Accumulation Goal - Version 9/99

All Data Entry cells show up in red.

The accumulation calculator is designed to help you save to pay cash for a specific purchase. For example, let's assume you want to save to pay cash for an item that costs $5000 in today's dollars.

Data Entry:

Beginning Deposit: You indicate here if you already have any money that you want to designate for this purpose. In our example you have $1000 in the account already.

Assumed rate of return: Indicate here the investment rate of return you want to use for this savings goal. It is wise to use the return you expect to achieve after any investment fees or taxes are extracted.

Goal in today's Dollars: Enter here the cost item you want to purchase, in today's dollars.

Years for savings: Enter here how many years it will be before the purchase is made.

Inflation Assumption: Indicate here what inflation rate you assume we will experience over the specified time frame of this savings goal.

Payments at Beginning/End of Period: Use the pull-down menu to select whether the periodic payment will happen at the beginning of the period of at the end of the payment period. If this makes no sense to you, select beginning and move on. Earlier versions of this calculator do not include this feature.

The calculator then tells you what the item will actually cost at the end of the savings period, and how much you need to save each month to reach the (inflated) goal.