inflation and making a static spending estimate surprisingly reasonable.
Triple Compounding: The Power Of Tax
Now that you understand how compound interest grows learn how to speed up the compound annual growth rate. Heres how triple compounding with tax-deferred growth works:
- First, the initial investment earns compounding interest on your principal.
- Second, the principal amount then earns compounded interest on your interest earned.
- Finally, the initial principal earns interest on the money you usually lose to taxes.
Your annual interest rate compounds faster than any bank account, including savings accounts, money market accounts, and CDs.
What Is Compound Interest
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The concept of compound interest, or ‘interest on interest’, is that accumulated interest is added back onto your principal sum, with future interest calculations being made on both the original principal and the already-accrued interest.
It’s interesting to note that an article published in the Journal of Economic Education in 2016 suggests that less than one-third of the U.S. population comprehends how compound interest fundamentally works. 1
With this in mind, let’s dive into some examples of how compound interest works and what benefits it brings…
Comparing Compounding Interest Vs Inflation
The average inflation rate is 3 percent per year. That means that what costs $100 this year will cost $103 next year. To put it another way, your $100 today will only be worth $97 next year. Three dollars may not seem like a big deal until you start thinking about your money over time. A $30,000 car today will cost just over $40,000 in 10 years. Because of inflation, your $20,000 savings account, in 10 years, with no interest, will be worth only $8,020.13!