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Starting Amount: Additional Contribution Rate of Return: Years to Grow: MORE FROM SMARTASSET
$ 50,000 $0 Annually 10.00 % 5
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This investment will be worth: $80,526
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Investment Growth Over Time Investment Balance at Year 2025  Align your asset allocation based on
your risk tolerance
$100k

$80k

$60k

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$40k

 About this answer

$20k Starting Amount $50,000
Total Contributions $0  How do we calculate this answer
$0 Total Interest Earned $30,526
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025  Learn more about investing

 Infographic: Places with the most

incoming investments

Starting Annual Total Interest Total Interest End

Year
Amount Contribution Contributions Earned Earned Balance

2021 $50,000 $0 $0 $5,000 $5,000 $55,000

2022 $50,000 $0 $0 $5,500 $10,500 $60,500

2023 $50,000 $0 $0 $6,050 $16,550 $66,550

2024 $50,000 $0 $0 $6,655 $23,205 $73,205

2025 $50,000 $0 $0 $7,321 $30,526 $80,526

About This Answer 

Our investment calculator tool shows how much the money you invest will grow over time. We use a xed rate of return. To
better personalize the results, you can make additional contributions beyond the initial balance. You choose how often you plan
to contribute (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, semi-annually and annually) in order to see how those contributions impact how much
and how fast your money grows. When we make our calculations, we also factor in compounding interest, showing how the
interest you earn can then earn interest of its own.

Our Assumptions 

Our Investing Expert 

Save more with these rates that beat the National Average 

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Investment Calculator
Whether you're considering getting started with investing or you're
already a seasoned investor, an investment calculator can help you gure
out how to meet your goals. It can show you how your initial investment,
frequency of contributions and risk tolerance can all a ect how your
money grows.

We'll walk you through the basics of investing, tell you about di erent risks
and considerations and then turn you loose. Ready to put your money to
Photo credit: © iStock/samxmeg work?

A nancial advisor can help you manage your investment portfolio. To nd a nancial advisor near you, try our free online
matching tool, or call 1-888-217-4199.

What Investing Does

Investing lets you take money you're not spending and put it to work for you. Money you invest in stocks and bonds can help
companies or governments grow, and in the meantime it will earn you compound interest. With time, compound interest takes
modest savings and turns them into serious nest eggs - so long as you avoid some investing mistakes.

You don't necessarily have to research individual companies and buy and sell stocks on your own to become an investor. In
fact, research shows this approach is unlikely to earn you consistent returns. The average investor who doesn't have a lot of
time to devote to nancial management can probably get away with a few low-fee index funds.

Risk and Returns

The closer you are to retirement, the more vulnerable you are to dips in
your investment portfolio. So what's an in investor to do? Conventional
wisdom says older investors who are getting closer to retirement should
reduce their exposure to risk by shifting some of their investments from
stocks to bonds.

In investing, there's generally a trade-o between risk and return. The

investments with higher potential for return also have higher potential for
Photo credit: © iStock/Linda Hides risk. The safe-and-sound investments sometimes barely beat in ation, if
they do at all. Finding the asset allocation balance that's right for you will
depend on your age and your risk tolerance.

Starting Balance
Say you have some money you've already saved up, you just got a bonus from work or you received money as a gift or
inheritance. That sum could become your investing principal. Your principal, or starting balance, is your jumping-o point for
the purposes of investing. Most brokerage rms that o er mutual funds and index funds require a starting balance of $1,000.
You can buy individual equities and bonds with less than that, though.

Contributions
Once you've invested that initial sum, you'll likely want to keep adding to it. Extreme savers may want to make drastic cutbacks
in their budgets so they can contribute as much as possible. Casual savers may decide on a lower amount to contribute. The
amount you regularly add to your investments is called your contribution.

You can also choose how frequently you want to contribute. This is where things get interesting. Some people have their
investments automatically deducted from their income. Depending on your pay schedule, that could mean monthly or biweekly
contributions (if you get paid every other week). A lot of us, though, only manage to contribute to our investments once a year.

