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Watch your money make money.
See what small, consistent contributions turn into when interest compounds on top of interest. Free, no signup — just the math.
Your plan
Starting amount$0
Monthly contribution$100
Annual return7.0%
7% is the historical S&P 500 average (after inflation).
Time horizon30years
What you put in vs. what it becomes
You put in
$36,000
Across 360 monthly deposits
It becomes
$122,709
After 30 years of compounding
The magic
+$86,709
…that's the market paying you for waiting.
Growth over time
Your contributions
Interest earned
If you started 10 years earlier
$264,012
Same $100/mo, just started sooner. You'd have $141,304 more.
If you waited 10 more years
$52,397
Same plan, just delayed. You'd have $70,312 less. Time, not money, is what's working here.
!
Why does this happen?
Compound interest is interest earning interest. Year one, you earn returns on your contributions. Year two, you earn returns on your contributions and on last year's returns. Year ten, you're earning returns on a decade of stacked returns. The curve isn't a straight line — it's a hockey stick. The later years grow far faster than the early years, which is why starting now beats starting later by a lot.
See your real numbers
Canopy tracks every dollar working for you.
Connect your investment accounts — 401(k), IRA, brokerage, HSA — and Canopy pulls your real contributions, balances, and growth alongside the rest of your money. Watch your net worth climb in real time.
Try Canopy free →Common questions
Is 7% return realistic?+
The S&P 500's long-run real (inflation-adjusted) return has averaged about 7% per year since 1928. Nominal returns (before inflation) average around 10%, but using the real number is more honest — it tells you what your money will actually buy in the future. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results, but 7% is the most commonly used long-term assumption for retirement planning.
How is this calculated?+
We use the standard future value formula for an annuity (regular monthly contributions): FV = PMT × [((1 + r)n − 1) / r] × (1 + r) + PV × (1 + r)n, where PMT is your monthly contribution, r is the monthly rate (annual rate ÷ 12), n is the number of months, and PV is your starting amount. Interest compounds monthly. The same formula is used by retirement calculators at Fidelity, Vanguard, and the SEC's investor.gov site.
Why does starting earlier matter so much?+
Because compound interest grows exponentially, the earliest dollars do the most work. $100 invested at age 25 has 40 years to compound — that single $100 becomes roughly $1,500 by age 65 at 7%. The same $100 invested at age 35 has 30 years and becomes about $760. Same amount, half the result. The earliest years are by far the highest-leverage time to invest.
Does this include taxes?+
No — this is a pre-tax projection. In a tax-advantaged account (401(k), Roth IRA, HSA), growth is mostly or entirely tax-free. In a regular taxable brokerage, you'll owe capital gains tax when you sell, and dividends are taxed annually. For a rough after-tax view, multiply the final number by ~0.85.
What about market crashes?+
The 7% average already includes every crash, recession, and bear market since 1928 — Great Depression, 1973-74, 1987, dot-com bust, 2008 financial crisis, 2020 COVID crash. The average smooths over short-term volatility. The key is staying invested through the bad years; the recoveries are when the biggest gains happen.