Find the future value of a present sum plus any recurring payments at a chosen interest rate. Enter your figures below to project the time value of your money.
Future value is what a sum of money today will be worth at some point in the future once a rate of return has been applied to it. It sits at the heart of one of finance's most important ideas, the time value of money: a dollar in your hand today is worth more than a dollar promised next year, because today's dollar can be invested and put to work in the meantime. The future value calculator on this page makes that idea concrete. Enter a present value, an optional recurring payment, a rate and a time period, and it returns the projected future value together with a clear split between the money you put in and the growth that accumulated on top.
Unlike a goal-specific tool, the future value calculator is deliberately general. The same equation values a maturing certificate of deposit, a one-off investment of a bonus, a stream of monthly payments, or the long-run worth of a windfall left to compound. That flexibility is why future value shows up everywhere from bond pricing to retirement planning. For a real-terms view that strips out inflation, the closely related compound interest calculator adds tax and inflation adjustments on top of the same core math.
For a single lump sum with no recurring payments, the formula is compact and worth understanding:
Here PV is the present value — the amount you start with today — r is the rate of return per period, and n is the number of periods. The crucial detail is that n sits in the exponent. That single fact is why money grows in a curve rather than a straight line: each period the rate is applied to a balance that already includes all the previous periods' growth. The calculator applies the rate monthly for accuracy, so a 6 percent annual rate becomes 0.5 percent a month compounded twelve times a year.
This formula describes a one-time lump sum only. Recurring monthly contributions are not covered by it — each deposit enters at a different time and so compounds for a different length of time, which requires a separate annuity calculation. You do not have to work that out by hand: when you add a monthly payment, the calculator applies the correct recurring-contribution formula automatically and combines it with the lump-sum growth.
When you enter a monthly payment, the calculator does more than grow the lump sum. It also computes the future value of each payment in the stream, treating the series like an annuity where every deposit compounds for however many periods remain until the end date. The result is the combined future value of your starting amount plus the growing ladder of contributions. To see how fast the lump-sum portion alone doubles at a given rate, the Rule of 72 calculator offers a one-line mental shortcut, and the investment growth calculator frames the same payment-plus-growth math around a contributing investment portfolio.
Future value and present value are mirror images of the same relationship. Future value pushes a sum forward in time; present value pulls a future sum back to today. If you know you will need $50,000 in ten years and you expect a 6 percent return, the present value calculation tells you how much you would have to set aside today to get there. Rearranging the formula — dividing instead of multiplying by (1 + r) raised to n — answers that question. Understanding both directions is what lets you compare a payout offered today against a larger one offered years from now on an apples-to-apples basis.
Because time enters the formula as an exponent, it is the input with the most dramatic leverage. Adding a few years near the end of a projection produces a much larger jump in future value than the same few years would near the beginning, since the later years are applied to a far bigger balance. This is the mathematical reason behind the familiar advice to start early: the first dollars invested enjoy the longest run of compounding and contribute disproportionately to the final figure.
Take a present value of $10,000 with no recurring payments at a 6 percent annual rate. Over 15 years it grows to roughly two and a half times the original sum; stretch the same deposit to 30 years and it grows to nearly six times, even though you only doubled the time. The extra fifteen years did not add a fixed amount — they multiplied an already-grown balance again. Enter your own present value, rate and horizon above to see the curve for your situation.
Future value is the right tool whenever you need to compare money across time or set a target with a deadline. Use it to decide whether to invest a windfall now or wait, to judge whether a lump sum offered today beats installments offered later, or to estimate what a CD or bond will be worth at maturity. It also anchors longer-range planning: once you know the future value you are aiming for, you can work backwards to a savings or contribution plan.
For dated goals, other tools on this site translate a future value target into an actionable plan. If the goal is retirement, the retirement calculator turns a target nest egg into a monthly contribution and timeline, while the FIRE calculator works out how a high savings rate shortens the road to financial independence. For a cash goal held in a deposit account, the savings growth calculator applies the same future value logic using a savings-account APY. Choosing the tool framed around your actual goal makes the numbers easier to act on.
It is worth being clear about the two distinct questions this calculator can answer, because they are easy to blur. The first is the future value of a single present sum: you have an amount today and want to know what it becomes after years of growth. The second is the future value of a series of equal payments — an annuity — where each contribution lands at a different time and therefore compounds for a different length of time. The earliest payments in a stream grow the most because they have the longest runway, and the most recent ones have barely begun, which is why a payment stream's growth curve looks different from a lump sum's.
When you leave the monthly payment at zero, you are asking the first question and the result is pure lump-sum growth. When you add a monthly payment, the calculator answers both at once: it grows your starting sum and adds the compounding ladder of every contribution on top. Understanding which question you are really asking keeps you from misreading the result — a frequent source of confusion when people compare a one-time investment against a regular savings habit. Seeing both components in a single projection makes the trade-off between investing a windfall now and drip-feeding contributions over time far easier to judge.
Get the concepts behind the numbers. These guides explain how compounding and long-term goals work — read the full library in the Learn hub.
A step-by-step walkthrough of the formula behind this calculator, with worked examples.
Guide · InvestingThe formula and intuition behind exponential growth, with worked examples.
Guide · InvestingTurn a future-value target into a realistic monthly contribution.
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