Digital asset savings projection

See what a starting amount plus regular buying could add up to, under growth rates you choose, next to the same money kept as cash while inflation eats into it. Press play to watch the years unfold, drop a crash into any year, and set a goal of your own. Digital assets are high-growth, high-risk: they can rise a long way or fall a long way. This doesn't tell you how much to put in; that depends on your whole situation.

CurrencyChanges how amounts are shown. Enter every amount in this currency.

Amount to start with (USD)

Regular amount (USD)

How often

Years (1 to 50)

Inflation to test (% a year)Starts at an illustrative 3%, not a forecast. Change it to any rate you like.

Three scenarios to compare

These are illustrations to start from, not expectations: a bad decade, a flat one and a strong one, the same size up and down. Nobody knows a digital asset's future price. Change any rate, or clear one to hide it.

Bad decade

Scenario 1 growth (% a year)

$33,824after 10 years

Flat

Scenario 2 growth (% a year)

$57,000after 10 years

Strong

Scenario 3 growth (% a year)

$100,081after 10 years

After 10 years you would have put in $57,000

In today's money, at 3% inflation

Show in today's money

Time machineYear 10 / 10

Bad decade (−10% a year)$25,168
Flat (0% a year)$42,413
Strong (+10% a year)$74,469
Kept as cash: what it would buy$42,413

Cash under the mattress

Cash feels safe because the number never falls. But at 3% inflation, the $57,000 you'd put in would buy about $42,413 of today's goods after 10 years, 26% less than the same dollars buy now. At that rate, prices double about every 23 years. That slow loss is the cost of holding cash. A high-growth, high-risk asset might outpace it by a long way, or fall far below it.

Time and compounding: Strong, year 10

Put in: $42,413. Growth: $32,056. Compounding means growth earns growth, so it does most of its work late. It works the same way in reverse when returns are negative.

Stress test

High-growth assets are high-risk: falls of 50% to 75% or more have happened, and can happen again. See what one would do to this path.

Set your own goal (USD, in today's money)

Your assumptions in one sentence

If I started with $5,000, added $200 fortnightly for 10 years, and the asset did a steady +10% a year, I'd have put in $57,000 and it would be worth about $100,081 ($74,469 in today's money at 3% inflation). The same money kept as cash would buy about $42,413 in today's money. A 75% fall at the end would leave $25,020. These are my assumptions, not a forecast.

End values in dollars as they'd appear then, before any crash in the stress test.
Scenario	Value at the end	In today's money	If it then fell 75%
Bad decade (−10%)	$33,824	$25,168	$8,456
Flat (0%)	$57,000	$42,413	$14,250
Strong (+10%)	$100,081	$74,469	$25,020
Kept as cash	$57,000	$42,413	–

Digital assets can fall sharply: Bitcoin has fallen by more than 75% from a peak more than once, and many smaller assets have lost almost all their value. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Values are before tax and fees, and assume the growth rate stays the same every year, which real prices never do.