Savings Goal Calculator

Enter the amount you want to save, what you've saved already, and how many months you have. The tool subtracts your current savings from the target to find the gap, then divides by the number of months. For a £6,000 holiday fund with £600 already saved over 12 months, you need £450 a month, which equals roughly £104 a week or £208 a fortnight. The weekly and fortnightly figures are derived from the monthly amount using 4.33 weeks per month and 26 fortnights per year, which match calendar reality more closely than the rough 4-weeks-per-month assumption.

If you add an interest rate, the calculator runs a month-by-month projection: deposit goes in, balance earns the monthly equivalent of the annual rate (annual rate divided by 12), and the next month repeats. With even modest interest the required deposit shrinks because compounding does some of the work. At 5% interest, that £6,000 holiday goal needs roughly £435 a month instead of £450, a £15 monthly saving over the year that comes purely from picking the right account.

Emergency fund (3 months of spending, around £6,000-£10,000 for most UK households) typically takes 12-24 months on a moderate income. House deposit (£20,000-£50,000) takes 3-7 years for first-time buyers; saving £400-£600 a month gets most people there in a reasonable window. Wedding (£15,000-£25,000 average UK cost) usually has an 18-month runway from engagement, which works out to £800-£1,400 a month on top of normal living costs. Holiday (£2,000-£5,000) tends to be a 6-12 month goal at £200-£500 a month.

The reason these goals fail is almost always the same: not enough automation. People decide to save £400 a month then leave it as 'whatever's left over at the end' and the leftover is usually £50. Set up a standing order on payday for the target amount and treat the rest as money to live on. The [compound interest calculator](/compound-interest-calculator) shows how reliable that habit becomes when stretched across years.

For goals under 18 months, a high-yield easy-access savings account or a cash ISA is the right home. Stocks and shares ISAs can drop 20% in any given year, so they're inappropriate for short-term goals where you can't afford to lose ground. UK easy-access rates in 2026 range from around 3% on high-street current accounts to 4.5%+ on app-only banks; that 1.5 percentage points adds up to roughly £150-£300 over the life of a typical 12-18 month savings target.

For goals 5+ years out (house deposit on a slow build, or wedding savings started while still students), a Lifetime ISA can pay a 25% government bonus on contributions up to £4,000 a year if you're 18-39 and saving for your first home. That bonus is essentially free money that no high-street account can match. The trade-off is that withdrawing for any reason other than a first home or retirement triggers a 25% penalty that wipes out the bonus and a bit more.