What Saving £5 a Day Becomes
Small daily amounts add up fast once they're invested and left to grow. Pick a daily amount, a growth rate and a time horizon to see what it could turn into over 10, 20, 30 or 40 years.
Illustrative projection. This calculator shows an illustrative projection only, at a fixed, editable growth rate, actual investment growth varies year to year and is never guaranteed, and the value of investments can fall as well as rise. Not financial advice; speak to a regulated financial adviser before making investment decisions.
Enter a daily amount
Your projected pot, total contributed and interest earned appear here as you type.
How to actually make it happen
- Automate it, set up a standing order for the day after payday so the saving happens before you get the chance to spend it.
- Round-up savings apps (many UK banking apps have one built in) round every card payment up to the nearest pound and sweep the spare change into savings automatically, an easy way to hit a small daily average without thinking about it.
- Consistency beats amount, saving a smaller sum every single day, without gaps, usually ends up worth more than saving a bigger amount in irregular bursts, because compounding rewards time in the market above almost everything else.
- A Stocks & Shares ISA lets UK residents invest up to £20,000 a year with no tax on the growth, worth considering once you're saving regularly, alongside your emergency fund in cash.
How this projection is calculated
Your daily amount is converted to an equivalent monthly contribution (daily amount × 365.25 ÷ 12, which accounts for leap years) and then projected forward using the standard compound growth formula with monthly compounding: FV = C·[((1+i)ᴺ − 1)/i], where C is the monthly contribution, i is the monthly growth rate and N is the number of months. This assumes the same amount is saved every month at a constant rate of growth, real investment returns vary year to year, and this is a projection, not a promise. The 'what that buys' comparison uses the average UK first-time buyer deposit as a rough sense of scale, not a target.
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