Money Market Account Calculator

Calculate money market account interest earnings given the interest rate, length of time, initial deposit, and periodic deposit amount.

Special Instructions

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Selected Data Record:

A Data Record is a set of calculator entries that are stored in your web browser's Local Storage. If a Data Record is currently selected in the "Data" tab, this line will list the name you gave to that data record. If no data record is selected, or you have no entries stored for this calculator, the line will display "None".

DataData recordData recordSelected data record: None
Start balance:Starting balance:Starting account balance:Starting money market account balance:

Starting money market account balance:

Enter the current balance of your money market account, or the initial deposit that is not part of the periodic deposits. This field is optional as long as you enter a periodic deposit amount. The money market account calculator will need either a starting amount, a periodic deposit, or a combination of both, in order to calculate the interest earnings.

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Rate:Interest rate:Account interest rate:Money market account interest rate:

Money market account interest rate:

Enter the annual interest rate you expect the money market account to earn. Enter as a percentage but without the percent sign (for .02 or 2%, enter 2).

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# ofNumber ofNumber of

Anticipated rate of return:

Enter the number of selected periods (month or years) you would like the money market account calculator to calculate interest for. Enter integers only (no decimal points). If you would like to calculate interest for partial years, select Months and enter the total months (example: for 5-1/2 years, enter 66 months).

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MMA deposit amount:MMA deposit amount:MMA deposit amount:MMA deposit amount:

MMA deposit amount:

Enter the periodic deposit amount for the selected deposit interval.

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MMA FV:MMA future value:Future value of MMA:Future value of MMA:

Future value of MMA:

Based on your entries, this how much your money market account will have grown to for the number of entered months or years.

Total deposits:Total MMA deposits:Total MMA deposits:Total MMA deposits:

Total MMA deposits:

Based on your entries, this is the total of your beginning deposit or balance, plus all periodic deposits for the entered number of months or years.

Interest:Interest earned:Interest earned on MMA:Interest earned on MMA:

Interest earned on MMA:

Based on your entries, this is the total interest you will earn on your money market account for the entered number of months or years.

If you would like to save the current entries to the secure online database, tap or click on the Data tab, select "New Data Record", give the data record a name, then tap or click the Save button. To save changes to previously saved entries, simply tap the Save button. Please select and "Clear" any data records you no longer need.

Help and Tools

Learn

What a money market account is and what it is best suited for.

What is a Money Market Account?

The basic definition of money market account (MMA): A federally insured savings account that requires you to keep a minimum balance, limits the number of monthly transactions, and for which interest rates are based on market interest rates.

And because banks have some assurance that you will maintain the minimum balance, they will usually reward you with a higher interest rate than they offer for a regular savings account -- sometimes as much as 1% higher.

The main advantage of money market investing versus keeping funds in a regular savings account is the higher rate of interest.

The main disadvantage is if your balance drops below the minimum requirement, you might be charged a penalty that could offset the gains of the higher interest rate.

Also, it's important to note that money market deposit accounts are not the same as money market funds.

Money market funds are products of investment and insurance companies and are therefore not federally insured. This doesn't mean that money market funds are not safe investments; it just means they are not as safe a money market deposit accounts.

What Are Money Market Accounts Best Suited For?

If you ask an investment advisor what an MMA is best suited for, they will usually tell you they are best for parking cash in between investments. And while that might be true for people who have large sums of money to invest, it doesn't mean much to the average working family.

If you ask me what MMAs are best suited for, I will tell you that they are my preference when it comes to building and storing personal finance emergency funds. After all, MMAs ...

  • Are insured.
  • Pay a higher rate than a regular savings account.
  • Discourage frequent withdrawals.
  • And most come with a checkbook that you can write up to three checks from per month.

Perfect!

However, before you can open an MMA for building and storing personal finance emergency funds, you will likely need to begin building your fund in a regular savings account until you have saved up enough to meet the minimum deposit requirement (usually $1,000 or more) that comes with an MMA.

Fully Funded Emergency Fund?

Once you have 3-6 months of income sitting in your money market account, the next step depends on whether or not you have high-interest debt.

If you do have high interest debt, then your next step should be to begin investing in your debt.

Why? Because it simply doesn't make sense to earn 1% on your money when you can earn 18% on your money by paying off high-interest debt.

If you have managed to pay off all of your high-interest debt, since an MMA is normally considered to be a stepping stone between a regular savings account and a Certificate of Deposit (CD), the next step might be to begin making periodic purchases of certificates of deposit. But here again you will need to accumulate the minimum amount needed to purchase a CD.

Adjust Calculator Width:

Move the slider to left and right to adjust the calculator width. Note that the Help and Tools panel will be hidden when the calculator is too wide to fit both on the screen. Moving the slider to the left will bring the instructions and tools panel back into view.

Also note that some calculators will reformat to accommodate the screen size as you make the calculator wider or narrower. If the calculator is narrow, columns of entry rows will be converted to a vertical entry form, whereas a wider calculator will display columns of entry rows, and the entry fields will be smaller in size ... since they will not need to be "thumb friendly".

Show/Hide Popup Keypads:

Select Show or Hide to show or hide the popup keypad icons located next to numeric entry fields. These are generally only needed for mobile devices that don't have decimal points in their numeric keypads. So if you are on a desktop, you may find the calculator to be more user-friendly and less cluttered without them.

Stick/Unstick Tools:

Select Stick or Unstick to stick or unstick the help and tools panel. Selecting "Stick" will keep the panel in view while scrolling the calculator vertically. If you find that annoying, select "Unstick" to keep the panel in a stationary position.

If the tools panel becomes "Unstuck" on its own, try clicking "Unstick" and then "Stick" to re-stick the panel.