Savings Goal Calculator
Work out how much to put aside each payday to hit your goal, or when you will get there at the amount you can already save.
The deposit presets are 10% and 20% of the national median sale price of $760,000 (REINZ Monthly Property Report for July 2026, published 13 August 2026). The rent buffer is 13 weeks at $650 a week, the median weekly rent for a three bedroom house in Avondale, Auckland, from bonds lodged 1 February to 31 July 2026 (Tenancy Services market rent data, tenancy.govt.nz). We have left out car, holiday and Christmas presets because we could not point at a published New Zealand figure for them, and a made up number is worse than none.
Add this and we will show what your savings target is as a share of each pay.
Your progress projection
Straight contributions, no interest added.
| Milestone | Balance | Payday | Date |
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Want the transfer to happen without you
PayDay notices when your pay lands and moves your goal amount across before the rest of the week gets to it.
Join the PayDay waitlistHow to set a savings goal you will actually finish
A savings goal is two numbers and a date. The amount you need, the amount you have, and when you need the rest by. Everything else is arithmetic, which is what the calculator above is for. It runs in both directions because people arrive at a goal from both ends: some have a fixed date, like a settlement or a departure, and some have a fixed amount they can spare each payday.
Where goals actually break
Almost nobody fails at the planning step. The plan is usually fine on paper. Goals break at the execution step, in the gap between pay landing and the transfer being made, because that gap is where the money gets quietly spent on ordinary things. Saving what is left at the end of the pay cycle is the version that fails, since there is rarely anything left. PayDay closes that gap by moving the money on payday itself, so the goal does not depend on you remembering on a Thursday night.
Match the goal to the right method
- One big target: a deposit or a trip suits a single dated goal, which is what this calculator models. Our guide on saving $10,000 in 12 months walks through a full year of that.
- Several goals at once: split the money into separate pots so they do not compete. That is the idea behind sinking funds, where each known future cost gets its own small weekly amount.
- Building the habit first: if the per payday number above feels out of reach, start smaller and escalate. The 52 week money challenge is a gentler on-ramp.
About the numbers used here
The deposit presets are based on the national median sale price of $760,000, from the REINZ Monthly Property Report for July 2026, published 13 August 2026. The three month rent buffer uses $650 a week, the median weekly rent for a three bedroom house in Avondale, Auckland, from bonds lodged between 1 February and 31 July 2026 in the Tenancy Services market rent data at tenancy.govt.nz. Your own deposit and rent will differ by region and lender, so treat the presets as a starting point and type over them.
The calculator adds no interest or investment return. Results are contributions only, which means the real date is usually a little earlier than the one shown if your money is earning something while it waits.
How PayDay connects to your bank
PayDay connects to your accounts through Akahu, New Zealand's open finance platform. If you want to be told when it opens up, join the waitlist.
Frequently asked questions
How does the savings goal calculator work?
It works in two directions. If you have a deadline, enter your goal amount, your current savings and your target date, and it divides what is left across the paydays between now and then. If you have an amount you can already put aside each payday, enter that instead and it tells you the date you reach the goal and how many paydays that takes.
Should I use my take-home pay or my gross pay?
Use your take-home pay, the amount that actually lands in your account after PAYE, ACC, KiwiSaver and any student loan deduction. The calculator only uses your take-home pay to show what percentage of each payday your savings target represents, so the percentage is only meaningful if the pay figure is net.
Does the calculator include interest?
No. Every number is straight contributions, with no interest and no investment return added. That keeps the result conservative. If your money is sitting in a savings account or a term deposit, you will reach the goal slightly sooner than the date shown.
What if the amount per payday is more than I can afford?
Push the date out, lower the goal, or switch to the second mode and enter the amount you can genuinely save. A later date you actually hit beats an earlier date you abandon in week three. Saving a smaller amount every single payday is the thing that compounds, not the size of any one transfer.
How do I make sure the money actually goes to the goal?
Move it before you can spend it. Set up a separate account for the goal and shift the money the day your pay arrives, not at the end of the pay cycle. PayDay does this automatically: it moves your goal amount across soon after your pay lands, so the plan does not depend on you remembering.