Time to $1M, $5M and $10M Calculator
How long until you reach a million, five million, or ten? Enter your current invested net worth, your annual contribution and an expected return, and this tool returns the years and the calendar year for each milestone, with a table showing how the timeline changes if returns run higher or lower. The output is arithmetic on your assumptions, not a prediction. Nothing you enter is stored.
Last updated August 30, 2026
How it works
The tool compounds your current invested net worth at the return you enter and adds your annual contribution each year, then counts the years until the balance crosses each milestone. Because returns are the biggest lever and the least predictable, it also shows the timeline two percentage points above and below your assumption, so the sensitivity is visible rather than buried in a single number.
A worked example
Start with $250,000 invested, add $30,000 a year, and assume a 7 percent return. The balance reaches one million in about 12 years, five million in about 31, and ten million in about 41. Drop the return to 5 percent and every milestone slides years further out; raise it to 9 percent and they pull in. The gap between the columns is the honest part: the difference between a good decade of returns and a poor one is measured in years of your life, not rounding error.
One more thing
Arriving at the number is less conclusive than it looks from here. I have written most of a site about that, so I will leave it at one line.
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Frequently asked questions
What return should I use?
That is your call, which is why it is a field. Long-run broad stock market returns have historically averaged in the high single digits before inflation, but any given stretch can be very different. Use a figure you are comfortable defending, and check the sensitivity columns.
Does this account for inflation?
Only if you enter a real, after-inflation return. If you enter a nominal return, the milestones are in nominal dollars, and a million in twenty years buys less than a million today.
Why show a sensitivity table?
Because the return assumption dominates the result, and a single timeline hides how much it depends on a number nobody can predict. Showing the years at higher and lower returns makes the uncertainty visible.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere.