Calculate what your money grows to: lumpsum, DCA, or step-up DCA, with optional inflation adjustment.
Dollar-cost averaging splits your capital into equal amounts and invests them on a fixed schedule instead of all at once, which averages your entry price over the period rather than betting on a single day. It is the same math behind a SIP in India, a Sparplan in Germany, or a versement programmé in France: different names, identical arithmetic.
Lumpsum investing puts the whole amount in on day one and leaves it alone for the rest of the period. There is no averaging effect: the entire result rides on how the market moves from that single entry date to the end date.
Step-up DCA is dollar-cost averaging with a raise built in: the contribution amount increases by a fixed percentage each year instead of staying flat, mirroring how income and savings capacity tend to grow rather than assuming the same fixed amount for decades.
No. It compounds the rate you enter as if it never changed, so a real market's uneven year-to-year returns, and the order they arrive in, are not reflected, even when the long-run average matches. Trading costs, fund fees and tax on gains or dividends are not subtracted either. Run the final balance through the inflation calculator to see what it would be worth in today's money.
Yes. The currency selector above the inputs changes the symbol shown throughout the page, including the chart, so figures display in your currency of choice. It relabels the same numbers rather than converting between currencies at an exchange rate, since every input and output is already treated as being in one consistent currency.
Lumpsum means investing your entire amount in a single transaction on day one, then holding it untouched for the rest of the period. Your return depends entirely on how the market moves from that one entry point to the end date, with no averaging to smooth out a bad entry price.
DCA (dollar-cost averaging, also called a Sparplan; a versement programmé; a PAC, or Piano di Accumulo del Capitale; 定投 (dìngtóu); tsumitate tōshi, a strategy distinct from NISA, a specific tax-advantaged account type that often holds it; or a SIP, short for Systematic Investment Plan) means splitting your capital into equal amounts and investing on a fixed schedule instead of all at once. Spreading purchases out over time averages your entry price, which reduces the risk of putting everything in right before a downturn. The math is identical regardless of which name your local market uses for it.
Step-up DCA works like regular DCA, but the contribution amount increases by a fixed percentage every year, matching how most people's income and savings capacity actually grow over time, rather than assuming a flat contribution for decades.