Projections

/projections answers one question: at a growth rate you choose, where does today’s net worth end up, and when does it cross the amounts worth crossing. It compounds the latest figure and nothing else: no new contribution is assumed anywhere on this page.

With a net worth of zero or less there is nothing to compound, and the page says so rather than drawing a list of dashes.

The rate, and what it moves

One number field, Growth %/yr, at the top right of the projection card. It opens at 5 % and takes half-point steps.

It moves two things: the curve below it, and the date of every milestone you have not reached yet. The field says so where you set it: “This rate also dates the milestones below that you have not reached.”

The chart draws three lines: Central at your rate, and a Conservative / Optimistic band two points either side of it. Each point is the anniversary of your latest reading, not 1 January of the year printed under it. Dashed horizontals mark the milestones.

The milestone ladder

Ten rungs. Nine of them are the deciles of French household net wealth from Insee’s Histoire de vie et Patrimoine survey, early 2024, France excluding Mayotte: €4,600, €13,200, €34,100, €77,900, €148,100, €224,200, €317,400, €457,900, €750,400. The tenth is one million, which carries no share and is there because it is a number people hold in their head.

Each rung reads either the month you crossed it or the month this rate says you will. A line above the ladder places you, “Your net worth puts you ahead of 60 % of French households”, and names how far along you are to the next rung.

Two scales that do not compare term for term

The deciles are per household, where your net worth is per reader, and a French household’s net wealth is mostly its main home. If you rent, or your home is not tracked here, you are made up differently rather than behind. The Gross household wealth by age block at the foot of the card is gross, main home included and debts not deducted, and carries its own warning for the same reason.

Your own milestone

Add your milestone puts an eleventh rung on the ladder: any amount above zero and under a thousand billion. It is kept with your preferences, so it follows your account rather than this browser, and the ladder dates it like any other rung. Set one you have already passed and the form says so, since a milestone behind you is not a target.

Milestones you have not reached are projected at constant growth with no new contributions. The note under the ladder repeats it, because it is the assumption the whole page rests on.