What will your money be worth later? Enter a starting amount, regular contributions, a rate of return and a time horizon to project the future value of your investment — and see how much of it is growth versus the money you put in.
Answer first: future value is what your money grows to by a later date once it has earned a return and compounded. This future value calculator combines two pieces — the growth of your starting lump sum and the growth of every regular contribution you add — and reports the total, the amount you actually contributed, and the growth on top.
FV = PV × (1 + r)n + PMT × (((1 + r)n − 1) ÷ r)
Example: $10,000 today plus $300 a month for 20 years at 7% a year grows to roughly $196,700. You contributed $82,000; the remaining ~$114,700 is compound growth — the money your money made.
Future value is the engine behind every retirement projection and savings goal. It rests on the time value of money: a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future because it can be invested. The longer the horizon and the higher the rate, the more dramatically compounding takes over — which is why starting early beats trying to catch up later.
This tool assumes a constant rate of return, but real markets swing — a 7% average can hide years of −20% and +30%. It shows nominal dollars, so inflation will erode the buying power of the final figure; enter a real return or run the result through the inflation calculator if you care about purchasing power. It also ignores taxes and fees, both of which quietly reduce real-world outcomes.
Reality check: Returns are assumed constant and compounding is even; real markets are volatile and sequence-of-returns matters. Figures are nominal (pre-inflation, pre-tax, pre-fee). This is an educational calculator, not financial advice — verify your own numbers and see the U.S. SEC at investor.gov.
Pair it with the present value calculator for the reverse, the compound interest calculator, the retirement savings calculator, and learn the theory in what is compound growth.
Last updated 25 June 2026 · Written by Mustafa Bilgic. Educational only — not financial advice.
Future value is what a sum of money invested today will be worth at a later date, after it has grown at a given rate of return. It is the core of the time value of money: a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow because it can be invested and compound.
For a single lump sum, FV = PV × (1 + r)^n, where r is the periodic rate and n is the number of periods. When you also add regular contributions, the future value of those deposits is PMT × (((1 + r)^n − 1) ÷ r), and the two parts are added together.
Future value grows a known amount forward in time at a rate of return. Present value does the reverse: it discounts a known future amount back to what it is worth today. They are two sides of the same time-value-of-money equation.
No. It shows the nominal future value. To estimate buying power, enter a real (inflation-adjusted) rate of return, or run the nominal result through an inflation calculator. Returns are assumed constant, which real markets never are.