Worked example
How much a month reaches €1 million?
Saving for 30 years at an assumed 7 % a year, before tax on the way out. Here is the monthly amount that gets there, and everything the number is standing on.
The answer
Monthly investment needed
€905 / month
Paid in at the start of each month, so every contribution earns that month's return. The smooth 7 % path reaches the target; this deterministic headline does not estimate the probability of reaching it.
- Portfolio at year 30 · inflation-adjusted · before estimated tax
- €476,743
- 10th-percentile portfolio at year 30 · inflation-adjusted · before estimated tax
- €251,571
- Assumed yearly return
- 7 %
- Assumed inflation
- 2.5 %
If the return is not 7 percent
- 6 %
- €1,087 / month
- 8 %
- €751 / month
Stress basis: percentile 10 of 1,000 simulated paths whose median compounds at the same long-run return of 7 %, with 15 % annual volatility.
Open this plan and change the assumptions
Opens with these numbers, ready to change. Nothing you enter there is saved.
Why the target is worth less than it sounds
A million euro in 30 years is not a million euro today. At the 2.5 % inflation assumed here, its purchasing power is closer to half that, which is the figure worth planning against. The number to aim for is not a round one you picked; it is whatever covers the life you want at the prices of the year you get there.
What has to be true for it to happen
That the 7 % arrives. It is a plausible long-run average for a broad global equity fund, and it is not a promise: simulating volatile returns around that assumption produces materially smaller lower-tail outcomes, which is what the stressed figure above shows. Nothing here models job gaps, a paused contribution, or the year you need the money early.
The lever that actually moves it
Raising the monthly amount does more, and does it more reliably, than assuming a higher return. The contribution is the part you control; the return is the part you hope for. Open the planner and try both to see which one moves your own answer further.
What this page is not
It is an illustration under stated assumptions, not advice and not a forecast. The return is an assumption you can disagree with, the tax is an estimate of one common German case, and no page on this site knows anything about your circumstances. How it works sets out the arithmetic and the full list of what the model leaves out.