Rate of Return

When you've decided on your starting balance, contribution amount and

contribution frequency, your putting your money in the hands of the
market. So how do you know what rate of return you'll earn? Well, the
SmartAsset investment calculator default is 4%. This may seem low to you
if you've read that the stock market averages much higher returns over
the course of decades.

Let us explain. When we gure rates of return for our calculators, we're
Photo credit: © iStock/kutaytanir assuming you'll have an asset allocation that includes some stocks, some
bonds and some cash. Those investments have varying rates of return,
and experience ups and downs over time. It's always better to use a conservative estimated rate of return so you don't under-
save.

Sure, you could count on a 10% rate of return if you want to feel great about your future nancial security, but you likely won't
be getting an accurate picture of your investing potential. That, my friend, would lead to undersaving. Undersaving often leads
to a future that's nancially insecure.

Years to Accumulate
The last factor to consider is your investment time frame. Consider the number of years you expect will elapse before you tap
into your investments. The longer you have to invest, the more time you have to take advantage of the power of compound
interest. That's why it's so important to start investing at the beginning of your career, rather than waiting until you're older. You
may think of investing as something only old, rich people do, but it's not. Remember that most mutual funds have a minimum
initial investment of just $1,000?

Bottom Line
It’s a good idea not to wait to start putting your money to work for you. And remember that your investment performance will
be better when you choose low-fee investments. You don't want to be giving up an unreasonable chunk of money to fund
managers when that money could be growing for you. Sure, investing has risks, but not investing is riskier for anyone who
wants to accrue retirement savings and beat in ation.

Places With the Most Incoming Investments Show 2019

SmartAsset’s interactive investing map highlights the places across the country that have the most incoming investments. Zoom
between states and the national map to see the places in the country with the highest investment activity. SHARE

MORE ABOUT THIS MAP

Incoming Investment Business Growth GDP Growth New Building Permits Federal Funding

 View the data behind these rankings

 How do we calculate these rankings

 Interactive: Investment Calculator

MORE FROM SMARTASSET

 How much will your 401k be worth?

 How much house can you a ord?

 Compare online brokerage accounts

 Align your asset allocation based on

your risk tolerance

Map data ©2021 Google, INEGI Terms of Use

LEAST MOST

Rank County Business Growth GDP Growth ($ in New Building Federal Funding Incoming
millions) Permits (per (per capita) Investment Index
1,000 homes)
1 Comal, TX 12.4% $624 57.4 $422 100.00
2 Los Angeles, CA 6.4% $77,903 6.1 $1,254 99.25
3 Washington, UT 14.3% $885 47.0 $830 91.46
4 Rockwall, TX 11.6% $378 50.0 $485 91.44
5 Hays, TX 13.8% $724 44.5 $618 88.23
6 Collin, TX 13.6% $4,062 40.6 $1,152 86.68
7 Saint Johns, FL 14.2% $876 42.0 $295 86.13
8 Utah, UT 13.0% $2,371 41.6 $201 85.67
9 Wasatch, UT 13.9% $170 41.1 $188 84.40
10 Gadsden, FL 3.8% $96 50.0 $4 83.90
Nationwide 0.8% $380 5.8 $651

Methodology
There are several ways individuals, governments and businesses can invest money in a county or region. Our study aims to capture
the places across the country that are receiving the most incoming investments in business, real estate, government and the local
economy as a whole. To do this we looked at four factors: business establishment growth, GDP growth, new building permits and
federal funding.

We looked at the change in the number of businesses established in each location over a 3-year period. This shows whether or not
people are starting new business ventures in the county.

The second factor we looked at was the GDP growth. We used real growth (in ation adjusted) in the local economy.

We also looked at investment and development in the local residential real estate market. To measure this real estate growth, we
calculated the number of new building permits per 1,000 homes.

The nal factor we considered was federal funding received by each county. We found federal funding in the form of contracts
awarded to businesses in each county, which we divided by the population. This gave us a per capita look at the ow of investment
from the federal to the local level.

We scored every county in our study on these four factors. We then combined those scores to create a nal ranking of cities. With that
ranking, we created an index where the county with the most incoming investments was assigned a value of 100 and the county with
the least investment activity received a zero.

Sources: US Census Bureau 2017 American Community Survey, U.S. Bureau Economic Analysis, U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, USAspending.gov

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