Flexible Retirement Planner Support Forum

Assuming a starting value of 73,000 in a tax-deferred portfolio, a fixed 6% return, adding 6500 per year, for five years.

Investor.gov, Calcxml.com, moneychimp, and bankrate.com all estimate the portfolio will grow to somewhere between 134,331 and 136,530.

With the same figures, FRP says the portfolio will only grow to 118,180.

Why is FRP so much lower than the other compound interest calculators?

My guess is that it's because FRP shows the real portfolio value (in present value dollars) while the others are showing the nominal portfolio value, without adjusting it for inflation. Another factor may be that FRP deducts taxes from the portfolio growth. An easy way to test this would be to set the inflation rate to zero and the investment tax rate to zero (if using taxable portfolio).

Yep, it was the inflation rate. When I set that to zero the balance was in line with the other calculators. Thanks!