Most investment calculators show you a big number. This one shows you what that number is actually worth. Enter your starting balance, contributions, and time horizon — and see your projected balance in both today's dollars (inflation-adjusted) and future dollars (nominal), side by side.
All inputs are treated as today's dollars. The calculator applies your assumed inflation rate over time, so you don't need to adjust your numbers manually — it handles the math.
Contributions are entered in today's dollars. The calculator adjusts them upward over time to reflect rising prices — so the real saving effort stays constant, even as the nominal amounts grow.
Enter the nominal (pre-inflation) rate.
The gap between these two numbers is the effect of inflation. The nominal figure is what your account balance will say. The inflation-adjusted figure is what it will buy.
Year-by-year breakdown of your projected balance in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars. Use this to see when growth starts compounding meaningfully.
| Year | Contributions | Growth | Ending balance |
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All inputs — starting balance and contributions — are assumed to be in today's dollars. The calculator inflates contributions over time at the assumed rate, preserving the real value of your saving effort.
The expected annual return is treated as a nominal rate (before inflation). Results are shown in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars as the primary output, with nominal results displayed for comparison.
The inflation rate used here is a long-term assumption — not a forecast. Actual inflation varies year to year. See historical inflation rates by year to explore how inflation has varied over time.
Inflation-adjusted (or "real") values express a future dollar amount in terms of today's purchasing power. They strip out the effect of rising prices, so you're comparing apples to apples — not today's dollars to future dollars that buy less.
Example: Suppose a loaf of bread costs $3 today and $6 in twenty-five years. The price doubled, but the bread didn't become twice as valuable — it just costs twice as much. The same logic applies to investment balances. A portfolio worth $5 million in twenty-five years may only have the purchasing power of $2.5 million today, depending on how much prices rise in the interim.
This calculator shows both figures — nominal (what your account will say) and real (what it will buy) — so you can plan against actual purchasing power, not just a number. If you want to see the same idea applied to past and future prices directly, try the Inflation Time Machine, which converts amounts between years using CPI data.
A nominal return is the raw percentage gain on an investment, before accounting for inflation. A real return adjusts for inflation, showing how much your purchasing power actually grew.
If your portfolio returns 7% in a year when inflation runs at 2.5%, your real return is approximately 4.5%. The nominal balance looks larger, but part of that gain is offset by the fact that prices are also higher. Over long time horizons, this difference compounds significantly — which is why this calculator makes real returns the primary output.
The default is 2.5%, which is consistent with the Bank of Canada's inflation target range of 1–3%. For a U.S.-based estimate, 2–3% is a common long-run assumption.
Because this is a long-term projection, the exact rate matters less than understanding the direction: inflation erodes purchasing power over time, and this calculator makes that visible. You can explore historical inflation rates by year to see how the actual rate has varied — and to pressure-test your assumption.
When you enter a monthly contribution in today's dollars, the calculator increases that amount over time to match assumed inflation. This keeps your real saving effort constant — meaning you're not gradually saving less in inflation-adjusted terms just because time has passed. The nominal contribution grows; the real contribution stays fixed.