📈Net Worth Projector
Project how your net worth compounds over time based on your contributions and expected return.
Your Numbers
Your Results
What Is Net Worth Projector?
A net worth projection shows how your investable assets compound over time given a starting balance, ongoing contributions, and an expected rate of return. It's the visual version of "how does my money grow if I just keep doing what I'm doing."
It's useful less for precision — markets don't move in smooth lines — and more for intuition: seeing how much of your eventual balance comes from contributions versus growth, and how that ratio flips the longer the timeline runs.
How This Calculator Works
The projection compounds annually: each year's ending balance becomes next year's starting balance, growth is applied, then the year's contribution is added.
Psychological Considerations
Compound growth curves look deceptively gentle in the early years and then bend sharply upward later — which means the early years, when the chart looks almost flat, are exactly when most people lose motivation and either stop contributing or chase a different strategy. Knowing the shape of the curve in advance is itself a tool for staying the course.
It's also worth noticing whether you find yourself adjusting the "expected return" input upward every time the projection disappoints you. That's a subtle form of motivated reasoning — using the calculator to confirm a timeline you've already decided on, rather than to test it honestly.
Frequently Asked Questions
A common starting point is 6-7% for a diversified stock-heavy portfolio after inflation, or 4-5% for a more conservative mix. Use a number you'd be comfortable being wrong about in either direction, and consider running the projection twice — once conservative, once optimistic.
No — it assumes a flat annual contribution for simplicity. If your contributions will grow, run the projection a few times with different contribution levels to bracket a range.
That's compounding: in early years, most of the balance is your own contributions; in later years, growth on growth starts contributing more than new money does. This is normal and is the entire point of investing early.