Contribution projector
calculatorWhat does saving this much a month actually become?
Projects a contribution plan in both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms, because the second number is the one that buys things.
Your plan
Fund expense ratio plus platform and advice fees.
Keeps the real value of what you save constant.
After 33 years
The real figure is the one that buys things.
- In today's money
- $654,962
- Nominal balance
- $1,479,462
- Net real return
- 4.2%
What the balance would actually buy
The number on the statement
After fees and inflation
- You contributed
- $450,059
- Growth added
- $1,029,404
- Fees cost you
- $60,181
70% of the final balance
3.9% of what you would have had
Contributions versus growth
The crossover — where growth starts adding more than you do — is the point compounding takes over.
- Balance (real)
- Balance (nominal)
- What you paid in
Why this matters
Two things in this chart do most of the work, and neither is the return assumption.
The first is the gap between the nominal and real lines. Over long horizons inflation quietly removes a large share of a headline number — a projection that only shows the nominal figure is flattering you.
The second is your contribution rate. Early on, almost all the balance is money you paid in; the return assumption barely matters. In the first decade, raising what you save moves the outcome far more than any plausible improvement in returns — and unlike returns, it is entirely within your control.
The most effective way to act on that is not motivation but automation. The best-evidenced intervention in this whole field was changing which box was ticked by default, not teaching people more.