Investment Path Your money, in perspective

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

€850 / 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
€203,130
Assumed yearly return
7 %
Assumed inflation
2.5 %

If the return is not 7 percent

6 %
€1,021 / month
8 %
€705 / month
The same question, solved again. This is one assumption changed on its own, not a forecast of any of the three.

Stress basis: percentile 10 of 1,000 simulated paths, using the same assumed average return of 7 % and 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.

How it works

Other questions worked through