How long could it take me to save £20k, £50k or £100k?

If you’re saving for a future goal - like a house deposit, a child’s future education or the trip of a lifetime - you may well have found yourself asking ‘how long will it actually take?’

It’s a really useful question to ask - for a couple of reasons. Investing isn’t about getting rich quick. It takes patience and time. That’s all well and good in theory, but in practice it’s easy to run out of patience along the way.

Understanding roughly how long it might take to reach your goal - and what you’d need to change if that timeline feels too long - can help sharpen your resolve, stay focused and keep you on track.

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That’s where our ISA calculator comes into its own.

So if you’ve got a savings goal in mind but no real sense of how long it could take to get there, read on. We’ve explored a range of scenarios to show how long it might take to reach £20,000, £50,000 and £100,000, based on different monthly contributions and growth rates.

As always, there are no guarantees with investing. The value of your money can fall as well as rise - but history shows that, over time, it has the potential to grow.

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The assumptions behind the scenarios

Before diving into the detail, here’s how these illustrations were put together. All scenarios are based on:

• Monthly contributions of £100, £250 or £500
• Annual growth rates of 2%, 5% and 8% - these are the illustrative rates set in the ISA Calculator and, of course, growth is never guaranteed.
• Regular monthly investing
• No withdrawals along the way
• The 20-year timeframe reflects the maximum limit of the ISA calculator.

The calculator shows values at the end of each year. In many cases, the total passes the target part way through the final year. Where that happens, we’ve assumed the goal is reached somewhere within that year - sometimes late, sometimes much earlier - depending on how far the balance goes beyond the target by year end.

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How long could it take to save £20,000?

For many people, £20,000 is a first major milestone - big enough to feel meaningful, but achievable without extreme saving. At this level, one thing stands out - how much you save each month has a significant impact on the outcome.

• Saving £100 a month can get you there - but it’s a long-term effort, taking around 12–16 years, depending on growth.
• Increase contributions to £250 a month, and the timeline drops sharply to around 5–7 years.
• At £500 a month, £20,000 can be reached in around four years. Over such a short timeframe, there is limited scope for growth to play a bigger role, so contributions account for most of the progress.

In lower-growth scenarios, the balance typically only nudges past £20,000 towards the end of the final year. With higher growth or higher contributions, that tipping point often comes earlier in the year, sometimes with months to spare.

When your target is relatively modest, progress is driven mainly by what you put in. Growth helps - but regular saving does most of the heavy lifting.

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How long could it take to save £50,000?

By the time you’re aiming for £50,000, the picture becomes more nuanced - and more restrictive.

In these scenarios, some combinations of saving and growth don’t reach the £50,000 target within the timeframes shown. This is particularly noticeable where monthly contributions are lower.

• Saving £100 a month only reaches £50,000 with stronger growth, and even then it takes around 20 years.
• At £250 a month, the target becomes far more achievable - particularly at higher growth rates - with timelines falling between 12 and 16 years depending on growth.
• At £500 a month, £50,000 can be reached in under 10 years in some scenarios, with growth accounting for an increasing share of the final balance over time.

Where the target is reached, it’s often crossed part way through the final year, rather than right at the end - a sign that growth is starting to make a more meaningful contribution.

At this level, saving still matters - but time and growth start to play a much bigger role in determining how quickly you get there.

How long could it take to save £100,000?

£100,000 is where the long-term nature of investing really comes into focus - and where the differences between scenarios are most stark.

• Saving £100 a month doesn’t reach £100,000 in these scenarios over a 20-year period.
• At £250 a month, the target is only reached with stronger growth, and still takes close to two decades.
• At £500 a month, £100,000 becomes achievable in around 12–16 years, depending on growth.

In higher-growth scenarios, the balance often passes £100,000 well before the final year ends, sometimes with a sizeable gap between the target and the year-end value.

In the early years, progress can feel slow and incremental. Over time, as the balance builds, it starts to generate more momentum of its own - and later years can deliver more progress than the early ones combined.

5 investing takeaways

There’s no one single answer to how long it takes to save £20k, £50k or £100k. But there are some clear lessons that are tied to basic investing principles that we can take away from this.

1. Regular saving beats perfect timing

Across every target, the biggest driver of success is consistency. Missing the ‘right moment’ (people often talk about the importance of time in the market, not timing the market) matters far less than missing months - or years - of saving altogether.

2. Time makes a real difference

In the early years, most of your progress comes from what you put in. Over longer periods, growth starts to build on what’s already there, and progress can begin to accelerate.

3. Growth affects the pace, not the process

Higher growth doesn’t replace saving - it helps it along. Its impact becomes more noticeable the longer your money stays invested, particularly when you take inflation into account over the long run.

4. Bigger pots behave differently

Smaller balances rely more on contributions. Larger pots increasingly benefit from time. That’s why later years can sometimes feel more rewarding than the early ones.

5. Reaching your goal sooner can mean contributing less overall

In these scenarios, stronger growth tends to shorten the journey to each savings goal. And when the journey is shorter, you’re contributing for fewer years — which often means putting in less overall.

That doesn’t remove the need to save regularly. But it does show how time and growth can work together to change the outcome.

It’s a reminder that time isn’t just something to endure. Used well, it can change the outcome.

• Read more about principles for good investing here
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Got a burning question you want to ask? Why not drop us a line. Click here to ask your question.

• Read: How to invest like a millionaire
• Read: How much should you have saved by 30, 40, 50 & 60?
• Read: How could £48,000 grow into £72,000?

Important information - investors should note that the views expressed may no longer be current and may have already been acted upon. This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice.